Massachusetts Disability Subcommittee Agrees to Pursue Two SEED Partnership Projects

BOSTON — January 26, 2026 — Massachusetts disability employment subcommittee plots model-employer roadmap and youth pipeline with federal partners. The Legislature's Joint Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities Disability Employment Subcommittee met January 26 with Katya Albanese and Dina Klimkina of SEED, the U.S. Department of Labor's State Exchange on Employment and Disability, for a policy briefing that covered seven core areas for expanding disability employment, with examples ranging from Minnesota's employer accommodation fund — which showed 44 percent productivity improvements among participants — to Colorado's Disability Opportunity Office, which generated $20 million in its first year. Co-chairs Jossie Burks-Abbott and Rachel Stanton, along with Commissioner Chris White, president and CEO of Road to Responsibility, agreed to pursue two scoping projects: a Massachusetts-as-model-employer roadmap benchmarked against peer states, and a youth-to-employment pipeline aligned with MassAbility and the Cape Youth framework. Members also pressed SEED on the incoming federal Medicaid work requirements, flagging that people with disabilities could "fall through the cracks" despite statutory exemptions — a concern SEED indicated its Virginia IEP-as-documentation policy example could help address.