‘I wouldn’t have found them otherwise’: Program helps students with disabilities forge paths to careers

by Debbie Skipper, Mississippi Today
April 10, 2025

Matthew Devers, 18, describes his current job as “very brute force.” He’s in a welding program, working part time while completing his associates degree at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. 

He says it wouldn’t have been possible without the pre-employment training and services program he joined after high school. Pre-ETS is a program that provides students with disabilities education and experience to help them enter post-secondary education and/or the workforce. Devers, who is autistic, says  “I wouldn’t have found them otherwise.”

People with disabilities make up 13% of the country’s population as of 2024. The employment rate for people with disabilities is lower than for people without. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2024 employment-population ratio for disabled people between 16 to 24 years old is 37.4%. By comparison, the employment rate for non-disabled people is 65.8%.

Pre-ETS provides job exploration and counseling, work-based learning experiences, counseling opportunities for enrollment in comprehensive transition or postsecondary education programs, workplace readiness training, and instruction in self-advocacy. 

In 2014, Congress amended The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, expanding the population of students with disabilities that vocational rehabilitation agencies may serve. This gave birth to the pre-ETS program, which is funded by state vocational rehabilitation agencies. 

Nationally, pre-ETS services are underutilized. The Hechinger Report found that in 2023, 295,000 students were using pre-ETS when it’s estimated that 3.1 million were eligible. Often, the report found, parents are even aware it exists.

The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation is currently serving 3,382 students, 2,053 of whom are in the pre-ETS program. How many it could potentially serve isn’t known, but the Mississippi Department of Education said there are 20,994 students between the ages of 14 and 21 in special education. That’s the age group pre-ETS serves.

If aware of pre-ETS, families can request thatfor their child to join the program through a school counselor or school transition staff. If the student doesn’t have an open vocational rehabilitation case, they can reach out to a local VR transition counselor or vocational rehabilitation for the blind counselor. 

Jennifer Jackson, the executive director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, said she is optimistic about the direction of pre-ETS in Mississippi.  “I feel like our state is constantly improving and constantly seeking out ways to help these individuals be successful,” she said.

The recent cost-cutting measures from the Trump administration have alarmed some disability rights advocates. As part of its sweeping cost-cutting spree, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, canceled at least two grants researching school-to-work transition services for youth with disabilities, including two multimillion-dollar contracts for studies on outcomes for students with disabilities after high school graduation. 

“While we are aware that staffing changes have taken place within the Department of Education (DE), where RSA is housed, we have not been informed of any direct impact to Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) funding at this time,” Jackson said in a statement. RSA refers to the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

Jackson said these services provide essential help for young people with disabilities who often struggle learning skills that people are not disabled can take for granted. She said they’re also key for improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities. 

To be eligible, a student must: be between ages 14 to 21; have a documented disability, 504 plan to ensure the child receives accommodations and access to the learning environment; or Individualized Education Program plan; and be enrolled in a recognized educational program. Applicants must complete a Pre-ETS Referral Form, have a parent or guardian sign a release of information, and have a copy of the student’s documented disability, 504 plan, or IEP plan.

OVR partners with 13 organizations and nonprofits across Mississippi to deliver pre-ETS programs. One of them is the Transition to Adulthood Center on Learning, the same program Devers was in. The center is part of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Beth Robertson, the center’s executive coordinator for transition, described the program as a collaboration between families, schools and state agencies. “We can always work together even more, increase our involvement more, we would love to see that,” she said. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.