Transition & Vocational Rehabilitation Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the 44Pre-ETS, vocational rehabilitation, and special education transition terms you’ll see across our site.

Programs & Services

The services themselves: what they are and who pays for them.

Job exploration counseling

One of the five required Pre-Employment Transition Services activities. Job exploration counseling helps a student figure out what kinds of work might suit them before they commit to a path. It typically includes interest and aptitude inventories, conversations about the student's strengths and preferences, research into local labor market demand, and exposure to careers the student may never have heard of. The goal is not to pick a job at 15. It is to widen the field of what feels possible and give the student vocabulary for talking about their own future.

See our Pre-ETS services→

OSYES

Out-of-School Youth Employment Services is a New Jersey program funded through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services for young adults with disabilities who are no longer enrolled in school. Where Pre-ETS serves students who are still in a school program, OSYES serves those who have left, whether they graduated, aged out, or disengaged. Services focus on the practical work of getting into a job: career exploration, work readiness, job search support, and placement assistance. OSYES is the usual answer when a young person in New Jersey is past school age but not yet employed.

Read our New Jersey Pre-ETS and OSYES guide→

Postsecondary counseling

Formally, "counseling on opportunities for enrollment in comprehensive transition or postsecondary educational programs," one of the five required Pre-ETS activities. It covers what comes after high school beyond the four-year-college default: community college, certificate and trade programs, apprenticeships, and inclusive higher education programs designed for students with intellectual disabilities. Counseling also addresses the shift in disability rights that happens at graduation, when the entitlement of IDEA gives way to the eligibility-based accommodations of the ADA and Section 504, and the student becomes responsible for disclosing and requesting what they need.

Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS)

Federally mandated career readiness services for students with disabilities, provided at no cost to families through state vocational rehabilitation agencies: ACCES-VR in New York and DVRS in New Jersey. Pre-ETS was created by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, which requires states to reserve at least 15% of their federal vocational rehabilitation funding for it. Federal law defines five required activities: job exploration counseling, work-based learning experiences, postsecondary counseling, workplace readiness training, and instruction in self-advocacy. Students generally qualify between ages 14 and 21, and do not need an open vocational rehabilitation case to participate.

Read: What is Pre-ETS?→

Self-advocacy instruction

The fifth required Pre-ETS activity: structured teaching of the skills a student needs to speak for themselves. Instruction covers understanding one's own disability and support needs, learning what accommodations exist and how to request them, practicing disclosure decisions in school and workplace settings, and understanding the rights conferred by the ADA and Section 504. It often includes peer mentoring and real rehearsal, such as running an actual conversation with a teacher or supervisor rather than only discussing it. This is the activity that most directly prepares a student to lead their own IEP meeting.

Read: Student-led IEPs→

Service authorization

The period of time and scope of services your funder (ACCES-VR, DVRS, OPWDD, or a school district) has approved you to receive. Each authorization has a start date, an end date, and a defined number of hours or sessions, and a provider cannot bill for work outside those boundaries. When an authorization approaches its end, your counselor or care manager decides whether to renew it based on documented progress toward your goals. Families are sometimes surprised by this: services do not simply continue indefinitely, and a lapse in authorization pauses services until it is renewed.

SOAR curriculum

Lincoln Square Coaching's proprietary transition curriculum, built for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and complex support needs. These are students for whom standard workplace readiness material is often pitched at the wrong level. SOAR stands for Self-Discovery, Opportunities, Advocacy, and Readiness, the four strands the curriculum moves through. It is designed to be delivered in school settings and adapted across a wide range of communication and support profiles, so that a single group can include students working at very different levels without anyone being left behind or held back.

Explore the SOAR curriculum→

Vocational evaluation

A structured assessment of a person's work aptitudes, interests, and support needs, used to identify realistic career pathways and inform vocational rehabilitation planning. A vocational evaluation typically combines standardized testing, hands-on work samples, situational observation, and a review of school and medical records, and results in a written report with specific recommendations. Vocational rehabilitation counselors use these reports to justify service plans and funding decisions, which is why the quality of the evaluation matters. A thin report produces a thin plan. Evaluations are conducted by credentialed specialists, often a Certified Vocational Evaluation Specialist.

