Supporting Statement: Reemployment and System Integration Dislocated Worker Grants

Reemployment and System Integration Dislocated Worker Grants

Supplemental Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the unique information collection requirements in the “Reemployment and System Integration Dislocated Worker Grants,” solicitation. The Department will announce the availability of up to $65 million for Reemployment and System Integration (RSI) Dislocated Worker Grants (RSI-DWGs), with individual awards of up to $1.1 million per State (including Outlying Areas). The purpose of this funding is to support high quality service delivery and improve employment outcomes for dislocated workers (including those who are also unemployment insurance (UI) claimants or long-term unemployed), through investment in integrated technology solutions that support connectivity among programs and services provided to dislocated workers. These grants will be funded through the National Dislocated Worker Grant program.

National Dislocated Worker Grants are discretionary grants awarded by the Secretary of Labor under section 170 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to provide employment and training assistance to dislocated workers. Given the demands on the WIOA Dislocated Worker (DW) program caused by trends in multiple smaller layoff events, as well as by the increased numbers of long-term unemployed individuals and the program changes required by WIOA, the RSI-DWGs are intended to expand and enhance the capacity of the workforce system to serve dislocated workers with the goal of quickly reemploying laid-off workers and enhancing their employability and earnings.

The RSI-DWG project provides funding to improve the capacity of the workforce system to efficiently link dislocated workers (including those who might first approach the workforce system as UI claimants and long-term unemployed), to the broad spectrum of employment and training assistance available to them to support their productive reemployment. Funds awarded through the RSI-DWGs are to be used by the States to integrate their UI, Wagner-Peyser employment services (ES), and WIOA workforce information technology (IT) systems (including systems for the DW program), to provide a seamless experience for dislocated workers when accessing services. While the purpose of the RSI-DWG projects is to improve assistance provided to dislocated workers, projects funded with these grants may also benefit other jobseekers.

Currently, States vary widely in their IT infrastructure across programs. Some of the common challenges States have include siloed systems on different platforms that lack common architecture, legacy systems on antiquated architecture, different database constructs, and limited or absent linkages or interfaces across systems.

The expected outcomes of these grants include improved service delivery and employment outcomes for dislocated workers, more effective connections to all available services through integrated case management, prevention of long-term-unemployment, increased early intervention and layoff aversion, increased accessibility to services through automation and

self-service, and enhanced identification of service delivery needs.

These grant funds will be awarded to state agencies responsible for administering WIOA Title I activities, including those in Outlying Areas. The funding will provide seed money for states to implement their solutions, and states are expected to provide additional resources, if possible. To the extent states are using the funding to initiate a project that will ultimately require more time and resources than provided in this grant; they must describe their plan for completion of the project beyond the grant period. States must engage and convene the appropriate partner programs in support of development of these technology solutions.

Applications will include the following information collections: 1) Form SF-424 “Application for Federal Assistance,” separately cleared under OMB control number 4040-0004, 2) Project Budget, 3) Project Narrative, and 4) Attachments to the Project Narrative.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the www.grants.gov Web site. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates 75 percent of responses will be submitted electronically.

Small Entities:

This information collection will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Assurances of confidentiality:

These grant solicitations do not offer applicants assurances of confidentiality.

Special circumstances:

This solicitation implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

The DOL expects to receive approximately 54 applications from an equal number of respondents.  The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 20 hours per response, including time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining needed data, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

54 applications x 20 hours = 1080 hours

The DOL has increased the average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry to $30.56 per hour to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—May 2016, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_06032016.pdf at page 33.

1080 hours x $30.56 = $33,004.80

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial, performance, and narrative reports to the ETA. Those information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate control number.

Total burden: 54 respondents, 54 responses, 1080 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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