The Joint Technology Committee on a unanimous vote recommended approval of a supplemental spending-authority request from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) to continue development of a modernized case-management system intended to improve access and reporting for people with disabilities.

DVR Assistant Director of Administration Augusta Klimick told the committee the modernization effort is designed to create accessible self-service portals and a person-centered system that meets federal reporting requirements and state accessibility and security standards. Klimick said the project is being developed on the Salesforce platform and that the team has completed five of seven planned development sprints and a gap analysis is underway.

Klimick said DVR is primarily federally funded (78.7 percent federal funding with a 21.3 percent nonfederal match) and emphasized the project’s focus on accessibility testing, security and data-migration integrity. Business technology manager Mark Sanner said pre-UAT testing with staff is complete and the agency is lining up vendors and external users for portal testing, including JAWS users and WCAG 2.2 accessibility testing.

Representative Pascoe asked whether the committee was being asked for time or money; Klimick said this request was a technical correction to spending authority in the long bill for state fiscal year 2025 rather than new funding. Klimick said the funds themselves are federal and reappropriated dollars already in the agency’s possession; the request restores spending authority that expired in the long bill.

Senator Rodriguez and other committee members asked about user testing and the variety of roles and permissions involved in acceptance testing; DVR staff confirmed they are including multiple permission sets, staff roles and external vendors in testing plans. Klimick said the team has migrated and mapped roughly 88% of data fields and completed a proof-of-concept migration test while reviewing error handling and anomalies.

Committee conversation also noted project governance: Klimick said DVR is closely monitoring budget and schedule and will finalize a change enablement plan and interface management as they approach final development steps. The committee allowed an option to vote on supplemental items individually; Senator Marchman moved to approve the supplemental request, the motion was seconded, and the roll call recorded unanimous approval.

The committee requested updates as DVR completes the gap analysis and moves into final user testing and migration steps.