Paul is mentally retarded with an IQ of 57. Although Paul is slow in learning new tasks in school, he has demonstrated persistence in completing his work on several job sites. With the help of his parents and the transition coordinator at his school he began the SSI application process as part of his transition plan. Shortly after his 18th birthday he began receiving SSI benefits.
Paul has been involved in a community-based vocational program established in his IEP/transition plan since he was sixteen. He has worked under the supervision of school personnel in janitorial services at a local business and various jobs at a supermarket. Both of these experiences were non-paid training activities.
When Paul was 18 the transition coordinator helped him get a job busing dishes in a K-Mart cafeteria. Paul did quite well at his job and soon he was working independently. Not long after Paul was working independently the store moved to a new location. It expanded its operations but cut back on the size of the cafeteria.
The store manager, who was impressed with Paul’s reliability and work habits, offered Paul a job as a shoe processor in the shoe department. Paul needed a job coach to teach him how to sort shoes as they came off the trucks and place them on display racks.
During Paul’s last IEP/transition plan prior to his high school graduation the transition coordinator had discussed with Paul and his parents the possibility of using a PASS to secure a job coach after graduation to help him in the new position at K-Mart.
One of Paul’s transition goals was to work in a variety of situations in order to generalize employment-related skills across several environments. While he was in school, his transition coordinator has worked with Paul when he encountered new situations in job settings. Now the team shifted its attention to securing resources for Paul when he was no longer in school and faced new or different employment situations. The team established a transition objective that Paul would develop and submit a PASS to hire a job coach to assist him in acquiring the skills and behaviors he needed in a new employment situation. The PASS was reviewed by the team and submitted to SSA as part of Paul’s IEP/transition plan. With the help of the transition coordinator he developed his PASS goals:
Paul calculated expenditures and disbursements as required in the PASS application. The job coach would be paid $24 per hour for 30 hours for a total cost of $720. Paul had saved $100 that was in a savings account. Paul earned $440 per month. He planned to pay $100 per month from his salary until the job coach fee was paid in full.
Paul had no items of value that would enable him to achieve his job goal. Paul had saved $100 that could be applied as payment for the job coach. Paul would be working and earning $110 per week as he went through the training program. Paul planned to set aside $100 per month for his PASS to pay for the job coach. His SSI check and earning from his job would meet his living costs. Once the job training was complete Paul anticipated increasing his earnings from $110 per week to $210.00 per week.