The Understory
Transforming What We Face Into How We Flourish
Summer 2026 | Issue 29
From the Couch to a Career: Employment Pathways for Neurodivergent Young Adults in New Mexico
What Belle's story opened. What Alix Dean's work makes possible.
In a recent issue, we introduced you to Belle. Whip-smart, ADHD, highly sensitive to her sensory environment, and without a diploma after years of school that simply did not fit how her mind worked. She tried a job. Then another. Both ended within days, overwhelmed by the demands of being "on" in environments that gave her nothing to hold onto.
We left her at a hard moment: back home, inner critic loud, options feeling impossibly narrow.
Belle has not yet connected to the supports described in this newsletter. But they exist, and they were built for people exactly like her. This issue is a map to where they are.
The information here comes from a conversation with Alix Dean, Statewide Community Inclusion and Employment Lead for the NM Health Care Authority's Developmental Disabilities Supports Division. Before this role, Alix spent six years as a Vocational Rehabilitation officer, giving her a clear view of the full continuum of support available in New Mexico and where families most often get lost.
An important note before we begin
This newsletter is not only about people with developmental disabilities. It is about the broader landscape of employment support available to neurodivergent young adults, including those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other learning differences. Many of these supports do not require a developmental disability diagnosis. The primary door is Vocational Rehabilitation, and it is open to far more people than most families realize.
The Primary Door
Vocational Rehabilitation: Open to More People Than You Think
The New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (NMDVR) is the starting point for most neurodivergent young adults seeking employment support. It exists specifically to help people whose disabilities, including ADHD, autism, dyslexia, anxiety, and learning differences, affect their ability to get or keep a job.
Key things families should know:
•No developmental disability diagnosis required. ADHD, autism, dyslexia, anxiety, and other learning differences qualify. The standard is whether a disability affects your ability to get or keep a job.
•Services are free or low-cost, including job counseling, job coaching, assistive technology, skills training, and help with job placement.
•Students can start at 16 through Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS), available while still enrolled in high school. Pre-ETS includes job exploration, workplace readiness training, and real work-based learning experiences.
•SSI or SSDI recipients are fast-tracked. If your young person receives SSI or SSDI, eligibility determination is expedited.
•The 60-day rule: NMDVR is required by law to make an eligibility decision within 60 days of application. You will not wait indefinitely.
•State internship programs are also available through NMDVR for eligible young people, providing structured, supported work experience with state agencies.
Website: dvr.state.nm.us
Albuquerque office: 111 Lomas Blvd NW, Suite 422, (505) 383-2500
What About Autism Specifically?
For young people with autism who may also qualify for Medicaid-funded supports, but who are not necessarily developmentally disabled in the full clinical sense, the picture is more nuanced. New Mexico's DDSD Autism Programs office works with the broader autism community and some supports may be available depending on level of need and eligibility.
However, the clearest and most accessible path for autistic young adults seeking employment support remains NMDVR, which does not require a developmental disability classification and is specifically designed to help people with autism find competitive, integrated employment. Start there.
The Single Most Important Thing: Don't Wait
One of the most consistent messages from Alix Dean's work is this: families wait too long. The gap between high school graduation and stable employment grows the longer it goes unaddressed. A young person who is out of school, unemployed, and disconnected from supports can lose ground quickly, in confidence, in routine, in the basic habits that employment requires.
Worth a Listen
Dr. Vidya Krishnan, Chief Psychiatrist and Medical Director at Children's Health Council (CHC), speaks on the Voices of Compassion podcast about "launching": the parental role in a child's transition into adulthood. Growing up is a process of moving toward independence, and as Dr. Krishnan notes, it is a bumpier, more meandering path for some than others. The episode offers practical takeaways for supporting your child now, while instilling the confidence they will need to fly.
Listen: "Launching: Transition Age Youth" on the CHC Voices of Compassion podcast. Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Action items, roughly in order of urgency:
•Contact NMDVR now. If your young person is 16 or older and has a documented disability affecting employment, call or visit a NMDVR office. No referral needed. No waiting for graduation.
•Ask about Pre-ETS while still in school. Pre-Employment Transition Services are available to students with disabilities while still enrolled and include workplace readiness, job exploration, and work experience.
•If a waiver may be needed, start that process early. Waitlists for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waivers can be long. Contact the DDSD Pre-Service Intake Bureau while your young person is still in school.
•Join a Community of Practice. These ongoing meetings bring together families, educators, and employment professionals and are a valuable way to learn and build relationships before a crisis hits.
