The Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) finds employment for the more than 150,000 disabled Californians, helps them live independently and promotes equality with non-disabled people in the communities where they live and work. It is the largest vocational rehabilitation program in the country and is funded primarily by the federal government. The department, which falls under the umbrella of the state’s Health and Human Services Agency, not only assists disabled state residents, its own work staff is comprised of about 15% disabled individuals, including its current director.

California Department of Rehabilitation (Symsoft Solutions)

About the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR website)

The origin of California’s Department of Rehabilitation could be traced back to the U.S. Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1920, one of  the country’s first grant-in-aid programs. Also known as the Smith-Fess Act, its provisions led to creation of California’s Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation within the state Department of Education. Blind people were specifically excluded from the program for failure to meet the requirement that it be reasonable to expect the recipient would eventually be self-supporting.

By 1946, the Education Department also included the California School for the Blind, Training Centers for the Adult Blind and Schools for the Cerebral-Palsied Children. The Bureau of Aid to the Needy Blind resided in the Department of Social Welfare.

In 1954, the federal government changed the formula for how it dispersed money to state vocational rehabilitation agencies. A new grant system was established and money was doled out to the states based on their population and per capita income. Funding levels rose.

In 1963, state legislation brought together the functions of the vocational rehabilitation  schools, centers and bureaus to form the Department of Rehabilitation in the newly-created Health and Welfare Agency.

About this same time, two years before the 1964 Free Speech Movement jump started student activism and social movements at the University of California, Berkeley, a severely-disabled polio victim badgered his way onto campus as its first severely-disabled student. The administration was reluctant to accept a student who had virtually no functional movement and needed a respirator to breathe, but they let Ed Roberts live in the campus medical facility, Cowell Hall, and, with the assistance of his brother (a student there, too) and a wheelchair, attend classes.

The next year a second severely-disabled student joined Roberts in Cowell Hall and soon others followed. The “father of independent living” and champion of disability rights was just getting started.

A year before coming to Berkeley, Roberts had been rejected for inclusion in the programs at the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation because he was too severely disabled. Fourteen years later, Governor Jerry Brown would make him director of the Department of Rehabilitation. In between he picked up a master’s degree in political science and became a college teacher before returning to his alma mater to head up the fledgling Berkeley Center for Independent Living (CIL).

The core of the Berkeley CIL—non-residential, nonprofit, consumer control, civil rights, integration, equal access and advocacy—were principles applied in CILs popping up across the country and became integral to the Department of Rehabilitation. More than 400 CILs existed by 2011.

The U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibited discrimination against disabled people in programs conducted by the federal government, in programs receiving funds from the government and in federal employment. It also authorized independent living centers and programs.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA), major civil rights legislation that prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications and governmental activities.

Two years later, in 1992, the state Department of Rehabilitation, which is designated as the lead state agency for implementing the act, created the Disability Access Services unit to make specific information about disability access available to businesses and citizens.

That year, the federal government amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to require that only qualified professional counselors provide key functions for the department’s clients, including determining the level of disability and eligibility for DOR services.

The act was amended again in 1998 to require that states establish a State Rehabilitation Council (SRC). The council—appointed by the governor and made up of representatives of Californians with disabilities—reviews, advises and evaluates the department.  

Chronology, 1900s-1920s (Social Security Administration)

History of Blindness (American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults)

A People’s History of the Independent Living Movement (Independent Living Institute)

Independent Living History (DOR website)

The New Civil Rights (by Joseph P. Shapiro)

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as Amended (Department of Justice)

Facts About the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Department of Rehabilitation offers vocational rehabilitation services primarily through Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs) and Individual Service Providers (ISPs). CRPs are community-based organizations and ISPs are independent contractors who deal directly with the department; they do not use subcontractors.

The department operates 85 field offices, grouped in 13 districts, throughout the state. Services, in general, include guidance and counseling, referrals to other agencies, job search and placement assistance, vocational training, diagnosis and treatment of mental and physical impairments, transportation, on-the-job personal assistance, interpreter services, occupational licenses and tools, self-employed technical assistance family services, and rehabilitative assistance technology.

Services for the blind and visually impaired include adjustment to blindness, job placement, assistive technology, occupational training, preparation for work, and on-the-job followup. The department operates an orientation center for the blind in Albany, California, and a business enterprise program in food services. Blind services grants are available to private, nonprofit agencies that provide services to visually impaired individuals 55 and older.  

Rehabilitation counselors for the deaf and hard of hearing are available at most DOR offices. Services for the deaf and hard of hearing include deaf culture and awareness, communication techniques, assistive listening devices and other rehabilitation technology, interpreter services, referrals to specialized agencies, specialized vocational training and hearing aid assessments.

A 1998 amendment to the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required that states integrate consumers, advocates and other representatives of the disabled into the administration and oversight of their vocational rehabilitation services. California complied with this requirement by establishing the State Rehabilitation Council. The council reviews, analyzes and advises the department regarding its performance and effectiveness. Its 16 members are appointed by the governor and include: persons who have received or applied for vocational rehabilitation services, at least one vocational rehabilitation counselor, representatives of disability advocate groups, at least one representative of the American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Projects in California, a member of the State Independent Living Council, and four representatives of business, industry and labor.

The Independent Living Section of the department, working with the State Independent Living Council, gives technical support and financial assistance to 29 independent living centers.  These nonresidential facilities work to integrate disabled people into communities by reducing barriers and providing peer counseling, independent living skills training, housing assistance, information and referral, advocacy and assistance technology. Some of the centers also provide children’s services, physical rehabilitation and recreational services.

The department was designated by the governor’s office as the lead agency to implement the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in California.  A unit—Disability Access Services (DAS)—was established in 1992 to promote disability rights and act as a central source of information for the state on the Fair Employment Housing Act, ADA and other disability laws.

