EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION ADVISORY SYSTEM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Washington, D.C. 20210
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CLASSIFICATION UI RESEA |
CORRESPONDENCE SYMBOL OUI/DUIO |
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DATE
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ADVISORY: UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROGRAM LETTER NO.
TO: STATE WORKFORCE AGENCIES
FROM: MOLLY E. CONWAY
Acting Assistant Secretary
SUBJECT: Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Funding Allotments and Operating Guidance for Unemployment Insurance (UI) Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Grants
Purpose. To provide guidelines for the FY 2019 UI RESEA grants and to invite State Workforce Agencies to submit applications for funding.
Action Requested. State agency administrators are requested to provide information contained in this Unemployment Insurance Program Letter (UIPL) to appropriate staff. States requesting funding to continue a current RESEA program or to implement a new RESEA program during FY 2019 must submit an application containing all required information identified in this UIPL via www.grants.gov within 30 calendar days from the issue date of this UIPL.
Summary and Background.
Summary. This UIPL provides general operating guidance for the FY 2019 RESEA program, including new program requirements, maximum state award limits based on anticipated funding availability, and instructions for submitting an application via www.grants.gov.
On February 9, 2018, the President signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, Public Law 115-123 (BBA), which included amendments to the Social Security Act (SSA) that create a permanent authorization for the RESEA program. The RESEA provisions are contained in Section 30206 of the BBA, enacting new Section 306 of the SSA. On March 23, 2018, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, which provided funding for the remainder of FY 2018. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 also postponed the immediate implementation of the new RESEA program established by the BBA. During FY 2018, states that were already operating RESEA programs received funding and approval to continue RESEA operations in a manner consistent with their FY 2017 RESEA grant application (UIPL No. 8-18).
The permanently authorized RESEA program in Section 306 of the SSA provides for a phased implementation of new program requirements over several years. The phased implementation begins in FY 2019 with new requirements that RESEA funds must be used for interventions or service delivery strategies demonstrated to reduce the average number of weeks participants receive benefits by improving participant employment outcomes, including earnings (See Section 5) and the introduction of additional flexibilities for targeting RESEA participants (See Section 6). Additional program requirements will be phased in during FYs 2020, 2021 and 2023, including but not limited to performance reporting, formula-based allocation of funds, and annual submission of RESEA state plans.
Funding and Award Limits. Under the appropriations act for FY 2019, the total available funding for RESEAs is $150,000,000. Grant recipients may be required to revise budget documents prior to award execution to account for discrepancies among funding availability, funding requests, and actual award amounts.
For FY 2019, RESEA award limits are based on a 25 percent increase to each state’s FY 2018 award limit identified in UIPL No. 8-18. This “across-the-board” increase is applied to all states that operated an RESEA program during FY 2018. Award limits for the two states that did not operate an RESEA program during FY 2018 are also provided and are based on a state workload of 25 percent of projected first-payments of UI benefits during FY 2019 and a cost per initial RESEA rate of $155. Award limits for these two states include an additional $100,000 to offset information technology and programming costs associated with implementation or relaunch of an RESEA program.
Implementation of Evidence-based Strategies and Evaluation Requirements. Section 306 of the SSA includes a tiered-evidence approach2 for the RESEA program to encourage the Department to fund and states to use evidence-based strategies where they exist and to conduct evaluations and build evidence in places where needed. The goal is to ensure that each state employs RESEA interventions and service delivery strategies that, based on rigorous evaluations, improve employment outcomes and reduce benefit duration or that the intervention or service delivery strategy are being evaluated to determine their effectiveness in achieving these goals.
Specifically, the statute requires that interventions or service delivery strategies funded by RESEA grant funds must be demonstrated to reduce the average number of weeks participants receive benefits by improving employment outcomes, including earnings. The Department interprets this to permit states to expend RESEA grant funds on interventions that have not previously been implemented in the field where there is sufficient analysis and reasoning to “demonstrate” that the new intervention will reduce the weeks of UI benefits received through improved employment outcomes. The statute also requires the Secretary of Labor to define and assess whether interventions and service delivery strategies used by states have a “moderate or high causal evidence rating,” and if an intervention or strategy does not, it must be under evaluation at the time of use. These requirements apply to FY 2019 RESEA grant funds and future year grants funds.
