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

49-9-4. Creation of Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency; function.

1. 1. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency is created and established to perform the functions and assume the duties, powers, and authority exercised on June 30, 2012, by the Division of Rehabilitation Services within the Department of Labor including the disability adjudication section, and such division shall be reconstituted as the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency effective July 1, 2012.
   2. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall be assigned to the Department of Human Services for administrative purposes only, as prescribed in Code Section 50-4-3.
   3. On and after July 1, 2012, the powers, functions, duties, programs, institutions, and authority of the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency relating to the former Division of Rehabilitation Services within the Department of Labor shall be performed and exercised by the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency pursuant to this article. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall take all necessary steps to ensure continuity of services for the vocational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities during such transfer.
2. The agency shall be administered by a director appointed pursuant to Code Section 49-9-3. The policy-making functions which were vested in the Department of Labor pertaining to the Division of Rehabilitation Services are vested in the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency effective July 1, 2012.
3. Any proceedings or other matters pending before the Division of Rehabilitation Services of the Department of Labor on June 30, 2012, which relate to the functions transferred to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall be transferred to the agency on July 1, 2012.
4. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall, from July 1, 2012, assume possession and control of all records, papers, equipment, supplies, office space, and all other tangible property possessed and controlled by the Department of Labor as of June 30, 2012, in the Department of Labor's administration of the Division of Rehabilitation Services. All funds attributable to the Division of Rehabilitation Services and its programs and institutions from state, federal, and any other public or private source shall be transferred to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency on July 1, 2012.
5. On July 1, 2012, the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall receive custody of any state owned real property in the custody of the Department of Labor on June 30, 2012, which pertains to the functions transferred from the Division of Rehabilitation Services to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency.
6. Prior to July 1, 2012, the Office of Planning and Budget shall calculate, in consultation with the Department of Labor, the amount of all funds of or attributable to the Division of Rehabilitation Services and its programs and institutions from any source that are used to provide administrative or other services within the Department of Labor, including funds from the disability adjudication section, the cost allocation system, and any indirect costs funding from the federal government or any other source. The amount calculated shall be transferred to the agency on July 1, 2012.
7. All officers, employees, and agents of the Division of Rehabilitation Services who, on June 30, 2012, are engaged in the performance of a function or duty which shall be vested in the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency on July 1, 2012, by this chapter, shall be automatically transferred to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency on July 1, 2012. An equivalent number of positions or funds of the Department of Labor which provide administrative support to the Division of Rehabilitation Services shall be transferred to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency on July 1, 2012. Such persons shall be subject to the employment practices and policies of the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency on and after July 1, 2012, but consistent with the compensation and benefits of other employees of that department holding positions substantially the same as the transferred employees; the compensation and benefits of such transferred employees shall not be reduced. Employees who are subject to the rules of the State Personnel Board and who are transferred to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall retain all existing rights under such rules. Accrued annual and sick leave shall be retained by said employees as employees of the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency. The Department of Labor shall be responsible for payment of the accrued Fair Labor Standards Act compensatory time possessed by said employees. Such accrued compensatory time shall be used by or paid to said employees prior to July 1, 2012.
8. 1. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency is the designated state unit for the vocational rehabilitation program.
   2. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall conform to federal standards in all respects necessary for receiving federal grants and the director of the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency is authorized and empowered to effect such changes as may, from time to time, be necessary in order to comply with such standards.
   3. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall take all necessary steps to secure at a minimum the same level of benefits provided pursuant to relevant federal statutes and appropriations received by the Division of Rehabilitation Services of the Department of Labor prior to June 30, 2012. The department shall also amend the state plan if necessary to meet federal funding requirements.
   4. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency is authorized to employ, on a full or part-time basis, such medical, psychiatric, social work, supervisory, institutional, and other professional personnel and such clerical and other employees as may be necessary to discharge the duties of the agency under this chapter. The agency is also authorized to contract for such professional services as may be necessary.
   5. Classified employees of the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency under this chapter shall in all instances be employed and dismissed in accordance with rules and regulations of the State Personnel Board.
9. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall succeed to all rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and administrative orders of the Department of Labor which are in effect on June 30, 2012, and which relate to the functions of the Division of Rehabilitation Services. Such rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and administrative orders shall remain in effect until amended, repealed, superseded, or nullified by proper authority or as otherwise provided by law.
10. The rights, privileges, entitlements, and duties of parties to contracts, leases, agreements, and other transactions entered into before July 1, 2012, by the Department of Labor or the Division of Rehabilitation Services pertaining to the Division of Rehabilitation Services transferred to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency by this chapter shall continue to exist; and none of these rights, privileges, entitlements, obligations, and duties are impaired or diminished by reason of the transfer of the functions to the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency. In all such instances, the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall be substituted for the Department of Labor or the Division of Rehabilitation Services, and the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall succeed to the rights, privileges, entitlements, and duties under such contracts, leases, agreements, and other transactions.
11. The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency shall conform all service delivery regions to the state service delivery regions provided in subsection (a) of Code Section 50-4-7.
12. The duties, powers, and authority to manage and operate the long-term acute care and the inpatient rehabilitation hospitals at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation shall be transferred to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia effective July 1, 2015, and the remaining duties, powers, and authority to manage and operate the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation shall remain vested with the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency.

(Code 1981, §34-15-2, enacted by Ga. L. 2000, p. 1137, § 1; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 2-17/HB 228; Ga. L. 2009, p. 745, § 2/SB 97; Code 1981, §49-9-4, as redesignated by Ga. L. 2012, p. 303, § 1/HB 1146; Ga. L. 2012, p. 446, § 2-45/HB 642; Ga. L. 2013, p. 141, § 49/HB 79; Ga. L. 2015, p. 890, § 12/HB 263.)

The 2012 amendments. The first 2012 amendment, effective July 1, 2012, redesignated former Code Section 34-15-2 as present Code Section 49-9-4, and rewrote this Code section. The second 2012 amendment, effective July 1, 2012, in the fourth sentence of subsection (d) (now subsection (g)), substituted "rules of the State Personnel Board" for "State Personnel Administration", and substituted "such rules" for "the State Personnel Administration"; and substituted "State Personnel Board" for "State Personnel Administration" at the end of paragraph (e)(4) (now paragraph (h)(5)).

The 2013 amendment, effective April 24, 2013, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation in subsections (d) and (g).

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, deleted "and the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation" following "disability adjudication section" in paragraph (a)(1); and added subsection (l).