pcake

UPDATE I had an appointment with my counselor last week. An intern was allowed to be present during the meeting. My real counselor actually turned out to be very considerate and understanding. We set up another meeting in 2 weeks and she told me not to worry about being accepted to the program. She said she would take care it and overturn the decision made by the previous counselor since she is the head counselor that makes the final decisions. She mentioned that many counselors fail to take into consider one of the basic principles of the program - to meet the veterans skills, interests, and aptitudes. She informed me that nearly all of the new counselors are being trained simply to put disabled veterans into the first job they can find. She told me that she has sent several veterans to law school - one of whom she found employment for and then sent him to law school as well. The intern, however, spent the entire time trying to refute everything my counselor was saying. She kept bringing up the fact that I have a bachelors degree and should have no problem finding work without the program. This intern spent the entire one-hour meeting trying to find every reason possible to deny me to the program. She seemed to have an obvious bias for some reason. I was surprised to hear my counselor actually defend me and tell her that placing me in the first job they could find would be below my skills, interests, and aptitude. Needless to say I requested that the intern not be present in any future meeting because she obviously does not have my best interest in mind. However, it is a little suspicious that they seem to be dragging this on. Every time I mentioned that I was going to appeal they told me I had every right to, but then told me just to reapply instead, and now I still don't know what is going on or what to do really. I hope my counselor is being honest because she really did sound sincere in the face-to-face meeting, but I am still skeptical. I just hope this isn't wasting time when I should be appealing.

UPDATE When I first spoke with the supervisor at the Voc Rehab office, he told me just to reapply to the program instead of appealing. That's exactly what I did. However, I just received a letter from my counselor saying that I did not need to reapply and she is scheduling an appointment to discuss the decision that another counselor made regarding the denial of Voc Rehab. I filled out a request for an administrative review, but the person in charge of handling this process is conveniently on leave and there appears to be no one else handling this while he is out. I sent a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of my complete and entire file from Voc Rehab and received and update saying my request has been redirected to the privacy officer at the Oakland regional office. I have left voicemails but he still has not returned my calls. I mailed a signed release of information to the office hoping they will send me my file. All of my requests to my counselor, the other counselor I spoke with, and the supervisor have all gone completely ignored. I took me walking into the office to even get them to give me a printout on how to send a FOIA request. In the mean time, I went and got a letter from my personal therapist saying my service-connected disabilities continue to hinder my ability to find/secure employment despite having completed a bachelors degree, and I have a letter from my VA psychiatrist saying the exact same thing pretty much. At this point, I don't trust my counselor enough to send these letters to her. I'm planning on going to my appointment with her on July 30 and seeing what happens. If she won't accept me to the program, I'm going to appeal and attach the letters with my appeal. I feel like this Voc Rehab office in Sacramento CA is making me jump through hoops and giving me a lot of misinformation. I'll keep everyone updated as to what happens.

Update I walked into my local VR&E office to try and get a sit down with any counselor. I was not able to see anyone. I asked for a copy of my complete file from VR&E. An intern told me I was not allowed to see my file. The counselor I had spoken with during my initial orientation came to the front and gave me a print on how to file a Freedom of Information Request. I emailed and left a voicemail for my counselor and finally heard back from her today, a week later. She told me she was glad to hear my request for my file has been handled, which it has not! Does anyone know how to obtain a copy of your file from VR&E? I remember I only needed to sign a release of information to get copies of my medical files. Is it a different process for VR&E?

I finally heard back from my counselor. She emailed me saying that she is still denying me to the program and the decision "was not taken lightly." Based on my ability to earn a bachelors degree, they therefore concluded that I have overcome my disabilities and I do not pose any obstacles finding employment, although I've applied to literally hundreds of jobs with no success and I have plenty of rejection letters and emails from potential employers. Is this normal or did I catch someone on a bad day? I wanted to add also that I spoke with a counselor very briefly and as soon as she found out I had a bachelors degree, she told me in the meeting that she was going to recommend denying my claim. Very unprofessional in my opinion. She never even asked me about my PTSD (rated at 70%) and how that has been an obstacle for me. She basically told me she was going to deny me then showed me the door as soon as I told about about my degree. I did get ahold of a different counselor who told me just to reapply instead of appealing the decision. So I just reapplied and will be sure to have everything ready next time and hopefully I get a different counselor.

Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it. Yes, I'm trying to get VR to cover law school. I've been talking with a friend who was just approved through VR to go to law school this coming Fall and his counselor accepted him to the program on the first meeting. However, I wasn't so lucky. I was confused they sent me to a different counselor other than the one I was assigned to, I'm not sure why that happened. I've been calling the voc rehab rehab office to try and get another appointment but they keep giving me my counselor's number and telling me to get in contact with her. I've left several voicemails and I've emailed her but she still has not responded. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on any progress. Thanks again!