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For a large group of employment objectives no adequate training could be secured by the institutional route. A modified apprentice training system directly on the job had to be developed in over 30,000 industrial and business establishments. This, of necessity, was an individualized procedure due to the intensely individualized nature of these facilities and the entire lack of any coordination between them or collective standardization of processes.

The congressional investigation of 1920 brought out the principal causes for previous weakness and the passage of the second act paved the way for a needed reorganization and consolidation of services. Under this act rehabilitation passed the peak of inductions into training and was enabled to pause fong enough to provide adequate policies and procedure for the future. It was largely a period of correction and adjustment by supervision, centralized at first, but progressively decentralized as field personnel increased in numbers and became capable of assuming fuller responsibility.

On the technical side of rehabilitation the outstanding accomplishment of this period was the crystalization of a policy for the individual training program, under which each trainee progressed by constant and measurable steps toward a condition of employability in the occupational objective prescribed for him. An added method of training in agriculture was developed as the foundation of an occupational reestablishment through direct and individual instruction on approximately 6,500 farm properties owned or leased by trainees. This project training is not only proving of inestimable value as a means of rehabilitation, but in many States is revolutionizing ideas in agricultural training and extension service.

The problems, development, and progress of the work during these periods have been discussed in detail in preceding reports and need not be rediscussed here. A particularly valuable sketch of its early development and the delimiting factors is contained in the Fourth Annual Report of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, 1920, page 261, et seq. Reference to the tables appended to the present report will show statistically the problems that confronted the board and the bureau through the staggering growth of the service in its early days.

The period under the third act opens with the close of the period covered by this report. Primarily it will be a period of rehabilitation and moderate adjustment to provide for a completion of the services contemplated in the rehabilitation act and liberalized in the subsequent acts prior to and in conformity with the date, June 30, 1926, determined in the last act as marking the end of all responsibility for ex-service vocational rehabilitation by the United States. This period will end with the complete demobilization of beneficiaries, facilities, and personnel.

DECENTRALIZATION

This decentralization process has been going on by successive stages from the early days of the work. An outline of the steps by means of which it has been accomplished is not amiss at this point. From the completely centralized control in Washington, which existed in 1919, respecting all action affecting the eligibility of the individual claimant or award of training to him, with the complications resulting from a

divided responsibility for eligibility and payments, the present decentralized organization has developed.

1. Delegation of responsibility for determining eligibility for vocational training to district offices acting through central office representatives (eligibility officers) stationed in the field (December, 1919).

2. Delegation to district offices of responsibility for authorizing training in individual cases in courses not requiring more than two years for completion with a maximum cost of $500 per year per trainee (December, 1919).

3. Delegation to local offices (established August, 1920), of all authority for providing training in courses requiring less than two years for completion with the maximum cost of $500 per year per trainee, the determination of eligibility remaining in the district office.

4. Delegation to district offices of responsibility for authorizing training in courses requiring less than a maximum of four years within a maximum cost of $500 per year per trainee (October, 1920).

5. The consolidation of the disparate agencies concerned in rehabilitation into the United States Veterans' Bureau found the rehabilitation division able to carry its service to disabled veterans without material loss of efficiency in spite of the delays and confusion of authority incident to reorganization. At the time of consolidation complete authority for determining eligibility was delegated to the district offices, the central office representatives (eligibility officers) being eliminated.

6. The last step in decentralization is of very recent date and involves delegation to subdistrict offices of complete responsibility for the award of training (the practical determination of eligibility) and the provision of training without limitation as to duration of courses, but within a maximum cost of $500 per year per trainee, and, finally, delegation of authority to these offices to review their own action and reinduct into training when the evidence proves that rehabilitation was premature (June 21, 1924).

REHABILITATION SURVEY GROUP

In carrying out of this final step there has been created in each regional office a group consisting of three experienced rehabilitation staff members, authorized and empowered to take immediate action on all rehabilitation matters affecting the individual trainee or to provide for changing needs and conditions in accordance with common sense and established bureau policy. The central office retains only such general authority and responsibility in policy matters and in the functions of supervision and coordination as shall insure uniformity of service throughout the United States, and compliance with officially promulgated policy.

The functions of this rehabilitation survey group are:

1. To establish the need for vocational rehabilitation.

2. To control advisement and the preparation of or revision of individual training programs, either on original induction or readvisement.

3. To review all cases considered for termination of training and pass on the evidence for such termination.

4. To review at least quarterly the records of progress of all trainees in the jurisdiction of the subdistrict office and direct the appropriate action in all cases requiring adjustment.

5. To receive complaints regarding the quality or quantity of training and to take any necessary action.

Group action in accordance with the functions outlined above will insure:

1. No delay on new claims.

2. The substitution of a group opinion for individual judgment, heretofore necessarily the basis for rehabilitation action.

3. A closer check on the quality of advisement, training, and progress toward rehabilitation, so that the service may round out in each individual case by June 30, 1926.

4. A close check on the determination of employability in advance of the date of rehabilitation to insure success in employment, thereby minimizing appeals for further training, a time-consuming and costly procedure.

5. To short-circuit complaints at their source and make corrections immediately possible at the point of origin.

Rehabilitation is a field service; responsibility and authority are in the field. Operation under this procedure warrants the statement that the vocational rehabilitation into employment of each eligible claimant will be accomplished with a minimum of readjustment.

GENERAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

The effectiveness of the service rendered by the rehabilitation division is measured by two factors: (1) The number of eligible beneficiaries who, having been entered in training, are returned to adequate civil employment; (2) the creation in the mind of the individual beneficiary of an indefinite something collectively called morale, that enables him with confidence and self-assurance to enter and continue in employment after rehabilitation.

