Employment of transition-age rehabilitation consumers: Demographic and programmatic factors

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between employment obtained through vocational rehabilitation services (VR) and a number of demographic and programmatic variables for 599 transition-age VR consumers in a southeastern state of the United States. The four demographic variables in this study were, (a) gender, (b) race, (c) disability and (d) county population. The five programmatic variables included (a) diploma exit status, (b) hours outside the general education classroom, (c) age at VR application date, (d) grade at VR application date, and (e) grade difference at application date. Matching case data from a vocational rehabilitation data base and a special education post-school student data base were combined to determine the extent to which these demographic and programmatic variables impacted the rehabilitation outcome of employment for these consumers. Consistent with previous studies, gender was significantly related to this outcome, in that males were more likely to be rehabilitated to employment than females. A second variable, hours outside the general education classroom, also was found to be significant to the employment of these young adults. Race, however, was not found to be a significant predictor of employment for these transition-age VR consumers.