§ 43-31-30 — Definitions.

For the purposes of this chapter: (1) The term "Agency" means the State Agency of Vocational Rehabilitation. (2) The term "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Vocational Rehabilitation appointed by the Agency. (3) The term "vocational rehabilitation services" means diagnostic and related services (including transportation) incidental to the determination of eligibility for, and the nature and the scope of, services to be provided; training, guidance and placement services for physically handicapped individuals; and, in the case of any such individual found to require financial assistance with respect thereto, after full consideration of his eligibility for any similar benefit by way of pension, compensation, and insurance, any other goods and services necessary to render such individual fit to engage in a remunerative occupation (including remunerative homebound work), including the following physical restoration and other goods and services: (a) Corrective surgery or therapeutic treatment necessary to correct or substantially modify a physical or mental condition which is stable or slowly progressive and constitutes a substantial handicap to employment, but is of such a nature that such correction or modification may reasonably be expected to eliminate or substantially reduce such handicap within a reasonable length of time; (b) Necessary hospitalization in connection with surgery or treatment specified in paragraph (a) of this subsection; (c) Such prosthetic devices as are essential to obtaining or retaining employment; (d) Maintenance shall be furnished only in order to enable an individual to derive the full benefit of other vocational rehabilitation services being provided; (e) Tools, equipment, initial stocks and supplies (including equipment and initial stocks and supplies for vending stands), books and training materials, to any or all of which the State may retain legal title; and (f) Transportation (except where necessary in connection with determination of eligibility or nature and scope of services) and occupational licenses. Such term also includes: (g) The acquisition of vending stands or other equipment and initial stocks and supplies for use by severely handicapped individuals in any type of small business, the operation of which will be improved through management and supervision by the State Agency; and (h) The establishment of public and other nonprofit rehabilitation facilities to provide services for physically handicapped individuals and the establishment of public and other nonprofit workshops for the severely handicapped. (4) The term "physically handicapped individual" means any individual, except an individual qualifying under vocational rehabilitation of the blind, who is under a physical or mental disability which constitutes a substantial handicap to employment, but which is of such a nature that vocational rehabilitation services may reasonably be expected to render him fit to engage in a remunerative occupation, and persons who are severely handicapped and who are of employable age with a physical or mental disability so handicapping as to require that they be institutionalized or have the services of an attendant in order to provide themselves with their daily living requirements. (5) The term "remunerative occupation" includes employment as an employee or self-employed; practice of a profession; homemaking, farm or family work for which payment is in kind rather than in cash; sheltered employment, and home industry or other homebound work of a remunerative nature. (6) The term "rehabilitation facility" means a facility operated for the primary purpose of assisting in the rehabilitation of physically handicapped individuals: (a) Which provides for one or more of the following types of services: (i) testing, fitting, or training in the use of prosthetic devices, (ii) prevocational or conditional therapy, (iii) physical or occupational therapy, (iv) adjustment training or (v) evaluation or control of special disabilities; or (b) Through which is provided an integrated program of medical, psychological, social, and vocational evaluation and services under competent professional supervision; provided, that the major portion of such evaluation and services is furnished within the facility and that all medical and related health services are prescribed by, or are under the formal supervision of, persons licensed to practice medicine or surgery in the State. (7) The term "workshop" means a place where any manufacture or handiwork is carried on and which is operated for the primary purpose of providing remunerative employment to severely handicapped individuals who cannot be readily absorbed in the competitive labor market. (8) The term "nonprofit," when used with respect to a rehabilitation facility or a workshop, means a rehabilitation facility and a workshop, respectively, owned and operated by a corporation or association, no part of the net earnings of which inures, or may lawfully inure, to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual and the income of which is exempt from taxation under SECTION 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. (9) "Establishment of a workshop or rehabilitation facility" means: (a) In the case of a workshop, the expansion, remodeling, or alteration of existing buildings necessary to adapt such buildings to workshop purposes or to increase the employment opportunities in workshops, and the acquisition of initial equipment necessary for new workshops or to increase the employment opportunities in workshops; and (b) In the case of a rehabilitation facility, the expansion, remodeling, or alteration of existing buildings, and initial equipment of such buildings, necessary to adapt such buildings to rehabilitation facility purposes or to increase their effectiveness for such purposes (subject, however, to such limitations as the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare may by regulations prescribe in order to prevent impairment of the objectives of, or duplication of, other Federal laws providing Federal assistance to states in the construction of such facilities) and initial staffing thereof (for a period not exceeding one year). (10) The term "eligible physically handicapped individual," when used with respect to diagnostic and related services, training, guidance and placement, means any physically handicapped person, except a person qualifying under vocational rehabilitation for the blind, whose vocational rehabilitation or self-care rehabilitation is determined feasible by the commissioner, and when used with respect to other vocational rehabilitation services means an individual meeting the above requirement who is also found by the commissioner to require financial assistance with respect thereto, after full consideration of his eligibility for any similar benefit by the way of pension, compensation and insurance. (11) The term "self care rehabilitation services" means such diagnostic, psychological, medical, surgical, physical restoration, guidance, training and related services including equipment and prosthetic appliances and training in their use needed to enable a severely handicapped person to dispense with or largely dispense with the need for institutional care or for the services of an attendant and to achieve, in so far as practicable, the ability for independent living. (12) The term "eligible" or "eligibility" when used in relation to an individual's qualification for vocational rehabilitation services means a certification that (1) a physical or mental disability is present; (2) a substantial handicap to employment exists; and (3) vocational rehabilitation services may reasonably be expected to render the individual fit to engage in a gainful occupation.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 71-272; 1957 (50) 114; 1961 (52) 255; 1971 (57) 752, 884.