The success or failure of the work is in proportion to the numbers satisfactorily "on the job," with all that the expression implies. The year just closed marks a period of concentrated effort throughout the division and unquestionably sees the passing of the peak of accomplishment. While the peak in establishment of need and induction into training had been previously passed, March, 1922, it remained for the current year to return a greater number to civil employment than will be returned in any corresponding period. It also saw a marked reduction in the numbers appealing for further training after rehabilitation, evidence of an increased quality in training and a higher morale in the trainees.

The outstanding feature of the year's work, therefore, is a marked increase in the quantity and quality of rehabilitations. The second feature is the completion of a decentralization of all activities having to do with the actual performance of the service of vocational rehabilitation. A third accomplishment is an adequate preparation for the complete demobilization of the work. For one of the very few times in its history, the bureau is in a position to foresee its problem and to provide policies for accomplishment before the problem becomes a delimiting complication.

STATISTICAL SURVEY OF ACCOMPLISHMENT, REHABILITATION DIVISION, FISCAL YEAR 1923-24

The work of the bureau in handling individual rehabilitation cases is separated under three main heads:

1. Application, eligibility, and preregistration.

2. Pending induction (sec. 400 and sec. 402).

3. In training (sec. 400 and sec. 402).

This section of the annual report of rehabilitation activities will recount the accomplishment of the division under these three heads.

APPLICATIONS, ELIGIBILITY RATINGS, AND PREREGISTRATION

The claims and medical rating groups have been responsible for preliminary action on applications for vocational training, including the establishment of honorable discharge on and after April 7, 1917,

disability, service origin of disability, and compensability. The claims and medical rating boards, subsequent to June 6, 1924, have been responsible for determining the legality of all claims for a tentative rating of eligibility under sections 400 and 402 of the World War veterans' act, 1924, corresponding, respectively, to sections 2 and 3 of the vocational rehabilitation act previously in effect. Favorable action by the claims and medical rating boards in awarding compensation establishes tentative eligibility for vocational training under either sections 400 or 402 of the present act. The need for vocational rehabilitation, when the legality of a claim has been determined, may be established in the absence of a compensation award, provided there is a need for vocational rehabilitation to overcome the handicap of a service incurred or aggravated disability to enable the claimant to enter into or resume a suitable or gainful occupation.

Following the action by the claims and medical rating boards, those cases meeting the preliminary legal requirements are acted upon by the rehabilitation division with respect to the need for vocational rehabilitation. The award of training is based on the legal provisions of the act other than those established by the claims and medical rating boards. Cases tentatively eligible and found to be in need of vocational rehabilitation to overcome the handicap of service-connected disability are awarded training with maintenance and support allowance; and those cases found to be not in need of vocational rehabilitation, but who are compensable, are granted training without maintenance and support allowance, being entitled only to the cost of instruction. This determination and consequent initiation of the process leading to the prescription of a course of training and induction therein is termed "registration."

Registration activities are placed under the control of a registration subdivision of the rehabilitation division. The registration subdivision is responsible for:

1. Developing and standardizing procedure in the determination of need for training and termination of registration.

2. Planning, directing, and evaluating registration procedure.

3. Directing the preparation of appeal cases for further training or original awards of training.

The following table shows the number of cases rated eligible under section 400 (sec. 2) and section 402 (sec. 3), rated ineligible and pending eligiblity as of July 1, of successive years:

Condition report showing number of cases rated eligible, section 400 (sec. 2) and section 402 (sec. 3), rated ineligible, and pending eligibility as of July 1 of successive years

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1 Reduction due to correction of previous errors in reporting the ineligible status.

? Total rated eligible, 7,994, not separated by sections.

Excluding deceased before assignment, amounting July 1, 1924, to 1,608 cases.

Summary of work on rating applications for vocational training during successive

fiscal years

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1 Statistical losses of over 38,000 cases previously reported as ineligible, to correct past error; actual number requiring determination of eligibility in excess of 20,000.

Total rated eligible during period, 7,994, not separated by sections.

It will be noted that 18.1 per cent of the cases registered during the fiscal year 1924 were registered under section 400 as compared with 71.2 per cent in the previous year.

It will be noted that there has been a material decrease in the pending registration load as of June 30, 1924. The number pending registration includes those current cases being acted on in connection with the determination of need for vocational rehabilitation. During the fiscal year 1924 authority was extended to the districts, upon establishment of a need for training, to register the tentative eligibility cases and to assign them to subdistrict offices without the clearance of feasibility for training. This has made possible earlier action with respect to the induction of these men in training and has materially reduced the amount of work involved between the action of the claims and medical rating groups in establishing tentative eligibility and the registration and assignment by the rehabilitation division of cases under section 400 or 402 of the act.

In addition to the extension of the last date for filing applications, the World War veterans' act, 1924, has provided for an extension of time for the connection of certain disabilities (neuropsychiatric and tubercular) with service and this will add a number of eligible cases. Benefit of the doubt in questionable cases is always given to the claimant in order that no injustice may be done in any instance. The constant follow-up of informal correspondence is made in order that every person who has intended such correspondence to be an application for the benefits of vocational rehabilitation shall be given due consideration.

REGISTRATION

(Award of training under sections 400 and 402 of the act)

The determination of the right of the claimant to training is a most important factor, not only to the individual but to the bureau, since the extension of benefits of rehabilitation are predicated on such

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