In FY 2023 and FY 2024, states will be required to use no less than 25 percent of the grant funds for interventions or service delivery strategies with a high or moderate causal evidence rating that show a demonstrated capacity to improve employment and earnings outcomes for program participants. For FY 2025 and 2026, states must use no less than 40 percent of funds for interventions or service delivery strategies with a high or moderate causal evidence rating. For FY 2027 and beyond, states must use no less than 50 percent of RESEA funds for interventions or service delivery strategies with a high or moderate causal evidence rating. Additional guidance will be provided prior to the time these requirements become effective.
Definitions and Approach
The statute defines the term “intervention” as a “service delivery strategy for the provision of state reemployment services and eligibility assessment activities.” An intervention or service delivery strategy may be a single component or include multiple components as part of an overarching service delivery design for RESEA. For example, components may include providing customized career and labor market information; co-enrollment in other programs; providing support with development of a reemployment plan; or providing information, access, and referrals to reemployment services.
As noted above, the expectation is to use interventions and strategies that result in reduced claimant duration as a result of improved employment outcomes. In FY 2019, states may choose to implement interventions and service delivery strategies with high or moderate causal evidence ratings, or they may choose to evaluate new interventions and service delivery strategies. These evaluations will position states to meet the requirements beginning in FY 2023 to ensure that specific percentages of funds are spent on interventions and service delivery strategies with high or moderate causal evidence ratings.
States may use up to 10 percent of their RESEA grant funds to conduct or cause to conduct evaluations of interventions used in carrying out the program. Because this funding may not be sufficient to do rigorous evaluations on a state-by-state basis, states are encouraged to pool their funds to support more rigorous evaluations. The Department may also engage with states to support RESEA evaluations as well. The Department also expects to provide technical assistance to states. Specifically the Department expects to offer states technical evaluation support in the use of evidence-based interventions, applying evidence-based standards, and conducting evaluations of RESEA interventions.
Implementation
Implementation of the new RESEA evidence and evaluation requirements will require a phased approach. The Department has already taken steps to begin rating evidence that states can use to ensure their RESEA interventions and service delivery strategies are highly or moderately causal and is working to provide the information in an accessible fashion to support states as they assess their RESEA service delivery design in FY 2019.
The newly required RESEA state plan, which must include a description of how the state plans to meet the evidence and evaluation requirements, cannot be implemented until FY 2020 due to the time needed to fulfill requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act. Please note that states are still required to meet the evidence and evaluation statutory requirements in FY 2019. The Department will be providing technical assistance broadly to all states, and to individual states as needed, to support implementation. States must still meet the requirement to use strategies that show a demonstrated capacity to improve employment and earnings outcomes for program participants or conduct an evaluation of other strategies used. The Department will explain more precisely what states must do to meet this requirement in future guidance.
Beginning in FY 2020, if a state proposes a strategy that does not have high or moderate causal evidence, the state will be required, as part of its annual state plan, to include a description of its plan to evaluate that strategy.
Support for States in Meeting RESEA Evidence and Evaluation Requirements
The Department is committed to supporting state efforts to meet the new RESEA statutory requirements related to evidence and evaluation and is taking the following steps to enhance how interventions and strategies are identified as highly or moderately causal moving forward and to putting in place resources to support technical assistance for states as they navigate these new requirements. These efforts include:
The Department’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) reviewed the evidence related to reemployment strategies- including those used in the REA and RESEA programs- in its Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR) website (https://clear.dol.gov).
The following tips will help states navigate CLEAR to find more information about reemployment studies and strategies:
From CLEAR’s home page, select “reemployment” from the topic area drop-down menu or go to: https://clear.dol.gov/topic-area/reemployment.
There you will find a list of all the evaluation studies that examined the effectiveness of reemployment strategies based on models of cause-and-effect. Each study is given a rating based on the strength of the study’s research design, and the intervention and findings are summarized.3
Click on the links for any study in the list to view a summary of that study, including features of the specific strategy studied, findings, and considerations for interpreting the findings.
The CEO is developing a stand-alone synthesis of studies in the reemployment topic area for states’ use, which will further distill the information in CLEAR and help states identify which interventions or strategies have been found to have positive impacts in studies with high or moderate causal ratings. This is expected to be completed in the fall of 2018, and it will be posted on the landing page for the reemployment topic area found here: https://clear.dol.gov/topic-area/reemployment.
States can use the information in CLEAR and in the accompanying synthesis to identify studies of strategies with positive findings and a moderate or high causal rating to expand their use of evidence-based interventions for FY 2019. More detailed information and tools to quickly help states identify interventions and strategies to consider will be developed and available for states’ use to meet the requirements of FY 2023 and beyond.
