49-11-707 - Services provided. - Tennessee Statutes

49-11-707. Services provided.

(a)  The vocational rehabilitation division is authorized, with the approval of the commissioner, to contract with any public or private entity to provide services to the clients of the rehabilitation centers or to provide contract work for clients served by the rehabilitation centers. The vocational rehabilitation division shall comply with all requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, compiled in 42 U.S.C. §  2000d et seq., in the award and administration, pursuant to this subsection (a), of any contracts for services to clients of the division or in the provision of contract work for the division's clients.

(b)  (1)  Each rehabilitation center shall be organized and administered for providing in the most efficient manner the following services:

          (A)  Evaluation of the individual trainee's strengths and weaknesses in terms of the abilities the individual must demonstrate on the job;

          (B)  Personal adjustment training for the individual;

          (C)  Occupational training aimed at specific types of jobs available in the area served by the rehabilitation center;

          (D)  Sheltered workshop employment for trainees awaiting placement in outside job situations, and for the more severely handicapped who are unable to obtain outside employment after completing all the training the center can provide but who are able to function satisfactorily in a sheltered employment situation;

                (i)  The manager of the center may make contracts as necessary to provide such sheltered employment or evaluation in a “real work” situation or both employment and evaluation;

                (ii)  Clients in sheltered employment status shall be entitled to pay social security taxes on the wages earned;

                (iii)  The center shall pay the employer's share;

                (iv)  No individuals enrolled in a Tennessee rehabilitation center in sheltered employment status or any active status shall be employees of the state; and

          (E)  Placement service for trainees, including such factors as surveys of the types of employment available in the community to handicapped persons, promotional work with prospective employers, finding specific jobs for specific trainees, following up on the progress of each trainee placed in a job and the providing of additional training if necessary for satisfactory job performance.

     (2)  The rehabilitation center program shall be coordinated with the program of special educational classes operated by the various local school systems in order to adapt the school experience to meet the particular needs of the developmentally disabled and other handicapped, to secure their interest in remaining in the special classes until they obtain the maximum amount of academic training they are capable of absorbing and thus to achieve their maximum academic and vocational development and equip them for playing a productive role in society.

[Acts 1965, ch. 332, §§ 7, 8; 1977, ch. 57, § 1; T.C.A., §§ 49-2822, 49-2823; Acts 1989, ch. 4, § 3; 2001, ch. 174, § 10.]