A summary of the self-employment outcomes in the State Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program: Program years 2018, 2019, and 2020

BACKGROUND: Self-employment continues to be an elusive competitive integrated employment outcome (CIE) for people with disabilities receiving services from State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (SVRA). This article provides a snapshot of the extent to which self-employment is occurring within the SVRA program as a CIE outcome. Recommendations are included for VR policies and practices that may expand the self-employment participation and outcomes for an inclusive range of VR recipients. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to provide an analysis of the national outcomes in self-employment for individuals served by the SVRAs for program years 2018, 2019, and 2020. METHODS: The data in this article was provided by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) as part of the RSA Case Service Report (RSA-911) for 2018, 2019, and 2020. RESULTS: Self-employment continues to be an underutilized VR service. Outcomes in self-employment as a percentage of all VR outcomes in CIE remained low and stagnant during 2018 and 2019 with a noticeable drop in outcomes for PY 2020. Consistently, self-employment outcomes are predominantly achieved in the VR system by a homogenous population of older (age 50+) participants whose race is white and gender is male. CONCLUSION: Unless the field of vocational rehabilitation proactively commits to diversifying and expanding self-employment participation and outcomes, the odds are that the outcomes for self-employment will remain unchanged.