Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine the impact of the Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) program on education, employment, earnings, and public benefits receipt outcomes. This profile focuses on the California PROMISE (CaPROMISE) program. The authors investigated similar research questions for other sites, the profiles of which can be found here:
- The study was a randomized controlled trial at the California site. Using participant surveys and administrative data, the authors conducted statistical models to compare the outcomes of the treatment and control group participants five years after randomization.
- The study did not find any significant differences between the CaPROMISE participants and control participants on education, employment, earnings, or public benefits receipt outcomes.
- This study receives a high causal evidence rating. This means we are confident that any estimated effects are attributable to CaPROMISE, and not to other factors. However, the study did not find statistically significant effects.
Intervention Examined
California Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (CaPROMISE)
Features of the Intervention
The Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) was a program jointly created by the U.S. Department of Education, Social Security Administration (SSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Labor to provide supports and services to youth with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits in their transition to adulthood.
The California Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (CaPROMISE) is one of six programs that make up PROMISE. Starting in August 2014, the California Department of Rehabilitation lead the program and contracted 18 local educational agencies and the San Diego State University Interwork Institute to implement CaPROMISE services. The local education agencies provided career services coordinators to provide benefits counseling and financial education services, career exploration and work-based learning experiences, parent training and information, education services, independent living services, self-determination training, and self-advocacy skills. CaPROMISE youth and their families could also be referred to job coaches, job developers, rehabilitation professionals for career exploration and work-based learning, family resource centers for parenting skills and independent living centers for training on independent living. CaPROMISE served youth between the ages of 14 and 16 who had a disability and received SSI benefits.
Features of the Study
The study was a randomized controlled trial that took place in Northern California, Greater Los Angeles, Greater Inland Empire, and the Southern Coastal Region of California. Of the 3,097 eligible youth, 1,548 were randomly assigned to the treatment group and 1,549 were randomly assigned to the control group. The treatment group received CaPROMISE services while the control group received services that were available through their community. CaPROMISE was allowed to nonrandomly assign five youth to the treatment group; however, their data were not included in the analysis. Additionally, siblings of youth who were already enrolled in CaPROMISE were assigned to the same group as their sibling and were withheld from the study analysis. The analytic sample consisted of 810 youth in the treatment group and 795 youth in the control group. The sample was primarily male (67%) with an average age of 15.4 years. The largest proportion of the sample were Hispanic (54%) and had an intellectual or developmental disability (49%). Primary data sources included surveys administered at 18 months and five-years post-randomization to participants, SSA records, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) records, and Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) records. Study authors used statistical models to compare the outcomes of the treatment group and control group members.
Findings
Education and skills gains
- The study did not find a significant difference between the groups in obtaining a GED, high school diploma, or certificate of completion during the study period.
Employment
- The study did not find a significant difference between the groups in paid employment.
Earnings and wages
- The study did not find significant differences between the groups in earnings in the past year or during the 5 years since random assignment.
Public benefits receipt
- The study did not find significant differences between the groups in receipt of SSA payments, total SSA payments in the past year or during the 5 years since random assignment.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The study authors report a less stringent statistical significance level, considering p-values of less than 0.10 to be significant, though it is standard practice to consider statistical significance if the p-value is less than 0.05. Only results that demonstrate a p-value of less than 0.05 are considered statistically significant in this profile.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high because it was based on a well-implemented randomized controlled trial. This means we are confident that any estimated effects are attributable to CaPROMISE, and not to other factors. However, the study did not find statistically significant effects.