Learning Disability (LD) Screenings Introduction

On January 19, 2001, The HHS, OCR, issued policy guidelines on the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability in the administration of the TANF program. Title II of the ADA and Section 504 defines a “disability,” with respect to an individual, to mean “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.”

Counties are responsible for identifying disabled clients, including those with LDs, and when necessary, removing any barriers that may prevent the individual from becoming self-sufficient. OCR has found that a large percentage of the population may have LDs that are never diagnosed.

In order to comply with federal civil rights laws, our agency does the following to identify and accommodate those individuals with LDs:

• Offer screenings of all new and existing CWES clients for potential LDs by trained staff using a validated LD screening tool.
• At client option, refer CWES clients with potential LDs to in-house Assessment.
• Refer clients with potential LD to available LD evaluation resources in the community.
• Consider LD screening indicator and evaluations when developing or amending a client’s Welfare-to-Work (WTW) plan.
• Include the results from the LD screener on inter-county transfers (ICTs) ONLY if permission is granted by the client.