Assessing the Relationship Between Client Outcomes, Counselors’ Perceived Importance of Rehabilitation Knowledge, and Counselors’ Educational Level in Florida

The debate on the quality of services has continued since the establishment of related legislation, and more recently, the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA; Sect. 412, 2014). Prior studies revealed that rehabilitation counselors with a master’s degrees achieve significantly better outcomes than their counterparts with bachelor’s degrees and unrelated master’s degrees (Sherman, Eischens, Leierer, Meola, & Scroggs, 2017; Szymanski, 1991; Szymanski & Parker, 1989) and tend to have higher competitive closure rates for severe disabled consumers (Cook & Bolton, 1992; Szymanski & Danek, 1992; Van Houtte, 2013). Additionally, knowledge domains central to effective rehabilitation practices of professionals in state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) agencies and cluster of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) programs (Chan et al., 2003; Saunders & Leahy, 2010) continue to be of interest. Empirical studies recognized the importance of data-driven research in all states and have suggested that future research in this area should include participants from each state VR (Beveridge, Leconte, Shain, Del Toro & Penrod, 2015; Froehlich & Linkowski, 2002). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between successful employment outcomes for Florida (a) significantly, (b) severe, and (c) non-severe disabled consumers. Furthermore, the rehabilitation counselors’ (VRC) perceived importance of rehabilitation knowledge as measured by the Knowledge Validation Inventory-Revised (KVI-R; CRCC, 2016), and the VRC’s educational level. Fifty-eight (N = 58) rehabilitation counselors employed within Florida DVR agencies volunteered to participate in this study. The diverse participants reported having earned a bachelor’s (n = 12, 20.7%), master’s (n = 44, 75.9%), and doctoral (n = 2, 3.4%) degrees. The majority of the counselors obtained their degree in rehabilitation counseling (n = 22, 37.9%), followed by degrees in psychology or other fields (n = 13, 22.4% each), social work (n = 5, 8.6%), education (n = 3, 5.2%), and sociology (n = 2, 3.4%). This was the first study in the state of Florida to explore the correlation between the VRC education and employment outcomes in DVR. Non-statistically significant correlations resulted between the criterion and predictor variables. The relationship between the VRCs education, client outcomes, and perceived importance of rehabilitation knowledge was measured using bivariate regression analysis. The implications of the findings, study limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.