Additionally, the Department will be working to do the following activities over the coming year and, in some cases, beyond:
Capture additional evidence that exists or is newly completed (that is not currently in CLEAR), including evidence generated by states and other federal programs that is applicable;
Further develop the evidence standards that will be used to identify strategies and interventions with high or moderate causal evidence ratings and develop tools and guidance for states’ use;
Develop and provide evaluation technical assistance to states to support their work to understand and apply evidence guidelines and to conduct evaluations to continue to build rigorous evidence as required in the statute; and
Conduct an independent RESEA implementation study to capture information on how states are delivering RESEA and identify promising approaches on which new evidence could be built. This implementation study will not be an impact evaluation (i.e., it will not examine the effectiveness of RESEA or its components) but will identify and describe what services are being offered and who is being served and identify promising approaches to inform future evaluations of the program as a whole, its components, and/or the interventions and service delivery strategies used by states.
State Discretion in Targeting RESEA Services to UI Claimants. Before FY 2019, RESEA-funded activities targeted two required populations: (1) UI claimants determined to be most likely to exhaust benefits under the methods established for a state’s Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) program; and (2) to the greatest extent feasible, transitioning veterans receiving Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (UCX). New Section 306 of the SSA requires RESEA-funded activities to be targeted to claimants determined most likely to exhaust UI benefits as determined under a profiling system required under Section 303(j), SSA, but does not require that states target transitioning veterans receiving UCX benefits. However, under the Department’s appropriation act for the FY 2019, states are no longer required to target UI claimants determined most likely to exhaust UI benefits under Section 303(j) and have discretion in identifying appropriate claimant populations among recipients of UCX and regular UI benefits. The Department requires that the selection of targeted UI claimant populations be supported by local labor market information, economic trends, and other available data. This programmatic change increases states’ flexibility to target claimants from a variety of backgrounds and lengths of time receiving benefits based on local needs.
RESEA Program Components that Fulfill Mandatory WPRS Requirements. The WPRS program was established by amendments to the SSA contained in P.L. 103-152 (enacting Section 303(j) of the SSA) requiring states to provide reemployment services to UI claimants identified through profiling methods as likely to exhaust benefits and who are in need of job search assistance and reemployment services to transition to new employment. WPRS operating guidance (UIPL No. 41-94) provided further information necessary for states to operationalize such systems, including the criteria for establishing profiling models used to identify claimants likely to exhaust benefits. WPRS remains a legal requirement of the SSA, and states must provide these services to the identified population if not served by the state’s RESEA program.
Prior to FY 2019, RESEA targeted two required populations: (1) UI claimants determined to be most likely to exhaust benefits under the methods established for the state’s WPRS program; and (2) to the greatest extent feasible, transitioning veterans receiving UCX. Since RESEA incorporated WPRS profiling models to select claimants and provided participants with access to reemployment services, the Department determined that any state operating RESEA on a statewide basis met the requirements of WPRS and was not subject to separate WPRS reporting requirements and oversight. States providing RESEA on a less than statewide basis were required to continue WPRS in any area(s) not served by RESEA.
As described in Section 6, in 2019, states have broader flexibility in targeting UI claimants for participation in RESEA. However, only RESEA programs that continue to incorporate WPRS profiling models to select participants and provide RESEA services statewide will satisfy WPRS requirements and result in waiver of the separate WPRS reporting requirements and oversight. States that include the WPRS profiling model but do not provide RESEA statewide must continue to provide WPRS in areas not served by RESEA. States that do not include claimants meeting the WPRS selection methods as part of their RESEA participants must operate a separate WPRS program to serve these claimants. RESEA programs that target several claimant populations, including those identified by the WPRS selection methods, will be considered as meeting WPRS requirements if claimants selected under WPRS are provided priority over the other populations and RESEA services are provided statewide. ETA is available, as described in Training and Employment Notice (TEN) No. 37-15, to provide assistance with all aspects of profiling modeling including guidance on modeling issues, techniques and diagnostics, as well as complete model building assistance.
Required RESEA Services. The primary goals for the RESEA program are to reduce duration of UI benefits through improved employment outcomes, including earnings, and to ensure an individual claiming UI benefits continues to be eligible for those benefits. To support these goals, the Department, through UIPL No. 8-18, implemented revised RESEA-required activities in FY 2018 that were intended to provide states with greater flexibility and discretion in providing RESEA services. These revised required activities are unchanged in FY 2019.
