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Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency outlines services growth, SSA backlog and campus upgrades
Summary
GVRA executive director Chris Wells briefed the committee on workforce, post‑secondary and social security adjudication activity, asking for bond funding to modernize Warm Springs campus and describing a stalled federal SSA adjudication process that contributes to long waits.
Chris Wells, executive director of the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA), summarized the agency’s recent transformations, its role in vocational services and an ongoing backlog in Social Security disability adjudications that affects hospitals, clients and rural providers.
Wells said GVRA serves more than 32,000 people annually through its vocational rehabilitation program and more than 18,000 students via pre‑employment transition services and Inclusive Postsecondary Education (IPSE) partnerships. Wells requested $9.3 million in bond funding to modernize the nearly 90‑year‑old Roosevelt Warm Springs campus and cited ongoing upgrades to a manufacturing plant and the Cave Springs center. On SSA adjudications, Wells said the total process is taking about 390 days in Georgia, with roughly 200 days in a federal backlog and about 95 days for state assignment and adjudication once work begins. He and lawmakers discussed staffing limits tied to federal adjudication rules and the effect on hospitals and rural providers who rely on determinations for discharge and payment decisions.