See our services→

Work-based learning experience

One of the five required Pre-ETS activities, and usually the one students remember. Work-based learning puts a student into a real work environment rather than a classroom simulation: job shadowing, workplace tours, informational interviews, volunteer placements, internships, and paid work experience. Federal guidance favors experiences in integrated community settings over segregated ones. The value is in the friction. A student learns more about whether they want a job from two hours on an actual floor than from a semester of worksheets, and supervisors surface support needs that no assessment predicted.

Workplace readiness training

One of the five required Pre-ETS activities, covering the skills that keep a job rather than the ones that get it. Training addresses workplace communication, following instructions and asking for clarification, time management and punctuality, appropriate dress and hygiene, teamwork, handling correction from a supervisor, and the independent living skills that make steady employment possible: transportation, managing a schedule, budgeting a paycheck. These are the areas where placements most often fail, so the training is deliberately practical and rehearsed rather than discussed.

Read: Teaching job readiness skills→

Agencies & Funders

The organizations that authorize and fund services in New York and New Jersey.

ACCES-VR

Adult Career and Continuing Education Services–Vocational Rehabilitation, New York State's vocational rehabilitation agency and part of the State Education Department. ACCES-VR funds Pre-Employment Transition Services for students with disabilities and a broader set of employment services for adults, including vocational evaluation, training, job placement, supported employment, and assistive technology. It operates through district offices across the state, each staffed by vocational rehabilitation counselors who determine eligibility, authorize services, and approve providers. For students, ACCES-VR is the agency that issues the Potentially Eligible designation that opens access to Pre-ETS without a full application.

See our New York services→

Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC)

A national credential administered by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification for professionals who counsel people with disabilities on employment and independent living. Earning the CRC requires a qualifying graduate degree, supervised experience, and a comprehensive examination, and holders are bound by an enforceable Code of Professional Ethics covering confidentiality, scope of practice, and conflicts of interest. The CRC is the recognized standard in vocational rehabilitation, and many state agencies prefer or require it for counselors and contracted providers. It signals that a practitioner is accountable to something beyond their employer.

Meet our team→

Certified Vocational Evaluation Specialist (CVE)

A professional credential for practitioners who conduct vocational evaluations, the structured assessments that identify a person's work aptitudes, interests, and support needs. Certification requires relevant education, documented evaluation experience, and examination, and confirms that the holder can select and administer appropriate instruments, interpret results in context, and write reports that funders can actually act on. Because vocational rehabilitation agencies rely on these reports to authorize services and set employment goals, the credential matters: an evaluation is only as useful as the judgment behind it.

DVRS

The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, New Jersey's vocational rehabilitation agency, housed within the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. DVRS funds Pre-Employment Transition Services for students with disabilities, Out-of-School Youth Employment Services for young adults who have left school, and adult services including counseling, training, job placement, and supported employment. It works through field offices across the state, where counselors determine eligibility and authorize services with approved providers. DVRS is the New Jersey counterpart to New York's ACCES-VR, and the two agencies use different referral processes.

See our New Jersey services→

OPWDD

The New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, which coordinates services, supports, and funding for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and neurological impairments originating before age 22. OPWDD is distinct from ACCES-VR: where ACCES-VR is focused on employment outcomes, OPWDD funds a broader long-term support system covering residential services, day programs, care management, respite, and employment supports. Many people work with both agencies simultaneously. Eligibility requires documentation of a qualifying developmental disability and is determined through a formal application process.

Read: How to apply for OPWDD eligibility→

PE referral

The paperwork and supporting documentation submitted to ACCES-VR to obtain authorization for a Potentially Eligible student to begin Pre-Employment Transition Services. A referral generally establishes that the student is within the eligible age range, is enrolled in a school program, and has a documented disability, commonly evidenced by an IEP, a Section 504 plan, or comparable documentation. Schools, families, or Lincoln Square Coaching can initiate the process, and LSC completes and submits the referral on the student's behalf. Services begin once ACCES-VR authorizes them, not when the referral is filed.

