DARS Pre-ETS in Virginia: Free Career Services for IEP Students

What Pre-ETS Is and Who Qualifies

Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) is one of the most underused resources available to Virginia students with disabilities — partly because families don't know it exists, and partly because the name makes it sound like another bureaucratic process.

It's not. Pre-ETS is a federally funded program administered by the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) that provides free career exploration and work-readiness training to students with documented disabilities. The eligibility bar is remarkably low: the student needs to be between ages 14 and 21, enrolled in a recognized education program, and have a documented disability — an IEP, a 504 plan, or a medical diagnosis all qualify.

The part that surprises most families: Pre-ETS does not require a formal vocational rehabilitation application or eligibility determination. It's a standalone service tier, funded through a mandatory 15% reserve of Virginia's federal VR grant under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

The Five Core Service Areas

Pre-ETS covers five specific domains, each designed to build the work-readiness skills that IEP transition goals are supposed to address:

Job Exploration Counseling: Understanding different career paths, labor market information, and how the student's interests and abilities map to real employment options. This goes beyond the career-interest surveys that schools sometimes use — it involves direct counseling from a DARS transition specialist.

Work-Based Learning Experiences: Structured opportunities to experience real workplaces — job shadowing, internships, apprenticeships, and short-term work experiences. These are coordinated with employers and supervised to match the student's functional level.

Counseling on Postsecondary Programs: Guidance on community college disability services, vocational training programs, certificate programs, and the documentation required to access accommodations at the postsecondary level. This is where students learn that college disability services operate under Section 504 and the ADA — not IDEA — and that they'll need to self-advocate rather than rely on an IEP team.

Workplace Readiness Training: Practical skills including communication, time management, financial literacy, and workplace social norms. For students with social or executive-function challenges, this domain often addresses the gap between academic performance and on-the-job functioning.

Self-Advocacy Instruction: Teaching students to understand their own disability, articulate their accommodation needs, and navigate systems independently. This directly supports the transfer of educational rights at age 18.

How to Get Started

To initiate Pre-ETS, a signed Pre-ETS Information Release and Consent Form must be submitted to the local DARS counselor. Your child's school transition coordinator should know the assigned DARS counselor for the district — if they don't, contact the nearest DARS field office directly.

The ideal time to start is around age 14 or 15, when transition planning first enters the IEP. Under Virginia regulation 22VAC30-20-120, a DARS or DBVI representative is legally required to attend a student's IEP transition meeting if invited by the school division. Ask the IEP team to send that invitation — it gets the DARS counselor into the planning process early.

Pre-ETS vs. Full Vocational Rehabilitation

Pre-ETS is the entry point; full Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) is the next step. VR requires a formal application, medical or psychological documentation, and an eligibility determination. Once eligible, the student and DARS counselor develop an Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) with specific vocational goals and funded supports like job coaching, specialized training, and adaptive equipment.

The optimal sequence: start Pre-ETS at 14–15, initiate the formal VR application in 11th grade, and have the IPE in place before graduation so there's no service gap at exit. Pre-ETS builds the foundation; VR provides the individualized employment pathway.

Currently, DARS has all Order of Selection categories open — meaning there is no active waiting list for eligible VR applicants in Virginia.

The Virginia IEP Transition to Adulthood Guide maps the Pre-ETS-to-VR timeline alongside the school division's transition milestones, so you can see exactly when each referral should happen and how it connects to the IEP.

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