By Trey Delida
Since 2005, the “Guideposts for Success” have equipped state leaders with up-to-date, innovative practices that increase the opportunities for youth and young adults with disabilities to transition into the workforce.
The latest brief, “Guideposts for Success: States Engaging Employers through Policy,” serves as a model for policymakers by providing them with the tools necessary to educate and support employers in their states in hiring or providing learning opportunities for youth and young adults with disabilities.
According to Andrew Karhan, project director at San Diego State University’s Interwork Institute, the brief draws on state examples and actual conversations with employers who have experience in this process. As part of the project, Karhan collaborated with the Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth (CAPE-Youth).
“The brief was compiled through a deep dive into research, the current best practices related to employer engagement and the comparable employer practices towards enhanced inclusion,” Karhan said. “Some previous policies in this space have not had the intended impact. Therefore, this brief was approached through a lens of improvement science, where we asked how we can introduce change ideas leading to improvement? The ideas presented here were born out of this research and conversations with employers and experts in the field to ultimately lead to these improvement ideas.”
The “Guideposts for Success: States Engaging Employers through Policy” is founded on six policy considerations, including:
- Developing structures for states to become model employers of youth and young adults with disabilities.
- Simplifying current incentives and introducing new incentives to encourage employers to develop inclusive workplace practices.
- Facilitating telework to adapt to changes in the world of work.
- Educating employers about the business case for their participation and support of youth and young adults with disabilities in work preparation programs.
- Assembling tools guided and developed in partnership with national centers and employer organizations and disseminating them at the state and local levels.
- Enhancing existing state workforce systems to foster equitable access.
The policy framework provides lawmakers and state leaders with evidence-based practices to aid youth and young adults with disabilities when obtaining employment through improved education.
“As youth transition into postsecondary environments or employment, it is critical for us to lay the necessary groundwork for them to move into employment in their field of interest and skill,” Karhan said. “The low employment outcomes of youth and young with disabilities have been well documented and, as a result, this brief offers new approaches and policy levers to help change this narrative.”
The development of “Guideposts for Success: States Engaging Employers through Policy” was led by CAPE-Youth, and is a collaborative effort of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy, The Council of State Governments, the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University, and the Interwork Institute at San Diego State University.