Read our Potentially Eligible guide→

Potentially Eligible (PE)

An ACCES-VR designation for students with disabilities who qualify for Pre-Employment Transition Services without an open vocational rehabilitation case. This is the point families most often misunderstand: a PE referral is a pre-authorization request, not a full ACCES-VR application, and it does not require the student to be found eligible for the agency's adult services. It exists so students can begin receiving Pre-ETS quickly, during the years when transition planning actually matters. New Jersey DVRS uses a comparable pre-application referral process for students without an open case.

Read our Potentially Eligible guide→

Vocational rehabilitation (VR)

The federal-state system that helps people with disabilities prepare for, obtain, and keep employment. Authorized by the Rehabilitation Act and funded jointly by federal and state government, VR operates through a designated agency in every state: ACCES-VR in New York, DVRS in New Jersey. The typical sequence is application, eligibility determination, assessment, development of an Individualized Plan for Employment, service delivery, placement, and case closure after a period of stable employment. Pre-ETS sits deliberately outside this sequence, so students can receive services without opening a case.

School & IEP

Special education documents, plans, and the rules that govern them.

Age of majority

The age at which a young person becomes a legal adult, which is 18 in New York and New Jersey, and educational decision-making rights transfer from parent to student. Under IDEA, the school must notify both the student and the parent of this transfer at least one year in advance, so the conversation should happen at 17. Families are often unprepared for it. Reaching the age of majority does not mean a student loses support; parents can remain involved with the student's written consent, and supported decision-making offers an alternative to guardianship.

See also: Supported decision-making · IEP · Self-determination · FERPA

Career and Technical Education (CTE)

Programs that teach technical and occupational skills alongside academic coursework, spanning high school and postsecondary institutions across fields such as health sciences, information technology, construction, culinary arts, and advanced manufacturing. CTE is funded in part through the federal Perkins V law, which requires programs to serve special populations, including students with disabilities, and to report on their outcomes. For many students with disabilities, CTE is the most direct bridge between school and skilled employment, provided the program is genuinely accessible rather than nominally open.

See our training for higher education→

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal law protecting the privacy of student education records. FERPA gives parents the right to inspect their child's records, request corrections, and control disclosure to third parties. Those rights transfer to the student at 18 or upon enrolling in postsecondary education, whichever comes first. That is why a college will not discuss a student's record with a parent absent written consent. FERPA also governs what a school may share with outside service providers, so a signed release is normally required before a provider can review an IEP.

See also: Age of majority · IEP · PE referral

IDEA

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal law entitling eligible children with disabilities to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. IDEA is what requires the IEP, governs evaluation and placement, establishes procedural safeguards and dispute resolution, and mandates transition planning as students approach adulthood. Its defining feature is entitlement: while a student is covered, the school must provide what the IEP calls for. That entitlement ends at graduation or when the student ages out, replaced by the weaker eligibility-based protections of the ADA and Section 504.

See also: IEP · Section 504 · Transition plan · ADA

Read: A plain-language guide to IEP terms→

IEP

Individualized Education Program is the legally binding written plan for every public-school student receiving special education under IDEA. An IEP documents the student's present levels of performance, measurable annual goals, the specialized instruction and related services the school will provide, accommodations and modifications, and how progress will be measured. It is developed by a team that includes the parents and, increasingly, the student. As the student approaches adulthood the IEP must also carry transition planning: postsecondary goals and the services needed to reach them. It is reviewed at least annually.

Read: A plain-language guide to IEP terms→

Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE)

The written plan developed jointly by a vocational rehabilitation counselor and a person found eligible for VR services. The IPE records the agreed employment goal, the specific services the agency will fund to reach it, the providers who will deliver them, the responsibilities of both the agency and the individual, and how progress will be measured. Nothing is funded outside the IPE, which is why what appears in it matters. It is the vocational rehabilitation counterpart to the IEP, and unlike the IEP, the individual is expected to co-author it rather than receive it.

Individualized Transition Plan (ITP)

The transition component of a student's IEP, sometimes maintained as a separate document depending on the district. The ITP records measurable postsecondary goals across education or training, employment, and where appropriate independent living, together with the transition services, coursework, and agency linkages needed to reach them. It should be built from the student's own stated preferences and from transition assessment data rather than from what the district happens to offer. A well-written ITP names outside agencies such as ACCES-VR or DVRS explicitly, so that handoff is planned rather than improvised.

