Youth Transition Exploration Demonstration (YTED)
Objective
The Social Security Administration is conducting the Youth Transition Exploration Demonstration (YTED) in partnership with Mathematica, the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR), and the Center for Transition and Career Innovation at the University of Maryland (CTCI). Mathematica will develop and conduct YTED and lead evaluation activities. OVR will implement the YTED intervention in the greater Philadelphia area with assistance from CTCI.
The goals of YTED are to (1) test whether intensive employment training services—like Job Corps and Year Up—improve employment and other outcomes for youth with disabilities who are transitioning to adulthood and (2) strengthen cooperation and coordination among organizations that serve youth with disabilities.
OVR will enroll 700 youth with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 24 from Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties into YTED. Participation in YTED is voluntary, and enrollees will need to provide informed consent, including consent from a parent or legal guardian if the enrollee is younger than age 18 or has a legal guardian. More information about signing up is available on our YTED participant page.
Enrollees will be randomly assigned with equal probability to either the standard services group or the YTED services group. Enrollees in the standard services group will receive information about how to open a case with OVR and will continue to be eligible for OVR services. Enrollees in the YTED services group will open a case with OVR and be assigned to a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor with specialized YTED training, who will provide referrals to intensive job training programs and other services to support enrollees’ employment goals.
Status
We began planning activities for YTED in January 2023. Enrollment began in January 2025 and will continue for two years. YTED is currently scheduled to end in December 2027 but may be extended to allow sufficient time for the evaluation.
The YTED evaluation is a mixed-methods demonstration. Both qualitative data, such as in-depth interviews, and quantitative data, such as follow-up surveys, earnings information, and program records, will be collected and analyzed. The evaluation will contain several components:
- Implementation analysis: This analysis will yield information about the rollout and administration of the intervention. It will inform the impact analysis and understanding of the intervention’s potential for sustainability and replicability in other geographic areas.
- Impact analysis: The impact analysis will rely on the randomized control trial design to generate evidence about the effects of the YTED intervention on several outcomes: (1) employment status and earnings; (2) Supplemental Security Income payment and Social Security Disability Insurance benefit applications and receipt; and (3) job satisfaction, satisfaction with services, and self-reported health and well-being.
- Benefit-cost analysis: This analysis will assess whether the impacts of YTED on enrollee outcomes justify the resources required to produce them.
The final evaluation report is expected at the end of the project.
Not applicable at this time.
Not applicable at this time.