Employment Outcome Tracking
A closure counted as successful can still leave a beneficiary worse off if the placement lands in the wrong relationship to the substantial gainful activity threshold. Counting competitive integrated employment and reading earnings against benefits rules are the same task, done together or not usefully at all.
The measurement problem
WIOA made competitive integrated employment the outcome the VR program aims at. The definition has three parts that all have to hold, and each one is a separate test. Compensation must be at or above minimum wage and not less than the customary rate paid to workers without disabilities doing similar work. The setting must be one where the employee interacts with people without disabilities to the same extent as employees in comparable positions. Opportunity for advancement must be comparable as well 34 CFR 361.5(c)(9).
Earnings carry a second consequence the closure record does not capture. For a beneficiary receiving SSDI, countable earnings above the substantial gainful activity level can end the benefit after the trial work period, and in 2026 the non-blind SGA amount is $1,620 per month SSA, SGA amounts. A placement at 20 hours a week can sit just under it while a placement at 28 hours crosses it, and the counselor is often the only person in a position to see that before it happens. The model below computes both readings at once.
Enter the closure counts and the terms of a representative placement. The model returns the competitive integrated employment rate, annualized earnings, the position of those earnings relative to the 2026 SGA threshold, and the point at which a beneficiary crosses it.