TITLE 49 SOCIAL SERVICES

Section 9. Transfer of Division of Rehabilitation Services to Department of Labor, 49-9-1 through 49-9-53.

ARTICLE 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS

49-9-1. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, the term or terms:

1. "Agency" means the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency created pursuant to Code Section 49-9-4.
2. "Blind person" means a person who has:
   1. Not more than 20/200 central visual acuity in the better eye after correction; or
   2. An equally disabling loss of the visual field.
3. "Board" means the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Services Board created pursuant to Code Section 49-9-2.
4. "Director" means the agency executive director appointed pursuant to Code Section 49-9-3.
5. "Disability to employment" means a physical or mental condition which constitutes, contributes to, or, if not corrected, will probably result in an impairment of occupational performance.
6. "Occupational license" means any license, permit, or other written authority required by any governmental unit to be obtained in order to engage in an occupation.
7. "Person with disabilities" means an individual having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities.
8. "Prosthetic appliance" means any artificial device necessary to support or take the place of a part of the body or to increase the acuity of a sense organ.
9. "Regulations" means regulations made by the director with the approval of the board and promulgated in the manner prescribed by law.
10. "Rehabilitation center" means a facility operated for the purpose of assisting in the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities which provides one or more of the following types of services:
    1. Testing, fitting, or training in the use of prosthetic devices;
    2. Prevocational or conditioning therapy;
    3. Physical, corrective, or occupational therapy; or
    4. Adjustment training or evaluation or control of special disabilities; or a facility in which a coordinated approach is made to the physical, mental, and vocational evaluation of persons with disabilities and an integrated program of physical restoration and relating training is provided under competent professional supervision and direction.
11. "Rehabilitation training" means all necessary training provided to a person with disabilities to compensate for his or her disability to employment, including, but not limited to, manual preconditioning, relating, vocational, and supplementary training and training provided for the purpose of developing occupational skills and capacities.
12. "Vocational rehabilitation" and "vocational rehabilitation services" mean any service, provided directly or through public or private instrumentalities, found by the director to be necessary to compensate a person with disabilities for his or her disability to employment and to enable such individual to engage in a remunerative occupation.
13. "Workshop" means a place where any manufacture or handwork is carried on and which is operated for the primary purpose of providing rehabilitative activities, including the use of monetary rewards as an incentive practice for persons with disabilities unable to engage in the competitive labor market. Persons receiving services in workshops shall not be considered as employees of the state for workers' compensation or any other purposes.

(Code 1981, §34-15-1, enacted by Ga. L. 2000, p. 1137, § 1; Code 1981, §49-9-1, as redesignated by Ga. L. 2012, p. 303, § 1/HB 1146.)

The 2012 amendment, effective July 1, 2012, redesignated former Code Section 34-15-1 as present Code Section 49-9-1; added paragraph (1); redesignated former paragraph (1) as paragraph (2); added paragraph (3); deleted former paragraphs (2) and (3), which read: "(2) 'Commissioner' means the Commissioner of Labor.

"(3) 'Department' means the Department of Labor."; substituted "agency executive director appointed pursuant to Code Section 49-9-3" for "official of the division who is charged with the administration of its functions under this chapter" at the end of paragraph (4); deleted former paragraph (6), which read: "(6) 'Division' means the Division of Rehabilitation Services of the Department of Labor."; redesignated former paragraphs (7) through (14) as present paragraphs (6) through (13), respectively; substituted "director with the approval of the board" for "Commissioner" in paragraph (9); and deleted ", retirement," following "compensation" near the end of the last sentence of paragraph (13).