As discussed in UIPL No. 8-18, the following core components must be included in the initial RESEA session:
UI eligibility assessment, including review of work search activities, and referral to adjudication, as appropriate, if an issue or potential issue(s) is identified;
Providing labor market and career information that addresses the claimant’s specific needs;
Enrollment in Wagner-Peyser Act-funded Employment Services;
Providing support to the claimant to develop and implement an individual reemployment plan; and
Providing information and access to American Job Center (AJC) services and referrals to reemployment services and training, as appropriate, to support the claimant’s return to work.
Requirements for the subsequent RESEA session with a UI claimant, if provided, are unchanged and must include, at a minimum, a UI eligibility assessment and review and/or update of the claimant’s individual reemployment plan. Please note that the UI eligibility assessment and support with the development of an individual reemployment plan must continue to be provided on a one-on-one basis for both the initial and, if applicable, the subsequent RESEA. However, states may provide staff-assisted services remotely using technology such as Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, or other similar products. The level and timeliness of remote service must be comparable to assistance the individual would receive if staff were assisting such individual in-person.
Please note that the list above identifies the minimum core requirements. States may opt to include additional reemployment services as part of their initial or subsequent RESEA.
States are also strongly encouraged to promote the use of the My Reemployment Plan tool developed, in part, to fulfill the individual reemployment plan requirement. TEN No. 18-16 provides additional information about the My Reemployment Plan and related tools and resources. A PDF version of the My Reemployment Plan and related introductory videos are available at: https://rc.workforcegps.org/. An interactive, online version of the My Reemployment Plan is tentatively scheduled for release during FY 2019.
General RESEA Guidelines.
General Use of Funds. RESEA funds must be used to assess the continued eligibility and reemployment needs of UI claimants in the targeted populations identified by the state and to provide reemployment services to RESEA participants, including reemployment services to which RESEA participants are referred. These funds may not supplant ongoing UI grant funds devoted to other state UI eligibility review program activities. UI claimants who have a definite return-to-work date, or who secure work only through a union hiring hall, or who are in approved training must be excluded from the RESEA program, because RESEA does not reduce the duration of UC receipt for such individuals.
Administrative Cap. In FY 2019, administrative costs for the RESEA program are limited to 15 percent of the total grant award. This is a change from FY 2017 and FY 2018. This limitation continues to align RESEA administrative costs with similar ETA grants and includes information technology costs. States that did not administer an RESEA program in FY 2018 may request up to an additional $100,000 beyond the 15 percent administrative cost limit to support information technology and program costs associated with program start-up and implementation, including required reporting.
Administrative costs could be direct or indirect costs. Administrative costs do not need to be identified separately from program costs on the SF- 424A Budget Information Form. However, they must be tracked through the recipient’s accounting system and appropriately documented on the recipient’s ETA 9130 submissions. Recipients will be monitored for compliance to the administrative cap during the entire grant’s period of performance. Any amounts that exceed this limitation at closeout will be disallowed and subject to debt collection.
To help facilitate program alignment and integration across programs supporting the reemployment of UI claimants, RESEA grants use the definition of WIOA administrative costs at 20 CFR 683.215, excluding 683.215(c)(6). As identified above, all information technology costs associated with the RESEA program are administrative costs. Additional information will be provided in your grant agreement.
Evaluation Cap. States may use up to 10 percent of their RESEA grant funds to conduct or cause to conduct evaluations of interventions used in carrying out the program (this amount is in addition to the administrative costs discussed above). Because this evaluation funding may not be sufficient to do rigorous evaluations on a state by state basis, states are encouraged to pool their funds to support more rigorous evaluations. The Department may also engage with states to support RESEA evaluations (Section 5). Evaluation costs must be reported using the ETA 9130’s comment section.
Initial and Subsequent RESEA Cost Limit. Beginning in FY 2017, ETA implemented a cost per initial RESEA limit of no more than $155 per session and $80 per subsequent session. These limits were continued in FY 2018. In response to the recent statutory changes and to provide states with additional flexibility to customize services based on the specific needs of individual claimants, ETA is discontinuing these limits in FY 2019 but directs states to continue pursuing efficiencies and strategies that reduce costs and maximize the availability of RESEA services. During FY 2019, states are expected to operate at an average cost per initial RESEA session between $155 and $175 and an average cost per subsequent RESEA session between $80 and $100. States that are unable to operate within these ranges must provide an explanation for the higher costs as part of their grant proposal or submit a grant modification if costs change or are higher than projected during the grant’s period of performance.