Department of Rehabilitation: Consumer Handbook (pdf)

Independent Living Information (DOR website)

Department of Rehabilitation (Legislative Analyst's Office)

Independent Living Centers by County (DOR website)

State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) Information (DOR website)

California State Rehabilitation Council (pdf)

Disability Access and Rights in California (DOR website)

Frequently Asked Questions (DIRECT Center for Independence )  

What Does DOR Do? (DOR website)

The vast majority of the department’s funding comes from the federal government. Only 13.5% of its $417.9 million budget in 2011-12 came from state resources, mostly the General Fund. The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) in the U.S. Department of Education is the department’s major funding source as well as its federal oversight agency. 

Around 95% of the department’s budget is spent on vocational rehabilitation services and the rest on independent living services.

2011-12 Budget (Ebudget)

3-Year Budget (pdf)

A New Electronic Records System

As part of its 2007-08 budget, the department proposed development of a new automated system to manage and track the activities of its Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS) program. The new system was needed, it said, to comply with federal requirements for gathering and reporting information.

 It put the cost at $15.8 million and said it would be completed by the summer of 2011.

The state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office was skeptical. It questioned the assumption that federal funds for the project would be available in future years and thought the timetable overly optimistic. Its conclusion: “. . . we believe that the proposed project schedule may be significantly underestimated and that project costs will exceed the current estimate of $15.8 million.”

In September 2011, the department released a timetable for the project with a 14-month pilot phase beginning in October and final implementation pushed back to March 2014. The finished project will include a new electronic records system called AWARE within a new Vocational Rehabilitation Service Delivery (VRSD) Model.

Automation Proposal Poses Future General Fund Risk (Legislative Analyst’s Office)

Comments about DOR  (Yelp)

Vocational Rehabilitation Modernization (DOR website)

DOR AWARE Survey (SurveyMonkey)

Who Gets Services?

Two of the earliest department directors, Ed Roberts and William Tainter, famously were discouraged early in life from applying for participation in vocational rehabilitation programs because they were allegedly too disabled to ever work. The landmark U.S. Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 made it clear that priority service should go to those most disabled, but that still left the states with latitude in defining what constitutes severity.

It didn’t end the debate on priorities.

Strict Priorities Don’t Work

When customers first get involved with the Department of Rehabilitation, their condition is assessed and they are given a Level of Significance of Disability (LSOD) score. They are then placed in one of three categories: “most significantly disabled,” “significantly disabled” or “disabled.” The more severe the disability, the better the chance of getting assistance.

This can end up pitting blindness vs. deafness vs. multiple-sclerosis vs. learning disability over whose disability is worse. The loser ends up on a waiting list. 

In 2000, the State Auditor noted that the department’s method for evaluating the severity of clients’ disabilities favored those with learning and certain mental disabilities. That pendulum tends to swing back and forth, but some question not where the pendulum stops but whether there should be a pendulum at all.

The State Auditor also pointed out that the department had trouble closing its most expensive, unsuccessful cases. The most severe cases consume more resources. Just 3% of the cases closed in 1998-99 consumed 26% of the department’s purchased-service costs. The result was a lack of funds forcing service refusal for thousands of applicants during a four-year period and a waiting list eight months long.

When the state is experiencing fiscal problems (the norm for the past decade) finger-pointing over who deserves help becomes more overt and the infighting can detract from the mission. Loosening up priorities means more people get help.

Strict Priorities Are a Necessity

Federal law has been clear on this issue since 1990, but California was ahead of the curve. When resources are limited, the most severely disabled get priority attention. Many credit Director Ed Roberts (1975-1982) with establishing that principle in the state and reversing the practice known as “creaming rehab,” in which the number of successful closures is run up by focusing resources on mild disabilities.

Former Director Catherine Campisi described how it worked in the old days, “We're even talking things like you needed eyeglasses or you had a bad back. We're not talking wheelchair user or anything like that.”  California’s reaction to passage of the 1990 federal law, according to Campisi, was to come up with the most complex system in the nation for determining level of disability. But after a period of sorting out standards, she argues, a realistic one that comports with federal law was attained.

“The concept of order selection is good,” she said. “But depending on the state and what situation you're in, it can be very difficult to implement.”

For that reason, the DOR took issue with the State Auditor’s 2000 report that recommended the department adjust its rating system to consider cost as more of a determining factor in evaluations. “It is the department’s position that these recommendations are inconsistent with the Act and its fundamental principles, such as individualized services, consumer informed choice, and emphasis on career objectives.”

It shouldn’t be about saving a buck, closing the most cases and making life a little easier for counselors on the front lines.  

Interview with Catherine Campisi (Online Archive of California)

California’s Vocational Rehabilitation Program (State Auditor’s 2000 report) (pdf)

Anthony Sauer, 2007-2014

Catherine Campisi, 1999-2006

Brenda Premo, 1994-1999

William Tainter, 1991-1993. Tainter, a survivor of childhood polio, was found dead in a hotel room in 1993 after his respirator apparently became dislodged. He had once filed a federal lawsuit against United Airlines for keeping him off a flight because the airline did not want his portable respirator onboard.  Because of his bout with polio, he also had a modified state car that he was able to start with his toes, shift with his knee and steer by foot using a gadget attached to the floor.

Edward Roberts, 1975-1982. Roberts was a quadriplegic and considered to be the “father of independent living.” In 1961, he became the first severely-disabled student admitted to the University of California, Berkeley, and pioneered the independent living centers while there. Governor Jerry Brown named Roberts as director of the Department of Rehabilitation 14 years after the agency’s forerunner, the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, rejected his application for services because it deemed him too disabled to be helped.

Alan C. Nelson, 1972-1975. Nelson became commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services in 1982.