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Economics and Workplace PAS > Promising Practices > California Department of Rehabilitation Promising Practice in Workplace PAS:Support Services AssistantsEmployer: California Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) Joan Ripple Center for Personal Assistance Service Key features of the promising practice
Key features of the organization
BackgroundThe California Department of Rehabilitation (DOR), an agency within the California State government, has14 districts and 98 offices throughout the state. DOR employs 1,839 people, including 289 (15.7%) with disabilities. The DOR annually assists about 150,000 individuals with disabilities to obtain, and retain employment and to maximize their ability to live independently. Its main functions include training job seekers and employees with disabilities, placing job seekers with disabilities, providing information about accommodations, providing human resource services, and providing direct placements to hundreds of employers of all sizes and industries. The DOR is committed to providing needed accommodations to its own employees. To provide personal assistance services, the DOR uses the practice of support services assistants, a position established within the California State Personnel Board (SPB) classification system in 1978. (Employees in all state government departments under the authority of the SPB are able to access this accommodation.) DOR employs support services assistants for a wide range of work-related and some personal tasks. Description of practiceThe California State Personnel Board (SPB) provides for two categories of support services assistants workers whose duties are to assist employees with disabilities with a broad range of work–related tasks. There are two specific job descriptions, one for interpreters to assist people with hearing impairments, and the other for “general” support services. Employees under both support services assistant classifications are considered “part-time intermittent,” and may work up to 1500 hours per year, including vacation and sick leave. Any employee who needs work-related accommodation is eligible for an assistant, including new hires, people returning to work after an injury on or off the job, as well as employees with lifechange related impairments, such as chronic conditions or age-related disabilities. Assistance is provided to people with any disabilities, including physical, mental, and sensory. As of 2006, the DOR employed 179 support services assistants (many of whom were shared by more than one employee with a disability.) These included 132 general support services assistants and 47 support services assistant interpreters. DOR also used contracts with outside interpreters to provide interpreting services, especially when more than one interpreter was needed for long meetings. The approximate annual cost for these workplace personal assistance services (WPAS) was $3 million, including about $1.7 million for general assistants and about $1.3 million for interpreter assistants and interpreter contracts. State guidelines and written procedures issued to all employees clearly outline the process of requesting a support services assistant. A current employee generally makes a request to his direct supervisor. In the case of new hires with a known disability, the hiring supervisor asks the newly hired employee what accommodations are needed, and mentions the availability of an assistant. The supervisor may consult with the reasonable accommodations coordinator in the office of Civil Rights to ensure that the best accommodations are made. The supervisor has the authority to hire a support services assistant, and generally contacts the personnel office directly. The entire hiring process is interactive, and the employee with a disability plays an integral role in the interviewing, selection, and evaluation of the assistant. Although the supervisor ultimately decides whether to retain a support services assistant or to grant merit increases, that decision is generally based on the assessment of the employee with a disability who uses the services. The California State Personnel Board (SPB) job specification states that general support services assistants provide “reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitation of an otherwise qualified disabled applicant or State employee.” Workplace PAS provided by these assistants include a wide range of work-related tasks, including reading, assistance with filing, written materials and other clerical duties, driving or accompanying, setting up special equipment, assistance with telephone communications, and help with reaching, lifting, or carrying. Assistants for people with hearing impairments conduct sign language interpreting at the worksite and at off-site functions, and may also help with other job-related services that the employee with a hearing impairment needs. Although assistants are not required to provide personal care duties, the state’s reasonable accommodation guidelines state they can volunteer these services. Limited personal care services, such as setting up a lunch so a person can feed himself, are regularly provided by assistants. No assistant is hired only to do personal care tasks. If an employee requires more extensive personal care on a routine basis, the employee generally arranges and pays for it. However, when an employee is traveling for work, the support services assistant may provide more extensive personal care assistance, or the Department will pay for the employee to bring his or her own personal care assistant or the Department will hire a personal care assistant from a local agency at the travel site. The employee arranges and pays for daily transportation to and from work, or it may be paid through In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) if the employee is eligible for IHSS. Benefits and challengesIn the California Department of Rehabilitation, support services assistants are funded centrally as a reasonable accommodation, and do not affect the number