Selected Claimant Participation in RESEA. Once the state notifies a claimant that s/he has been selected to participate in the RESEA program, participation in RESEA is mandatory. Claimants who contact the appropriate agency before their RESEA appointment and request to change the scheduled RESEA date or time for good reason, such as scheduled job interviews, may be accommodated. They should be counted on the ETA 9128 only as a “scheduled RESEA” rather than as a “rescheduled RESEA,” as explained in ET Handbook No. 401. This is because rescheduling with good reason does not result in a disqualification, unlike instances where rescheduling is necessary due to a claimant’s failure to attend.
Integration with Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Wagner-Peyser Funded Services. By applying for RESEA funding, states agree to integrate the RESEA program with WIOA and Wagner-Peyser-funded services. Additional guidance and resources regarding the integration of UI activities, such as RESEA, and WIOA- and Wagner-Peyser-funded services are provided in UIPL No. 14-18. RESEA funds may not be used to pay for training services or to purchase or pay for licenses for an assessment tool (e.g., the Transferable Occupation Relationship Quotient).
Required Enrollment in Wagner-Peyser-funded Employment Services. The intent of the RESEA program is to provide claimants with entry to a wide array of available resources that support reemployment and to connect claimants to the direct provision of intensive career services as appropriate. RESEAs were developed to supplement rather than supplant current reemployment activities provided by the integrated workforce system, and, in this context, ETA is requiring that RESEA participants be enrolled in Wagner-Peyser-funded Employment Services as part of the initial RESEA. As part of this enrollment, each RESEA participant must be appropriately identified in case management and performance reporting systems as a RESEA participant. Given the structure of the state’s workforce system, co-enrollment in WIOA Dislocated Worker or other available programs may also be appropriate, but it is not a requirement of this grant.
Service Delivery Staff. RESEA services may be delivered by UI staff or well-trained Wagner-Peyser-funded state Employment Service staff, WIOA staff, or other AJC staff. The UI eligibility review is a key part of the RESEA for program integrity purposes. Service delivery staff must receive training to identify eligibility issues and must refer all eligibility issues to UI merit staff for adjudication, as appropriate. All eligibility determinations and redeterminations are funded through the regular UI administrative grant funding for non-monetary determinations, not through the RESEA grant.
Required Engagement of UI Staff. UI staff must be engaged in RESEA planning, administration, and oversight, as well as providing all appropriate staff training on UI eligibility requirements. UI staff must be available and involved in the RESEA functions, including reporting, although it may not require a full-time position. Program staff delivering RESEAs must have sufficient training to conduct a thorough eligibility review and detect eligibility issues requiring adjudication. Further, states must have UI staff participation to ensure accurate data are provided in the RESEA-required reports, including the Quarterly Narrative Progress Report (ETA 9178) for Supplemental Budget Request (SBR) project activities. Each calendar quarter, prior to submission, the reports must be reviewed for accuracy by the UI staff member of the RESEA team, in addition to being reviewed by the RESEA program lead (if a different staff member).
UI Feedback Loop, Adjudication, and Due Process. Once selected for an initial or subsequent RESEA, claimants are required to participate in all components of the RESEA. Failure to report or participate in any aspect of the RESEA must result in referral to the UI agency for adjudication under the applicable state law. States must include a description of the following in their grant request proposals:
Feedback loop from the AJC, or alternative location, to the UI system on whether the claimants reported as directed and participated in required activities;
Feedback loop established to refer any UI eligibility issues identified in the eligibility review for adjudication; and
Process for referring to adjudication UI claimants selected for RESEAs who fail to report for the RESEA without contacting the agency.
States will also be required within the terms and conditions of their grant agreement to provide assurances that:
Adequate procedures are in place for selected claimants to receive proper notification of RESEA’s eligibility conditions, requirements, benefits, and clear warnings regarding the consequences of failing to complete required elements; and
Reasonable scheduling accommodations are provided.
Performance Reporting. Performance reporting for FY 2019 consists of the ETA forms 9128 and 9129; Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control No. 1205-0456, expiration date 8/31/2019. The ETA 9128 and ETA 9129 reports were amended in FY 2016 to remove comparison group reporting requirements. All RESEA-related performance reports are due on the 20th day of the second month following the end of the reporting quarter. ETA is currently assessing potential changes to these reports to align with new RESEA program requirements. States will be alerted of any changes in future guidance. In addition, states must complete the Quarterly Narrative Progress Report (ETA 9178); OMB Control No. 1205-0517, expiration date 8/31/2021. States must submit the 9178 to their ETA regional office no later than 45 days after the end of each reporting quarter.
