BSE Notifies LEAs of Act 26 Transition and Work Experience Data Collection (December 12, 2020)

On December 11, 2020, Carole L. Clancy, PDE Director of the Bureau of Special Education, released a PennLink memo titled Revision to Act 26 Transition and Work Experience Data Collection. The memo states that PA House Bill 400, known as Act 26 of 2016, the Work Experience for High School Students with Disabilities Act, was signed into law by Governor Wolf on May 17, 2016.  Act 26 directs the PA Department of Labor and Industry’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) to provide pre-employment transition services to students with disabilities and facilitate the process of job and career development between local educational agencies (LEAs) and public and private employers to ensure the successful transition of high school students with disabilities into competitive integrated employment.

To assist the PA Department of Labor and Industry in meeting the data collection requirements of Act 26 and to minimize any redundancy in data collection and reporting procedures, the Bureau of Special Education (BSE) added the relevant work experience/transition Data Elements to the existing Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) C4 Special Education data submission.  During the 2016-17 school year, LEAs began collecting data based on the items pertaining to work experience for students with disabilities involved in transition planning as part of their IEPs.  The data elements are reported annually on the PIMS C4 Special Education Transition/Exiting Collection for students 14 years of age or older or any student who has a transition plan as part of their IEP.

Through collaboration with Employment First PA, the PA Department of Labor and Industry and the PA Department of Education are committed to ensure the collected data regarding transition experiences correlates to the intent of the law.  For the 2020-21 school year, the PIMS data collection pertaining to work experience for students with disabilities involved in transition planning as part of their IEPs will be updated as follows:

  • Does this student have a transition plan as part of the IEP?
  • Does the student have an outcome goal of competitive integrated employment?
  • Did the student participate in a competitive integrated paid work experience?
  • Did the student participate in individual job coaching services funded by the school in a paid work experience?
  • Upon exiting high school, was the student employed in a competitive integrated setting?

After the PIMS C4 Special Education Transition/Exiting Collection in June 2021, BSE will be sharing this aggregated data with OVR for inclusion in its annual Act 26 reporting.  An updated PIMS manual will be forthcoming.