TABLE 13.-Number of vocational rehabilitation offices and number of various types of professional and administrative employees, by States, March 1938 1

1 Data supplied by the U. S. Office of Education.

Includes persons a portion of whose salaries are charged to vocational rehabiliation funds and who devote a portion of their time to vocational rehabilitation; excludes persons devoting a portion of their time to vocational rehabilitation but not receiving salaries from vocational rehabilitation funds. 3 Includes 1 psychologist. Includes 2 research workers.

At present in 25 States the head of the vocational rehabilitation service reports direct to the chief State school officerusually a State superintendent of public instruction or a commissioner of education-or to an assistant chief State school officer; the chief State school officer in 14 of these States is also the State director for vocational education. (See Appendix C.) In 19 States and in Hawaii and Puerto Rico vocational rehabilitation is administered by the State (or Territorial) director of vocational education, who in most cases qualifies on the basis of training and experience in agricultural or trade and industrial education. In North Dakota the same person serves as State director of vocational education and State director of vocational rehabilitation. The State director of vocational rehabilitation in Montana is directly responsible to the State board for vocational education. In New Jersey, where the vocational rehabilitation program is carried out by the rehabilitation commission, the director of the service is responsible to the commissioner of education, who is the executive officer of the State board for vocational education.

In a number of States the directors of vocational education have supplemented their salaries from rehabilitation funds because rehabilitation was under their direction, although they were giving very little time to the work. At present four State directors of vocational education have portions of their salaries paid from rehabilitation funds.

Office facilities for the staffs are provided in different ways. (See Table 13.) The smaller States maintain one office for vocational rehabilitation, located in the capital city. The larger States maintain, in addition to the central office, one or more district offices located in appropriate centers.

Problems of Organization

The organization of vocational rehabilitation in the States presents several problems which should have consideration. These problems are concerned particularly with the State agencies that should carry on the services and with the relations between the administration of vocational rehabilitation and the administration of vocational education.

The State agency.-It is an open question as to which

agency in the State government should administer vocational rehabilitation. In considering this question attention must be given to the nature of the service. Vocational rehabilitation depends upon a variety of agencies, and its primary function is to correlate their services for individuals. Vocational training is only one phase of the rehabilitation process, and it is not rendered directly by the vocational rehabilitation agency but is obtained by that agency from public and private institutions, and even from employers, as rehabilitants have need for this service. Vocational rehabilitation agencies do not operate schools or provide training classes. Moreover, only about 42 percent of the persons rehabilitated are given institutional training, and only 19 percent receive other training.1 On the basis of the nature and function of vocational rehabilitation, there is no obvious inherent reason why it should be administered by State departments of education.

In the light of the situation existing in 1920, when the Vocational Rehabilitation Act was passed, it was no doubt advisable to place the administration of the service in the States under State boards for vocational education, since they were the only agencies existing in all the States whose functions were related to vocational rehabilitation. Since that time, however, the situation in the States has been materially changed by the enactment of important Federal social legislation which is closely related to vocational rehabilitation. The most notable of these laws are the Wagner-Peyser Act (1933), and the Social Security Act (1935).

The Wagner-Peyser Act 2 authorizes Federal grants to States for the purpose of establishing and maintaining systems of public employment offices. In order to obtain the benefits of these grants a State is required, through its legislature, to accept the provisions of the Act and designate or authorize the creation of a State agency vested with all powers necessary to cooperate with the United States Employment Service under the Act. It will be observed that the particular cooperating State agency is not named in the Federal Act.

1 See Table 5, p. 29.

248 Stat. L. 118 (1933).

The Social Security Act, an omnibus measure, provides Federal old age benefits, and authorizes Federal grants to States (1) for the administration of their unemployment compensation laws, (2) for public assistance programs giving regular monthly allowances to the needy aged, the needy blind, and needy dependent children, and (3) for the provision or extension of services for maternal and child health, crippled children, child welfare, public health, and vocational rehabilitation.

The Social Security Act permits the States much latitude as to the agencies responsible for administration of the various services. With respect to assistance for the aged, the blind, and dependent children, the State plan must "either provide for the establishment or designation of a single State agency to administer the plan, or provide for the establishment or designation of a single State agency to supervise the administration of the plan," and it must also "provide such methods of administration (other than those relating to selection, tenure of office, and compensation of personnel) as are found by the [Social Security] Board to be necessary for the efficient operation of the plan." Maternal and child health services must be administered, or the administration must be supervised, by "the State health agency," and the services for crippled children must be administered, or the administration must be supervised, by "a State agency" designated in the State plan. The services for child welfare in a State are carried on under plans developed jointly by the Children's Bureau and the State public welfare agency. The State agency for the administration of the public health service is the "health authority" of the State. The sums for the administration of the unemployment compensation law of a State are payable "to the State agency charged with the administration of such law." The grants for vocational rehabilitation authorized by the Social Security Act are administered in the States in accordance with the provisions of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act. The Social Security Act thus designates a particular State agency of administration for some of the services but not for others.

8 49 Stat. L. 620 (1935).

As a result of Federal legislation, as well as much independent State action, the States have established numerous services, some of which bear a close relation to vocational rehabilitation. Since disabled persons are not considered rehabilitated until they have been satisfactorily placed in employment, the employment service provided under the Wagner-Peyser Act is definitely related to vocational rehabilitation. In fact, vocational rehabilitation may well be regarded as a part of the service which public employment offices should render. None of these offices is giving complete service to the community and the Nation unless it endeavors to assist everyone seeking employment, the physically disabled as well as those who are physically normal. No doubt in many cases State welfare agencies could administer and develop the vocational rehabilitation service in accordance with the purposes stated in the Vocational Rehabilitation Act.

In view of these considerations it would appear that the Vocational Rehabilitation Act should permit the States to adapt their organization to local conditions and to experiment with various types of set-up. This could be accomplished by amending the Act to require the legislature of the State, or the Governor in cooperation with the Federal agency in charge of the Federal administration of the Act, to designate an appropriate State board or department as the cooperating agency. In any arrangement that is made, however, precautions should be taken to protect professional and competent personnel from unwarranted political and commercial pressures, all of which limit the efficiency of, or even destroy, a sound program.

Relationships to vocational education.-Under a plan of organization which places the administration of vocational rehabilitation under a director of vocational education, vocational rehabilitation may be at a decided disadvantage. It must compete with the needs of the vocational education program with respect to budgets, size of staff, salaries, travel of supervisors and case workers, and clerical supporting service, and frequently with respect to office facilities. In the administration of vocational education only limited numbers of supervisors are required to carry out the State