Potentially Eligible Guidance and Process

Revised March 2025

Purpose

To inform staff of a new population of students who can receive Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) through DVR.

Rationale

The requirement to serve all students with disabilities mandates that Wisconsin DVR have a procedure for providing only Pre-ETS to potentially eligible students.

Background

WIOA Federal Regulation CFR 361.48(a) requires Pre-ETS to be made available statewide. In collaboration with schools, DVR provides Pre-ETS to all students with disabilities in need of such services regardless if they have applied for or have been determined eligible to receive DVR services.

Potentially Eligible Definition

A Potentially Eligible (PE) student is a student with a disability who:

Is in high school or a post-secondary education training program,
Is 14 to 21 years old,
Has an IEP, 504 Plan, or a documented disability, and
Has not been determined eligible or ineligible for DVR.

PE students can receive Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS), including:

Job Exploration Counseling.
Work-Based Learning.
Counseling on Opportunities for Enrollment in Comprehensive Transition or Post- Secondary Educational Programs.
Workplace Readiness Training.
Instruction on Self-Advocacy, which includes Peer Mentoring.
Auxiliary Services
- Note: Auxiliary services needed to access Pre-ETS for students with communicative or sensory disorders are considered Pre-ETS services. Examples include students who are deaf or hard of hearing, have visual impairments, etc. Reader and Interpreter services to access and participate in Pre-ETS are allowed under the ADA’s Title II regulations defined as “auxiliary aids and services” in 28 CFR 35.104.

Additional services, including transportation, systematic instruction, personal assistance services, and assistive technology, which may be needed to support Pre- ETS, cannot be provided to a PE student with DVR funding. If these supports or additional services are needed, students must apply and be found eligible for DVR services or have those services provided by a comparable benefit.

For further information on coding Pre-ETS, see the Pre-ETS Desktop Reference (Staff Only, Internal Link).

Policy for PE Students on OOS Waitlist

If a PE student applies for DVR services, is determined eligible, and is placed in a closed Order of Selection (OOS) category, the following policy would apply to them:

If a PE student with a disability is receiving Pre-ETS from DVR before the eligibility and OOS decision, DVR may continue to provide Pre-ETS while the student is on the waitlist.
Pre-ETS can be provided until the student is activated from the waitlist or no longer meets the definition of a student with a disability. The only services that can be provided during this period are the same Pre-ETS a PE student can receive.

Process

DVR receives a completed and signed Potentially Eligible (PE) Request form.PE Request forms cannot be submitted online.
If a student is 18 years of age or older and has a legal guardian, the guardian must sign the form and DVR must obtain guardianship paperwork and attach it to the PE file in IRIS.
If the school signs the PE Request form, their signature serves as documentation that the student has a disability.
- If the request form is not signed by the school, obtain disability documentation, and attach it to the IRIS PE file.
DVR enters the information from the form into IRIS. Attach the PE form, guardianship paperwork, and any disability documentation if applicable.
Only Pre-ETS may be provided to a PE student.
As with all Pre-ETS cases, DVR Counselors should track their related time in STAR as Pre-ETS under the Task Profile ID.
Staff can adjust their notification list in IRIS to display PE cases.

Dates of Services on POs for PE Cases

Dates of services on the PO and completion of services must be prior to the following situations:

Turning 22 years old.
No longer attending high school or secondary training program.
Graduation from high school with no enrollment or intent to enroll in Post-Secondary Training (i.e., enroll the following semester).
Note: Services do not have to be discontinued when a PE student becomes a regular DVR consumer (non-student). However, the following must occur:
All POs approved prior to becoming a regular DVR Consumer must be canceled.
New POs must be entered and coded to the appropriate non-Pre-ETS codes.

Best Practice: If a VRC is aware that a PE student is interested in full DVR services, the VRC should refer the student to regular DVR before they no longer meet the definition of a student (turning 22 or completing school).

Conclusion of PE Cases

Policy

When the student turns 22 years old - IRIS processes will automatically close the case.
The student is no longer participating in a secondary or post-secondary training program.
- Staff must manually check a box indicating the PE "no longer meets the definition of a student".
The student requires additional DVR services and applies for a regular DVR case.
- Student under the age of 22 - convert a PE case into a regular DVR case.
  - When a PE case becomes a regular DVR case, all information and attachments from the PE case will transfer to the regular DVR case in IRIS.
- Student 22 or older - DVR can no longer turn the PE Case into a Referral for a regular DVR case. The individual must apply via the "normal" DVR Referral/Application process.

IRIS Process to Convert to Regular DVR Case

Click on the "Create Referral/Application" button at the bottom of the PE Summary.
After you fill out the required fields on the "Referral/Application for Services" page, the status will change to "In Process Referral" (Status 00).
- The individual will now appear in both the Potentially Eligible search and Referral/Application search.
Once the status has changed to "In Process Referral", the Create Referral/Application button on the PE case will change to "Go to In Process Referral/Application".
- This will indicate to staff that there is an in-process Referral for the individual.
The Referral will be turned into an Applicant (Status 02) after the signature is recorded.
The case number will stay the same as the PE case file number.
After the Referral/Application is accepted, the individual will only appear in the Referral/Application and Case searches (they will no longer appear in the Potentially Eligible search).

Note: If a current PE consumer submits a regular DVR Referral – reject it. Proceed with the process to convert the PE Case into a Referral (see above). If the regular Referral is not rejected, then none of the PE case information will be available in the regular case file.