PreETS Training for VRS Providers Part 4 PreETS

Pre-ETS Training for VRS Providers: Part 4 Pre-ETS Referrals, Authorizations, Reports and Invoices Recorded October 2020 1

Agenda • Pre-ETS Referral Process • Pre-ETS Authorizations • Pre-ETS Reporting and Invoicing Process 2

Pre-ETS Referral Process 3

Two Referral Forms • Students eligible for VR: VRS Referral Form (same process as always) • Potentially eligible students receiving Pre-ETS: Pre-ETS Referral for Potentially Eligible Students • Why Two Forms? VRS receives minimal information on potentially eligible students. 4

Data Elements Collected from Potentially Eligible Students • Name and contact information • Social security number (if available) • Date of birth • Race, Ethnicity • Verification that a student has a disability: • No detail on what the disability is or how it impacts them • Which of the 5 Pre-ETS the student wishes to receive 5

Which Services? • See your P/T contract for which services your organization is contracted to provide. • See Pre-ETS Definitions for P/T Contracts document for what is encompassed in each service 6

Pre-ETS Authorizations 7

What is an Authorization? • State law requires prior approval and prior “encumbrance” for any expenditure of VRS funds. • That prior approval and encumbrance comes in the form of an authorization from VRS for each individual that a Community Partner serves. • VRS will not pay for any service(s) that occur prior to an authorization. 8

VRS Can Authorize For (and Providers can Invoice For): • Service Time: Providing Pre-ETS to students, individually or in groups • First Meeting Time: The time for the student who is potentially eligible for VR, VRS and provider to meet and talk about the services that will be provided. (Students eligible for VR will have a Pre-ETS intake authorized instead). • Preparation Time: Prepare/revise lesson plans; prepare content for 1: 1 sessions; get materials for sessions ready; communications/attempted communications with students/parents/schools to get meetings set or plan for/coordinate services; edit resumes, cover letters and other documents related to work experiences.

VRS Can Authorize For (and Providers can Invoice For) (continued) • Employer Development Time: Calls/emails/visits to arrange for work-based learning opportunities, internet search for job leads, etc. • Team Meetings: Attending a meeting (such as an IEP meeting) with the student’s other “team” members (ie. family, VRS, school staff, county case managers) to report on progress of Pre-ETS. • Travel Time: Round trip time traveling from primary work location to where services to a student or group of students is provided. Can include time for a provider to pick up/drop off a student. • NOTE: For Pre-ETS only, providers CAN bill for travel time even when a student doesn’t show up for their appointment. However, VRS asks providers to remind students of appointments that are scheduled and to communicate no-shows to VRS staff. 10

Limit on Preparation Time Providers can bill up to 50% of the service time for prep time Example: A Job Exploration Counseling session will last one hour. VRS can authorize up to 30 minutes for prep time for that session.

Hours on the Authorization • The number of authorized hours for Pre-ETS services must be negotiated between VRS and Community Partner staff. • Discuss time needed for all items on slides 9&10. All time is rolled together within the Pre-ETS service being provided (no separate lines items for prep time, travel time, etc. ). • Community Partners will want to monitor authorizations and communicate with VRS if additional Pre-ETS hours are needed. 12

Schedule for Pre-ETS Authorizations 1 2 3 End Dates: Any start date- but Providers have 90 always use one of days from end date • March 31* these 4 end dates to invoice • June 30 • September 30 • December 31* Schedule for Pre-ETS Authorizations *Authorizations ending on these dates with unused hours can be extended to next end date

Pre-ETS Rates • Consistent standardized Pre-ETS rates statewide: • Individual/1: 1 Services: $75/hour • Group Services (2 or more students): $30/hour 14

Authorizing for Group Services • VRS will always authorize at the individual rate ($75/hour) even for group services • Why? Because VRS is not able to increase amounts on authorizations. • Providers must bill VRS at $30/hour if 2 or more students participated in the service 15