of budgeted positions in local offices, This practice works to overcome the barrier of perceived costs of WPAS. Clear policies for hiring and supervising support services assistants help to make the employee with a disability an informed, integral partner in realizing workable workplace accommodations, a practice that helps to overcome the barrier of lack of preparation of PAS users. Clear definitions of what constitutes workplace personal assistance services also helps to guide the practice at DOR. At DOR, people using workplace personal assistance services have been employed in all different kinds of professional and semiprofessional jobs, including rehabilitation counselors, attorneys, and experts in real estate, computer areas (IT), and accounting. In the DOR, the director, deputy directors, and assistant deputy directors are all people with severe disabilities who have been hired into these positions or have risen through the ranks. One interviewee noted that without PAS and AT, “these people might not be able to be employed at this high level, that maybe they could work at a limited level. However, with assistive technology and support services assistants they were able to rise to the levels of their abilities.” With appropriate accommodations, including WPAS, people with disabilities can compete with others and advance within the organization. California’s system for personal assistant services provision is notable for its reasonable accommodation provisions specific to PAS. Delegating authority for PAS approval allows supervisors to use the state’s EEO office and other resources for guidance. The process is intended to make it easy for employees who need PAS to ask for and receive it. However, obtaining PAS can be hampered by the length of time it takes to process employee requests; waits of up to four months from request to hire were not uncommon. Respondents attributed this to the state hiring process that requires assistants to be on the approved list of applicants. When the list is exhausted, special recruitment is required, which can lengthen the process to up to four months. Employee initiative is one solution to overcoming these challenges. Respondents noted that when employees articulate clear requests in writing, the process could sometimes be expedited. Another challenge is finding and keeping qualified people to work as assistants; interviewees identified a number of barriers. The structure of the support services assistant job means that when a person with a disability moves, is transferred or leaves a job, the assistant can suddenly be left without work. Respondents also frequently mentioned as a challenge the “permanent intermittent hire” status of support service assistants, who are only allowed to work 1,500 hours per year, including vacations and sick leave. This lack of flexibility sometimes created difficulties in scheduling and retention of assistants. Qualified interpreters were noted to be especially hard to retain, as they can often earn more money in the private sector. Possible solutions to these challenges included updating the job description and structure of the positions, which were originally created in the early 1970’s and have not been substantially revised. Respondents mentioned the desirable benefits of state employment, including retirement, health care, and vacation time, as positive factors in retaining assistants. One respondent noted that the skills and personal characteristics of the assistant were essential factors in successful retention. As this interviewee expressed it, “ If you have an assistant, they have to understand disability issues, be flexible, and understand that they are not volunteering, they are working in a professional job.” Given that the organization is a Department of Rehabilitation focusing on vocational rehabilitation, it is not surprising that interviewees reported that Department employees are generally very knowledgeable about disabilities and accommodations. Nevertheless, some interviewees mentioned attitudes about disability as another barrier to PAS. Respondents believed that some co-workers wished that they themselves had assistants to do some of their work. Interviewees suggested disability awareness training for supervisors, employees without disabilities and the support services assistants as possible ways to overcome this challenge. In discussing what infrastructure needs to be in place before implementing this practice of PAS, interviewees stated that good policies and procedures must be in place to implement this model. Another important factor is that within the organization, there needs to be a willingness to solve problems and to find solutions. California has a thorough 23-page manual Guide for Implementing Reasonable Accommodation, published by the Office of Civil Rights of the State Personnel Board, that covers all aspects of reasonable accommodation. The Support Services Assistant position has been used throughout many departments in the State all over the State. The state’s civil service designation for workplace PAS providers may reflect California’s pioneer role in hiring people with disabilities in state government. Since 1978, the state has hired personal assistants for employees with disabilities. The department director, and other interviewees including employees who use assistants, believe that California’s program is an important model for other organizations. Workplace PAS is not a rarity at DOR; instead the director notes, “It is quite routine that people are provided this.” The director of the Department of Rehabilitation, offering advice to other organizations and companies with workers who may need workplace PAS, noted, “All employers accommodate all employees in some way either with parking or a range of other benefits. Consider workplace personal assistance services as giving employees what they need to be effective workers. Be creative and flexible – provide for all employees in the same context.” To view this promising practice in PDF format, click here.
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