Federal Resources

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services within the Department of Education has released and updated its Disability Employment 101 guide. This guide provides information about hiring employees with disabilities, including information about how to find qualified workers with disabilities, how to put disability and employment research into practice, and how to model what other businesses have done to successfully integrate individuals with disabilities into the workforce.

This joint letter from the Departments of Education, HHS, and Labor provides education, social services, workforce development, and private leaders with information about ways in which schools and human service agencies can work with the American Job Center network to ensure that students and families have relevant and timely information for making informed career decisions. 

This Training and Employment Notice shares the interagency support for ensuring students and parents have relevant and timely information to make informed career decisions. The notice is meant to encourage continued coordination and collaboration across systems of public workforce, adult basic education, career and technical education, and human and social services to prepare students for education and career paths

The Board on Children, Youth, and Families (BCYF) addresses a variety of policy-relevant issues related to the health and development of children, youth, and families. It does so by convening experts to weigh in on matters from the perspective of the behavioral, social, and health sciences.

The National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC) helps states build capacity to support and improve transition planning, services, and outcomes for youth with disabilities and disseminates information and provides technical assistance on scientifically-based research practices with an emphasis on building and sustaining state-level infrastructures of support and district-level demonstrations of effective transition methods for youth with disabilities.

The Technical Assistance on Transition and the Rehabilitation Act (TATRA) Project offers Parent Information and Training Programs funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) a variety of services to help them achieve their goals. Individualized services for each center are identified in technical assistance plans on an annual basis.

The Departments of Education and Labor have launched a new Registered Apprenticeship–College Consortium which will enable graduates of Registered Apprenticeship programs to earn college credit for their Registered Apprenticeship experience and accelerate attainment of an associate or bachelor degree. 

In observance of Career and Technical Education Month in February 2014, student representatives from Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) from across the country met with Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Assistant Secretary Brenda Dann-Messier to share how CTSOs have prepared them to take advantage of success in college and their future careers. 

The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics' report, “Trends Among Young Adults Over Three Decades, 1974-2006” outlines patterns of change in postsecondary enrollment, labor force roles, family formation, and civic engagement as measured in young adults two years out of high school in 1972, 1980, 1992, and 2004. 

This website describes food, agriculture, and natural resource careers at the US Department of Agriculture.

USDA has awarded $200 million to fund and evaluate pilot projects in 10 states to help Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) participants find jobs and work toward self-sufficiency. The selected pilots will focus on target populations and represent a wide array of balanced approaches, including skills training, work-based learning, support services, and other job-driven strategies. 

This blog post, written by a USICH intern, describes how she found the position and highlights her experiences working on the policy team at USICH. 

This website provides a one-stop shop for American Indians and Alaska Natives to access resources available from the federal government. Users can complete a prescreening questionnaire to determine their eligibility criteria for resources and programs and learn how to apply. Resource categories include youth, education, food, employment, loans, and environment. 

This resource (PDF, 6 pages) describes the stark consequences of youth unemployment, especially among youth of color, and provides an overview of “what works” for youth workforce development. It highlights critical strategies and best practices, exemplars, and additional resources to support local practitioners’ efforts to develop and implement workforce development programs for young people in their communities. 

This resource highlights the story of Reth Duir, an Arctic Youth Ambassador and son of South Sudan refugees, who describes how he overcame his fearful attitude about the outdoors and his passion to connect people from across different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds to nature. 

These technical assistance guides assist collaborations among DOL, ED, states, local workforce development areas, other workforce and education partners, and social service providers with serving out-of-school youth. Specifically, strategies are included in the guides for serving out-of-school English learners, current and former foster youth, and justice-involved youth. 

This data set provides information on program-level outcomes of college students preparing for gainful employment that can be used by prospective students and their families to weigh their options. Overall, the data show graduates of career training programs at public institutions generally fare better than those of comparable programs at for-profit colleges, earning higher salaries and being more prepared to enter higher earning fields. 

This report analyzes the relationship between high school career and technical education course-taking and later enrollment in postsecondary education. 

This report examines who public high school students view as their main influence when they are considering postsecondary education and careers. Results show students relied on family members as the main influence when thinking about postsecondary education, and students relied on themselves primarily when thinking about careers.