10 minutes
What competitive integrated employment means Learn the definition, the settings it excludes, and why the distinction matters more than it looks.
What you’ll be able to do Define competitive integrated employment by its three tests and apply them to distinguish it from sheltered, enclave and volunteer arrangements. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is the accurate description? Document a next step for What competitive integrated employment means: For one person you support who works, check the three tests against their actual job. Three tests, and why they exist Competitive integrated employment is a defined term with three parts. The person is paid at least the minimum wage and at least what others are paid for the same work. The person works in a setting where they interact with coworkers and customers who do not have disabilities, to the same extent as others in that job. And the person has the same opportunities for advancement as others. Each test was written to exclude a specific arrangement that had, for decades, been called work for people with disabilities: the sheltered workshop paying pennies an hour, the enclave of people with disabilities working together under program supervision, the unpaid placement that never became a job.
None of those arrangements was necessarily run badly. The point of the definition is that they are not employment in the sense that other adults mean it, and a service system that records them as employment has stopped asking the question.
Competitive integrated employment, or something else? Stocking shelves at a grocery store, hired by the store, paid the same starting wage as other stockers, with a job coach who fades over time.
Choose a category Competitive integrated employment Something else Assembling parts in a facility where all workers have disabilities, paid per piece.
Choose a category Competitive integrated employment Something else Working reception at a dental office two afternoons a week, hired by the practice.
Choose a category Competitive integrated employment Something else Cleaning a building as part of a program crew, supervised by program staff, paid a stipend.
Choose a category Competitive integrated employment Something else An unpaid placement at a bakery arranged by a day program, with no plan for it to become a job.
Choose a category Competitive integrated employment Something else A part-time custodial job at a school, hired by the district, with a customized schedule.
Choose a category Competitive integrated employment Something else Check matches Reset Terms worth keeping straight Employment First
The policy position that competitive integrated employment is the expected outcome for working-age adults with disabilities. Other options are considered after work has been genuinely explored, not instead of it.
Sheltered work
Work in a segregated setting, often paid below minimum wage under a special certificate. Historically common; now widely recognized as an arrangement to move away from.
Enclave or work crew
A group of people with disabilities working together at a business or site under program supervision. In the community, and not integrated in the sense the definition requires.
Supported employment
Competitive integrated employment with ongoing support, such as a job coach, that fades as the person and the workplace adjust. The support is a means to the job, not a separate service.
Record what it is What you can change You control what the plan calls an arrangement. A record that calls a work crew employment ends the conversation about employment for that person.
What to watch for Do not let a well-run program stand in for a job. The program may be good, and it may also be where the expectation of work quietly stopped.
Your next step Review the plans in your area recorded as employed and check the three tests against each.
Carry this forward Competitive integrated employment has three tests: paid at least the same wage as others doing the same work, in a setting where the person works alongside people without disabilities, with the same opportunities for advancement.
Sheltered work, enclaves and unpaid work experience fail at least one of the tests, however well run they are.
Employment First is the policy position that competitive integrated employment is the expected outcome for working-age adults with disabilities, and other options are considered after it, not instead of it.
A sort by setting, a flashcard set on terms, a scenario decision and a knowledge check.
For one person you support who works, check the three tests against their actual job.
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Course overview Next lesson Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