See also: IEP · Transition plan · Transition assessment · ACCES-VR

Section 504

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a civil rights provision prohibiting disability discrimination by any program receiving federal funding, which includes public schools, most colleges, and many employers. In K–12 settings a "504 plan" provides accommodations for students who have a disability that substantially limits a major life activity but who do not require the specialized instruction an IEP provides. Unlike IDEA, Section 504 does not expire at graduation: it continues to protect students in college and adults in federally funded programs, though the burden shifts to the individual to disclose and request.

See also: IDEA · IEP · ADA · Reasonable accommodation

Transition assessment

The ongoing process of collecting information about a student's strengths, preferences, interests, and needs as they relate to life after high school. Transition assessment is not a single test but an accumulating picture built from interest inventories, aptitude measures, situational observation, interviews with the student and family, and records of work-based learning. IDEA requires that postsecondary goals in the IEP be grounded in age-appropriate transition assessment, which means a goal written without supporting data is out of compliance as well as unhelpful.

Transition plan

The part of the IEP that looks past graduation, setting measurable postsecondary goals and the services, instruction, and agency connections needed to reach them. Federal law requires transition planning to be in place no later than the IEP in effect when the student turns 16, and New York and New Jersey both begin earlier, with planning commonly starting around age 14. Starting early matters because the useful work is slow: exploring interests, building work experience, and connecting with vocational rehabilitation all take years rather than months.

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Employment & Work

How people find jobs, keep them, and get support along the way.

Competitive integrated employment

The standard that federal disability employment policy is built around, defined in WIOA by three conditions that must all hold. The work must pay at least minimum wage and no less than what employees without disabilities earn for similar work. It must take place in a setting where the employee interacts with coworkers and the public to the same extent as employees without disabilities. And it must offer the same opportunities for advancement. Competitive integrated employment is the presumed goal for vocational rehabilitation participants, replacing older models of segregated and subminimum-wage work.

Customized employment

An approach that negotiates a job around one person's specific strengths and support needs rather than fitting them into an existing posting. It begins with discovery, then works with an employer to identify unmet needs the person could meet, sometimes by carving specific tasks out of several existing roles into a new position, sometimes by creating a role that did not previously exist. Customized employment is written into WIOA as a recognized vocational rehabilitation service and is often the most effective route for people with significant disabilities whose skills are real but do not map onto conventional job descriptions.

Discovery

A qualitative alternative to standardized testing, used mainly as the first phase of customized employment. Rather than scoring a person against norms, discovery builds a portrait through observation in familiar settings, conversations with people who know them well, and time spent watching what they do when they are engaged and unprompted. It asks what conditions bring out someone's best work and what contributions they could make to an employer. Discovery is particularly valuable for people whose abilities standardized instruments systematically underestimate, including those with significant communication differences.

Job coach

A professional who provides on-site support to help someone learn and keep a job. A job coach may break tasks down into teachable steps, model and rehearse them alongside the employee, help interpret workplace norms and expectations, and mediate between the employee and their supervisor. Support is designed to fade: the coach's aim is to transfer their role to the employee's own competence and to the natural supports already present among coworkers. Coaching is typically funded through vocational rehabilitation or, for longer-term needs, through OPWDD or a comparable agency.

Job placement

Services that help a person find and start a job: resume preparation, job search strategy, applications, interview practice, employer outreach, and support through the first period of employment, commonly the first 90 days. Job placement differs from supported employment in the duration of support rather than its nature: placement is time-limited and closes once employment is stable, while supported employment continues indefinitely. Which one a person receives depends on assessed need, and the distinction matters because it determines what happens after the initial months.

Read: Supported employment vs. job placement→

Natural supports

The help that already exists in a workplace: a coworker who answers questions, a supervisor who gives clear written instructions, a team that includes someone at lunch. Building natural supports is a deliberate goal of good job coaching, because supports that belong to the workplace persist after funded services end, while supports that belong to an agency disappear with the authorization. Relying on natural supports also tends to produce better social integration than a paid coach at the employee's side, which can inadvertently signal difference and keep colleagues at a distance.

