RSA Sub-Regulatory Guidance and Policies on the VR Program

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Introduction

The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), the federal agency charged with implementing the vocational rehabilitation program, issues sub-regulatory guidance documents to direct and guide state vocational rehabilitation agencies on the proper implementation of Title I of the Act. Some of these documents are considered legally enforceable by RSA. As the agency charged with carrying out Title I of the Act, a court is also likely to carefully consider any of these interpretations of federal law and federal regulations.

The RSA sub-regulatory guidance documents are very helpful when disputes arise over the meaning of certain terms and concepts in the Act and the federal VR regulations. These documents can thus be very persuasive when advocating for your client over the proper interpretation of the Act and the regulations.

RSA sub-regulatory guidance documents generally come in three types: Policy Directives, Technical Assistance Circulars, and Information Memoranda. Other terms were used to identify these documents prior to 1990. RSA defines the three types of documents as follows:

Policy Directives (PD) - a Policy Directive is a formal statement of required action(s) or condition(s) that must be carried out or met by state VR agencies or other RSA grantees in order to be in compliance with the Acts. A PD is legally enforceable because it is based on a statutory or regulatory provision.

Technical Assistance Circulars (TAC) - a Technical Assistance Circular is a formal statement of guidelines and/or suggested methods to satisfy statutory, regulatory or policy requirements. A TAC addresses those areas of program requirements for which state VR agencies or other RSA grantees have flexibility in determining precisely how such requirements are to be met.

Information Memoranda (IM) - an Information Memorandum transmits information to grantees who operate formula or discretionary grant programs authorized by the Acts, and to individuals who are responsible for monitoring these programs.

The major RSA policy guidance documents important to VR advocates are available on the NDRN website under the Voc. Rehab/Return to Work link. Most sub-regulatory guidance documents from 1991 to the present may be found on the RSA website at http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/rsa/index.html .