Communities of Practice: Get Connected
Two ongoing communities bring together families, educators, and employment professionals working on school-to-work transition. The final meetings of the 2024-25 school year have just concluded. Get on their lists now for fall.
•School to Work Transition Teams, Statewide Community of Practice through Partners for Employment at UNM's Center for Development and Disability: Partners for Employment•Supported Employment Local Leaders: Registration and upcoming dates
Complete Resource Directory
Employment support, open to neurodivergent young adults without a developmental disability diagnosis:
•NM Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (NMDVR): dvr.state.nm.us - Job counseling, training, assistive technology, job placement, Pre-ETS for students 16 and older, and state internship programs.
•Partners for Employment, School to Work Transition: UNM Center for Development and Disability
For those who may also qualify for Medicaid-funded long-term supports:
•DDSD Pre-Service Intake Bureau: hca.nm.gov/pre-service-intake-bureau - Entry point for HCBS waivers. Start early; waitlists are long.
•DDSD Autism Programs: hca.nm.gov/autism
For navigating the full disability resource landscape:
•NM FINDER, New Mexico's Disability Resource Directory: nmfinder.org - Searchable statewide directory of resources, services, and events.
Outside New Mexico: How to Find Your State's Equivalent
The resources described above are specific to New Mexico, but the underlying systems exist in every state. If you are reading this from Washington, Florida, Texas, or anywhere else, here is how to find what exists where you are.
Step 1: Find Your State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency
Every state has a Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agency funded through a federal-state partnership under the Rehabilitation Act. The name varies: in New Mexico it is NMDVR; in California it is the Department of Rehabilitation; in Ohio it is Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities. The services are broadly similar: job counseling, training, assistive technology, job placement, and Pre-Employment Transition Services for students 16 and older.
The fastest way to find your state's agency is through the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration directory, which lists every state VR agency with contact information:
•RSA State Agency Directory: rsa.ed.gov/about/states - The official federal directory of every state VR agency. Find your state, call the number, and ask about eligibility for neurodivergent young adults and Pre-ETS for students still in school.
Step 2: National Organizations That Can Help Navigate
•APSE (Association of People Supporting Employment First): apse.org - The only national organization focused exclusively on inclusive employment for people with disabilities. Has chapters in 38 states. Their resources page includes a searchable database of Employment Networks, VR agencies, and work incentive programs by state and zip code. If you are not sure where to start in your state, start here.
•Job Accommodation Network (JAN): askjan.org - Free, confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability employment issues, available to job seekers and employers nationwide. Spanish-language support available.
•PACER's National Parent Center on Transition and Employment: pacer.org/transition - Educates parents on the transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities, including how to find employment supports and understand disability rights in every state.
•Disability Belongs (formerly AAPD): disabilitybelongs.org - Clear, accessible overview of how the VR system works nationally, including how Pre-ETS works and how to find your state's agency.
Step 3: For Long-Term Medicaid-Funded Supports
If your young person may qualify for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waivers, every state administers these differently through its Medicaid agency. The entry point varies by state but the principle is the same: contact your state's developmental disabilities or Medicaid agency, ask about HCBS waivers for employment support, and start the process early. Waitlists exist in most states. The sooner you are on one, the sooner you are in line. Search "[your state] Medicaid HCBS waiver developmental disabilities" to find your state's entry point.
Belle is not lazy. She is not incapable. She is someone who needs the right conditions, and those conditions, it turns out, have names and addresses and phone numbers. The supports described in this newsletter are real, largely underused, and waiting.
Share this with a family who is navigating these questions. Share it with an educator who works with young people approaching graduation. The sooner families know these resources exist, the sooner young people can access them.
This Summer
Beyond Behavior: The Regulation Roadmap
The subject of this newsletter, what happens when school doesn't work and what comes next, is exactly why Beyond Behavior: The Regulation Roadmap exists. For parents of neurodivergent young people at every age and stage. Because the need to regulate our own nervous systems, to hold the worry and the uncertainty without being consumed by it, does not stop when our children turn eighteen. If anything, it gets harder.
The course brings together Mindful Self-Compassion, Polyvagal Theory, and Internal Family Systems: three frameworks that change what becomes possible.
Join the Waitlist
Coming up next: Is your child highly sensitive? Neurodivergent? Both? Neither? The overlap between these two ways of being in the world is real, the distinctions matter, and understanding them changes what becomes possible as a parent. That is the subject of our next issue.
Ready to shift from surviving to thriving? Sign up for an exploratory consultation and join a community of parents finding the way through confusion together with clarity and communal compassion.
With compassion, Janine