Situational assessment

Evaluation conducted by observing a person performing real work in a real setting, rather than through testing in an office. An evaluator watches how someone handles actual tasks, interruptions, supervision, coworkers, and the length of a shift, and records what supports made the difference. Situational assessment surfaces things no standardized instrument reliably predicts: stamina across a full day, response to an unexpected change, how a person recovers from a mistake. It is often the most useful component of a vocational evaluation for people whose test performance understates what they can do.

Supported employment

A model of competitive integrated employment for people with significant disabilities in which a job coach provides ongoing on-site support, faded as the employee gains independence. Unlike job placement, which closes after an initial period of stability, supported employment assumes support may be needed indefinitely, months or years into a job, and is funded accordingly. Extended services are commonly picked up by an agency such as OPWDD once vocational rehabilitation's role ends. The premise is that the right support makes ordinary employment possible, not that the person needs a separate kind of work.

Read: Supported employment vs. job placement→

Task analysis

Breaking a job task into its component steps in order to teach it systematically. A job coach documents each discrete step in sequence, identifies which ones the employee already performs independently, and teaches the remainder using consistent prompting that is deliberately reduced over time. Task analysis makes progress measurable, since it is possible to say precisely which steps are mastered rather than offering a general impression, and it makes training transferable, so a coworker or supervisor can continue the same approach after the coach steps back.

Rights & Law

The federal laws and the self-advocacy concepts built on top of them.

ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, amended in 2008, the federal civil rights law prohibiting disability discrimination in employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, and telecommunications. Title I covers employment and requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified applicants and employees, absent undue hardship. The ADA protects rather than entitles: it does not provide services or funding, and its protections generally depend on the individual disclosing their disability and requesting what they need, a shift that catches many students off guard after high school.

Perkins V

The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, signed in 2018, which governs federal funding for career and technical education. Perkins V requires states and local recipients to improve access and outcomes for "special populations," a category that expressly includes individuals with disabilities, and to report performance data disaggregated by those groups. It also permits funds to be used for professional development, which is why Perkins funding is a common route for colleges to pay for faculty and staff training on supporting students with disabilities in CTE programs.

See our training for higher education→

Reasonable accommodation

A modification to a job, workplace, or program that enables a qualified person with a disability to perform essential functions or participate fully. Examples include modified schedules, assistive technology, written rather than verbal instructions, a quieter workspace, or adjusted training methods. Employers must provide accommodation unless doing so imposes undue hardship, and are expected to engage in an interactive process to identify what would work. Most accommodations cost little or nothing. The practical barrier is rarely expense. It is that the employee has to know the right exists and be able to ask.

Self-advocacy

The ability to understand one's own disability, communicate one's needs, and request accommodations in school, work, and community settings. Self-advocacy covers knowing what supports help and why, deciding when and to whom to disclose a disability, asking for what is needed without apology, and following up when a request is ignored. It is a core Pre-ETS skill and arguably the one with the longest reach, because it is the skill that keeps working after every funded service has ended and no professional is in the room.

Read: Student-led IEPs→

Self-determination

Acting as the primary decision-maker in one's own life: setting goals, weighing options, making choices, and taking responsibility for the results. Self-determination is broader than self-advocacy, which is one of its component skills; it also encompasses choice-making, problem-solving, goal-setting, and self-awareness. Research consistently associates stronger self-determination with better employment and independent living outcomes for people with disabilities. In practice it means shifting from planning *for* a student to planning *with* them, which is why student participation in IEP and transition meetings is treated as more than a courtesy.

Supported decision-making

An alternative to guardianship in which an adult with a disability keeps their legal right to make their own decisions while designating trusted people to help them understand options and communicate choices. Arrangements are often documented in a written agreement naming supporters and the areas they assist with: health care, finances, employment. Both New York and New Jersey have moved to recognize supported decision-making, reflecting a broader shift away from removing rights by default. It is the least restrictive option to consider before guardianship as a student approaches the age of majority.

WIOA

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, the federal law that reshaped the public workforce and vocational rehabilitation systems. For students with disabilities its most consequential provision created Pre-Employment Transition Services and required every state vocational rehabilitation agency to reserve at least 15% of its federal funding to deliver them. WIOA also established competitive integrated employment as the presumptive goal of vocational rehabilitation and tightened the conditions under which subminimum-wage employment may be offered to youth. Pre-ETS exists because of this law.

Read: What is Pre-ETS?→

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