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Thread Title: voucher award
Created On Saturday January 14, 2006 8:12 AM


U2 freak
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Saturday January 14, 2006 8:12 AM

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Since my DOI is 9/04 I know I'm not eligible for VR and that I will get a voucher based on my PD award. My question is if anyone knows of a vocational school that is willing to accept IW's on a lien basis for the voucher. Is this even a possibility? I figure since I have all this "free time" I may as well do something with it rather than go stir crazy. Am I even allowed to go to school while I'm on TTD or is that a conflict of interest? Meaning that if I'm on TTD, that its just that: Temporary. I need to be ready to report to anything scheduled by the IC, etc. I have done everything there is to do when you're stuck at home "recouperating" and need something constructive and meaningful to occupy my time. I have been told by several Dr.s that I probably will not be going back to my job, while I'm not one to believe what they predict will happen, I am willing to recognize the fact that it may be true. I will fight it tooth and nail, as I have worked hard to get my life where it was pre injury, but I would like to have a plan B as well. It is very hard to face the fact that I might have to take a job that pays half of what I made prevoiusly, and going to school gives me a better chance not to have to do this. I'm just tired of wasting time.

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art
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Saturday January 14, 2006 9:09 AM

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Yes you can attend school while TTD, and while VR isn't my forte', I suspect the lien/voc school plan won't fly.

Rather than going stir crazy why don't you pick-up some books/course related materials for the subject you're interested in and prepare ahead of time? Additionally, doing some volunteer work in an area you're interested in will keep you busy and help develop a network of people who may be useful when/if you need to change careers.

Good Luck

Later...

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gaiassoul1@yahoo.com
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Saturday January 14, 2006 12:25 PM

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I have not yet heard of any one taking the "voucher" on a lien basis, there are just way to many variables for the institutions that are qualified to take it to risk it. The injured worker could sign it away in the settlement, the voucher is not due unti there has been an AWARD of PD. You may end up with no PD, the other risk.

Chances are better that you just leave the voucher out of it. All community colleges offer financial aid and they offer two year vocational certificates that develop into some pretty darn good jobs. Mainstream colleges offer similar programs. After you decide what you want to be when you grow up, then:

1. Apply to schools, preferably public, they are the only ones with resources.

2. Fill out the FAFSA (Free application for federal student aid -- do not be fooled by any website asking for a fee, it is free, find the free website) You need to know which school(s) you want to go to. This is where all colleges and qualified educational institutions start, they won't have a conversation about financial aid without your having this standardized forms done.

2. See what your award is then if necessary, appeal at the school you want to attend classes with --- if your income has plummeted to less then $13,000 for a single person, you qualify for a fee wavier, if your income has changed substantially since the FAFSA numbers they redo your eligibility with proof. Visit the disabled students office, make that appointment as soon as you are accepted because those appointments can be 30 days out. Contact the California Department of Rehabilitation. All of these result in practically a free education and early enrollment.

3. Speak with the EOPS (forget what this stands for but my mom gets her book money granted and could get a public transportation pass every quarter)

Basically, my mom except for paper and pens and her gas money goes to school for free, we found the respiratory therapy field to be sedentary enough and per the US Department of Labor there will be a shortage of respiratory therapists until 2014. The next step was then to see that the average number was over $44K for the United States for starting wage in a hospital with the opportunity to pick up more shifts. In a Hospital setting in CA the money then increases because CA always pays higher.

Going to school while you are TTD has so many advantages, I always encourage it.

-------------------------
Ginger

To know how to say what others only know how to think is what makes men poets or sages; and to dare to say what others only dare to think makes men martyrs or
reformers - or both. Elizabeth Charles

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andyourlittledogtoo
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Saturday January 14, 2006 12:29 PM

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Art's advice is excellent re the networking during volunteer work. The thing is we don't know what your restrictions are, whether your pre-injury job was similar to the activities you must engage in while going to school or volunteering. If you had a job where you had heavy work, say, and your work restrictions while on TTD were to not lift over 50lbs and your employer could not give you modified work, then going to classes that are pretty sedentary would not be beyond those restrictions and TTD would not be an issue. But say your job was at a desk all day, and your restrictions meant you could do very little while recuperating - the school or volunteer activities might be beyond the restrictions and as heavy or even more heavy than if you were working, thus putting your TTD in jeopardy. You see what I mean? So much depends on what you used to do, what your doctor says you can no longer do and for which your employer has no modified work. The last thing you want is for the IC to find out you are doing things beyond your restrictions and for which your employer could have you working again.

If you cross that hurdle intact, then starting with the studying, picking up night school classes perhaps, could be very valuable to you in your future employment search. Studying to get your GED, picking up computer classes if you don't already possess those skills, language classes to assist in becoming bilingual if you're not, whatever career related studies you can pick up there would probably be helpful. Formal training at a college is more money and takes longer to get accepted into but as long as you don't do more than your restrictions permit that's an option too.

The lien situation with a voc school I can't rule out entirely, but I would be very shocked if any would agree to that, especially in light of the fact that any voucher would depend on your PD level and no one knows what that might be yet.

-------------------------
"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin, real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." Alfred D'Souza

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