Missouri manual section 6.26
Prevocational supports
Official service name: Prevocational
Prevocational service helps a person build general skills needed for future competitive integrated employment, such as communication, workplace conduct, safety, problem solving, attendance, mobility, and financial literacy. It is time-limited, outcome-based preparation rather than training for a specific facility job.
What the manual describes
What this service can help with
- Building general work-related communication, social, hygiene, dress, safety, and problem-solving skills
- Practicing attendance, task engagement, mobility, assistive technology, and financial literacy
- Using community-based or lawful work experiences to develop skills tied to a competitive-employment goal
- Identifying measurable skills, action steps, timelines, and progress toward employment
- Preparing for competitive integrated employment without requiring a specific job opening first
Source-backed working pathway
To establish you'll probably need:
These steps translate the cited manual section into a practical review sequence. Confirm the current local process before acting.
Identify the general employment skills to develop.
With the support coordinator and person, select specific, measurable skills that support a future competitive integrated employment goal rather than a particular facility job.
Check Vocational Rehabilitation and education-program responsibilities.
Document whether applicable Vocational Rehabilitation or IDEA-funded services are unavailable, exhausted, inaccessible, or otherwise inapplicable so that waiver service does not duplicate them.
Design community-based, measurable learning activities.
Choose settings, individual or small-group arrangements, lawful experiences, action steps, a timeline, and progress measures that directly build the identified skills. Confirm that any volunteer activity connects to future employment.
Choose a qualified provider and authorize the service.
Confirm the provider's Department of Mental Health certification or accepted accreditation, contract, trained staff, group size, transportation arrangement, authorized units, and wage-and-hour compliance for any work experience.
Measure progress and decide the next employment step.
Review the provider's individualized plan, unit-level activity record, progress data, and timeline. At least annually, decide whether to continue, change, or move to another employment support without treating Prevocational service as a mandatory gate.
Important boundaries
Limits that may affect fit or authorization
- The service must build general employment skills and cannot become task-specific training for a facility-based job or a segregated work setting.
- Prevocational service is not a required prerequisite for Supported Employment.
- The service is nonresidential and cannot be delivered in the person's residence. It should occur in the community to the maximum extent possible or in a qualified facility when appropriate.
- Paid or unpaid work experiences must comply with Department of Labor and Fair Labor Standards Act requirements; the provider is responsible for compliance.
- A group may include no more than four people and must be based on individualized assessed need.
- Applicable Vocational Rehabilitation and IDEA-funded services cannot be duplicated, and volunteering must be connected to the person's future employment goals.
- Personal Care Assistance may support participation but cannot make up the entire service. Transportation used to provide Prevocational service is included in the rate.
- The maximum is 32 fifteen-minute units per day and 2,080 units per annual person-centered service plan. Additional units require advance regional approval.
- Comprehensive and Community Support waivers remain under a temporary renewal extension through December 27, 2026, or until CMS grants final approval. Confirm the currently approved rules with the support coordinator; proposed renewal changes are not automatically active.
Do not assume this part
Questions to confirm locally
- Which general employment skills are being developed, and how do they connect to a competitive job goal?
- Could Vocational Rehabilitation or an education program provide the service, and how is nonduplication documented?
- Will support be individual or in a group of no more than four, and why is that arrangement appropriate?
- Where will activities occur, and are they community-based to the maximum extent possible?
- If a work or volunteer experience is used, how will wage-and-hour compliance and connection to employment goals be documented?
- What units, timeline, progress measures, and decision point are authorized?