Youth Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Report - July 2007
(Council Liaison, Marco Rodriguez - Through June; Gerrie Hawkins, Ph.D., NCD Staff)

In this quarterly report are the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) actions, a reminder of new YAC public meeting dates, and an invitation for Council Members to participate in upcoming YAC public and procedural calls. Prior to the NCD quarterly meeting in Chicago, for convenience a copy of the recent YAC document supporting committee recommendations presented to NCD was also reissued to Council members, in particular for Council members who wished another review opportunity and for new Presidential appointees. The report also demonstrates how the YAC has provided material aligned with agency work priorities and included perspectives obtained directly from youth with disabilities. For convenience, the executive summary from A Perspective from Youth with Disabilities: Benefits in a World of Employmentis as follows:  This document provides information about existing programs related to disability employment benefits and provides youth insight about problems, challenges, and proposed resolution associated with the federal benefits system.¹ This document also makes seven key recommendations to the National Council on Disability (NCD) from its Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) on how the federal government can improve systems so that the programs and services can be most beneficial for youth² with disabilities who wish to become employed. The recommendations address seven areas of action for appropriate federal agencies, the Administration, and Congress.  They include:
(1) Tracking and reporting the employment rate of youth with disabilities;
(2) Addressing employer training and tax incentive needs;
(3) Requiring benefits planning in IEP and school transition processes;
(4) Incorporating youth with disabilities in federal employment campaigns;
(5) Raising income earnings limits under benefits programs;
(6) Creating easy-to-read materials about benefits; and
(7) Involving young people with disabilities in drafting a uniform definition of disability.

Procedural Operations: Activities during May and June included procedural calls wherein members were able to:

(1) Discuss processes for addressing ongoing work [including topics being investigated by the Outreach Workgroup and the Policy Workgroup --- Disability History, Health Care, Aversive techniques and restraints (a possible CRIPA follow-up), and Creating Livable Communities (a possible Youth Town Hall follow-up telecommunication)]; and     (2) Provide input to YAC leaders regarding the ongoing revisions to the YAC’s 2007-2008 work plans. The document subsequently was provided to the Designated Federal Official (DFO) and Council Liaison of record, for comment. Based on a timely suggestion from the NCD Acting Co-directors, the YAC also was able to include in its work plan revisions some additional plans for fiscal year 2009. The plan was completed and submitted to the DFO for final review as part of the internal decision memorandum process. In June 2007, the decision memorandum was approved and signed by the acting co-director and sent forward for signature by the Council Liaison.

New Meeting Dates Posted: 

Based on NCD’s need to make its fiscal year 2007 meeting dates consistent with hotel (lodging and meeting space) availability,  YAC was requested to changed its July and September public meeting dates. The new meetings posted in the Federal Register are August 14 3:30pm ET and September 25 at 3:30pm ET.  Council members are invited to participate in these meeting. Members of the agency and the public are requested to please inform NCD staff of desired participation before the day of the teleconference.  Questions about the YAC can be e-mailed to: YOUTH@ncd.gov.

¹Benefits are defined in this paper as programs designed to help a person with a disability earn enough money so that he or she can become financially independent: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10061.html.

²Youth in this paper includes people below 30 years of age and the YAC member age for an applicant is 16 -25 years of age. See http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/advisory/youth/youth.htm.