Authorization Example • A Community Partner will be providing a 1 -hour classroom service once a week at American High School for 6 weeks • Two hours will cover career exploration, two hours will cover postsecondary exploration and two hours will cover communication skills • It is estimated that it will take 1 hour round-trip for travel time • The provider needs 30 minutes of preparation time for each session • The authorization will be as follows for each student (2 hours service time, 2 hours travel, and 1 hour prep time for each service) • 5 hours Pre-ETS Job Exploration Counseling Services • 5 hours Pre-ETS Postsecondary Education Counseling Services • 5 hours Pre-ETS Workplace Readiness Training Services 16

Pre-ETS Reporting and Invoicing Process 17

Reporting and Invoicing Process • Looks the same for Pre-ETS as it does for any other VR service you provide to VRS participants • Also looks the same for both eligible and potentially eligible students • The invoice and accompanying report should be emailed together to the email address printed on the specific authorization. The email address will be for the appropriate VRS office. 18

Reporting and Invoicing Process (continued) • The dates on the invoice and report should match. These dates must also be within the dates on the authorization, and an invoice should only be for one authorization (ie. in cases where you are invoicing off of multiple authorizations, there should then be multiple invoices that match those authorizations). • The dates on the invoice can be a range of dates, but the report should list out each date that services were provided, along with how much time was spent providing each service. • Invoices and reports should also indicate if the service was provided to an individual/1: 1 or to a group (2 or more students). 19

Reports Must Include: • A description of the services provided • Give sufficient detail to give VRS staff a good picture of what took place • Includes the service time, preparation, team meetings, employer development and transportation time that were provided. • For transportation, also list the starting location, destination, and ending location. • The actual date(s) that services were provided. • The number of hours services were provided on each date. 20

More on Reports • If services are not complete, a partial report can be submitted for the service(s) provided to date. • For Work Experience-Wages, be sure to submit the student’s timecard or a list of all dates/times that they worked. • Documentation (report writing, case notes, invoicing) time is built into the fee structure, therefore is not billable. • See Sample Reports within “Resources” tab 21

Invoice Requirements • An invoice submitted to VRS must include the following: • Dates of service: Range of dates is acceptable on the invoice. (This is the dates of service, not the dates of the authorization. ) The report must show the actual dates the services were provided. • Unique invoice number (The number must be unique for each payment. Delineation by number or letter is acceptable. ) • Authorization number • Type of service, number of units, cost per unit • Remit to Address 22

Invoicing Requirements (continued) • An invoice must be submitted within 90 days from the end date of the work authorization. • Invoices cannot contain handwritten information. • Less than full hours should be invoiced by the quarter hour. • In order for VRS staff to process the invoice there must be an accompanying report. 23

Other Resources • All resources are saved on the Pre-ETS Resources for P/T Contracted Providers page on the DEED-VRS website • Pre-ETS Authorizing, Reporting and Invoicing Guide • The Pre-ETS Invoice Template has all the required items and gives an example of what a Pre-ETS invoice could look like. • A VRS Invoice and Report Checklist is a desk aid to help ensure that all required items are in place with invoices and reports so that payment can be made. This does not need to be submitted with invoices. 24

VRS Contact Information • Kim Babine, Director of Community Partnerships • Kim. Babine@state. mn. us • Anne Paulson, Contracts Specialist • Anne. Paulson@state. mn. us • Sara Sundeen, Contracts Specialist • Sara. Sundeen@state. mn. us • Alyssa Klein, VRS Transition and Pre-ETS Specialist • Alyssa. Klein@state. mn. us 25

Pre-ETS Funding • The pre-employment transition services provided under the VR program are funded by a grant from the U. S. Department of Education with a state match. For federal fiscal year 2020, the total amount of federal grant funds used for these services is $6, 374, 138 (78. 7 percent). The state appropriation indirectly supports the pre-employment transition spending and amounts to $1, 725, 148 (21. 3 percent). 26