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Policy Framework
In April 2005, approximately 776,000 youth with disabilities ages 14 to 25 were receiving federal Supplemental Security Benefits, and the expected lifetime stay on the disability rolls for those who began receiving SSI under age 18 was a total of 27 years. Programs that can help youth make a successful transition from school to work, and to economic self-sufficiency, hold great promise — for youth with disabilities and for the federal government, which stands to reap significant savings in the long-term costs of benefits.
The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research (MPR), Inc., to develop and evaluate Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects for young people who are either receiving disability benefits or who are likely to need them. MPR has assembled a team for the evaluation that includes MDRC, disability program experts from TransCen, Inc.; and academic specialists. By waiving certain federal disability program rules and offering services to youth with disabilities, the YTD projects are expected to encourage young people to work or continue their education.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
The YTD projects evaluation will produce empirical evidence of the impact of services and waivers of disability program rules on youth with disabilities' educational attainment, employment, earnings, and receipt of disability benefits. It will also measure the consequent impact on the Social Security trust fund and federal income tax revenues. MPR is the prime contractor for the demonstration; MDRC is the lead subcontractor, responsible for site selection, technical assistance, and implementation research.
The evaluation’s reports will be used to inform policymakers and program operators how to develop and implement interventions to help youth with disabilities increase their economic self-sufficiency as they make the transition from school to work.
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
YTD projects will be implemented at 11 sites. In 2004, SSA provided demonstration project grants to organizations at seven sites: two in New York, and one each in California, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, and Mississippi. All sites will participate in the evaluation’s study of project implementation, and several may also participate in a random assignment impact study. The projects vary in the types of youth served and the services provided, but most partner with several local organizations; offer counseling, service coordination, and family support; and serve youth who are still in school.
Under its evaluation contract, MPR will award grants of up to $3.5 million to organizations in four additional sites to implement new demonstration projects. Before selecting the new sites, the evaluation team will design a set of model programs. Organizations seeking to become a new YTD site will adopt a model and participate in the evaluation’s implementation and random assignment impact studies.
The evaluation will use analytic methods based on random assignment of youth to a treatment group, which will receive enhanced YTD project services and SSA waivers, or a control group, which will receive only those services that would have been available in the absence of the project. The evaluation will collect administrative and survey data on treatment and control group members at the time of random assignment and periodically for four years thereafter, study the implementation of the projects and their impacts on youths with disabilities, and analyze the benefits and costs.
What's Next
The evaluation, which began in October 2005, will be conducted over nine years, until September 2014. During the first year of the project, between October 2005 and October 2006, the evaluation team will develop program models, provide technical assistance to existing demonstration project sites, and visit prospective sites for new projects. A report on YTD program models will be prepared in May 2008.
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