The " RCEP" in RCEP stands for Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program. Each of the 10 regions established by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) has an RCEP (pronounced "ARE-sep") to provide continuing education services to the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) counselors and agencies in that region. These RCEPs are funded by RSA as part of its support for state VR agencies. The RCEP is located at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO, and serves the states of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. We provide in-person training on the latest techniques in VR, refresher courses on aspects of disabilities and rehabilitation services, and support materials for others conducting similar trainings. We also host conferences on VR topics and administer a variety of other grant-funded service projects related to VR.
Administratively, RCEP is located within the Disability Policy and Studies Group in the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri (see links below). Our office is off-campus at 98 Corporate Lake Drive, located off of South Providence Road, just beyond Rock Bridge High School.
Rehabilitation, as used here, is short for Vocational Rehabilitation and it does NOT specifically involve treatment for drug or alcohol dependency. Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) is about jobs. It is the federal and state system of agencies that help people with significant disabilities find and keep jobs - specifically career-oriented jobs that will allow them to live as independently as possible in their local community. Although it is little known outside of the disability community, VR is a large and politically popular program with a history reaching back to 1920. It is estimated that the combined federal, state, and private budgets devoted to VR total around thirty billion dollars. Each state has its own VR agency, frequently housed somewhere in the labor, education, or welfare departments. These agencies, in turn, have branch offices throughout the state, each staffed with trained and licensed VR counselors. Taken together, the system of public rehabilitation agencies each year helps around 800,000 new people with disabilities live independently and find jobs.
Individuals apply to local VR offices for services if they have a significant disability that is limiting the person's ability to find or keep a job. A VR counselor will then determine if the person is eligible (through documentation of the disability by medical professionals). Following a determination of eligibility, the VR counselor will help the individual (or "client") decide upon an appropriate career goal and the steps needed for them to reach that goal. VR funds are then provided to help them proceed through those steps. This may include paying for education, assistive devices, training on specific tasks, or specialized job coaches to help the person adjust to the work environment. Once the person has been employed for a period of time, VR services are either stopped or transferred to a different agency. Past experience has consistently shown that paying for these services up front through VR allows individuals with disabilities to become more financially independent, saving tax payers money in the end.
RSA is the Rehabilitation Services Administration with the US Department of Education, and it is the agency of the Federal Government that oversees the states' VR services. RSA distributes matching funds to the states to help provide VR services, but it does not directly provide VR services to individuals and it does not directly supervise the state agencies. Instead, RSA considers itself an advisor to the states on how to adequately meet the requirements and expectations of Congress as expressed in the Rehabilitation Act. Administratively, RSA divides the country into 10 regions and each region has an RCEP office (sometimes called RRCEP for Regional Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program).
Although the names are similar, CRP-RCEPs and RCEPs are distinctly different programs. CRP-RCEP stands for Community Rehabilitation Program - Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program. While RCEP offices provide training services to state VR agencies, CRP-RCEP offices provide those services to rehabilitation provider agencies. For example, a local VR agency office may pay for clients to take job readiness training at a local rehabilitation center or for clients to get services from an independent living center. The rehabilitation center and the independent living center are not part of the VR agency, but they are part of the rehabilitation system. CRP-RCEPs provide training services to the staff of those types of agencies. This can include residential facilities, supported employment facilities, independent living centers, rehabilitation centers, and other organizations. The organizations may be private or publicly owned. Each of the 10 RSA regions has a CRP-RCEP program in addition to its RCEP program, and in some cases they are combined into one project. In Region 7 the RCEP and CRP-RCEP offices are different entities but share the same office and director.
RRTC stands for Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. These centers, scattered across the US, are funded by the National Institute on Disability and Disability Research (NIDRR, pronounced "NY-der") in the US Department of Education to do research on topics involving individuals with disabilities. Like RCEPs, RRTCs conduct workshops and disseminate information but the topics are limited to the research focus of that particular RRTC. Unlike RCEPs, RRTC offices provide those services to both individuals and agencies, and they do not have any formal relationship with the state VR agencies in their RSA region. For example, there is an RRTC in Florida researching issues of children's mental health (rtckids.fmhi.usf.edu) that will provide information to anyone anywhere in the country, but only on those issues. In contrast, the Region 4 RCEP (that covers Florida) will provide information and workshops on any VR topic, but only for Region 4 state VR agencies and staff. There are RRTCs focused on community integration of individuals with spinal cord injuries, on the economics of employing people with disabilities, on arthritis, on disability issues in rural communities, and a host of other topics.