Period of Performance. For operational purposes, states are strongly encouraged to continue to design and operate their RESEA programs based on a calendar year schedule. The official period of performance for FY 2019 RESEA funds will be January 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020, and funding must be liquidated by December 28, 2020.
FY 2019 RESEA Application Submission Process. In an effort to achieve greater efficiency and as part of the Department’s on-going effort to streamline the grant award process, applicants are required to submit the application through Grants.gov at www.grants.gov.
Applicants that need to register with Grants.gov may do so here: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/apply-for-grants.html. Registration is a one-time process, and applicants who already have a Grants.gov account do not need to register again.
To submit the required application package, applicants must:
Select the SEARCH GRANTS tab on the Grants.gov homepage.
Under the Section, BASIC SEARCH CRITERIA, enter the Funding Opportunity Number: ETA-UIPL-{Insert UIPL #}.
Select the link to the applicable Opportunity Number provided in the search results.
Select the PACKAGE tab.
Under the ACTIONS column, select APPLY.
Submission requirements stipulate that all applicants for federal grant and funding opportunities must have a Data Universal Numbering System (D-U-N-S®) number and must supply their D-U-N-S® number on the SF-424.
Before submitting an application, applicants must also ensure their registration with the System for Award Management (SAM) is current. Applicants may find instructions for registering with SAM at https://www.sam.gov/SAM. An awardee must maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times that it has an active federal award or an application under consideration. To remain registered in the SAM database after the initial registration, entities must review and update the registration at least every 12 months from the date of initial registration. Failure to register with SAM and maintain an active account will result in Grants.gov rejecting the application submission.
Submitting the SF-424 through www.grants.gov constitutes an electronically signed SF-424, Application for Federal Assistance. This submission process may at times be complicated and time-consuming. As such, the Department strongly encourages applicants to initiate the process as soon as possible, in order to allow time to resolve unanticipated technical problems.
For technical issues encountered during application submission, applicants may call
800-518-4726 or 606-545-5035 to speak to a Customer Support Representative or email [email protected]. The Contact Center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but closes on federal holidays. Attachment III provides more detailed instructions for submitting an application through www.grants.gov
The application package must consist of the following documents:
Form provided in Attachment II. An electronic version of Attachment II will be made available to states through www.grants.gov and from the ETA Regional Offices; OMB Control No. 1225-0086, expiration date 05/31/2019.
SF-424: Application for Federal Assistance; OMB Control No. 4040-0004, expiration date 10/31/2019. Additional guidance for completing the SF 424 is provided in Attachments III and IV.
In addition to other information requested on the SF-424, each state must: enter the announcement number of this UIPL into the opportunity number field of the application and enter the applicable amount set out for the state in Attachment I of this UIPL.
SF-424A: Budget Information-Non-Construction Programs; OMB Control No. 4040-0006, expiration date 01/31/2019.
Indirect Costs: Applicant states that include indirect costs in the budget must include either: (a) The approved indirect cost rate with a copy of the Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA), a description of the base used to calculate indirect costs along with the amount of the base, and the total indirect costs requested; OR (b) For those applicant states that meet the requirements to use the 10 percent de minimis rate as described in 2 CFR 200.414(f), a description of the modified total direct cost base (see 2 CFR 200.68 for definition) used in the calculation along with the amount of the base, and the total indirect costs requested based on the 10 percent de minimis rate. The following link contains information regarding the NICRA at the Department: http://www.dol.gov/oasam/boc/dcd/index.htm
Inquiries. Please direct inquiries to the appropriate Regional Office.
References.
Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019, Pub. L. 115-245, Division B, Title I;
Sections 303(j) and 306 of the SSA;
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-141;
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-123;
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-56, Division D;
Consolidated Appropriations Act 2017, Pub. L. No. 115-31, Division H;
Explanatory Statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (Pub. L.115-31);
Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 1993 Pub. L 103-152;
20 CFR 683.215;
2 CFR 200.68 and 200.414;
UIPL No. 14-18, Unemployment Insurance and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act;
UIPL No. 8-18, Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Funding Allotments and Operating Guidance for Unemployment Insurance (UI) Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Grants;
UIPL No. 3-17, and Change 1, Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Unemployment Insurance (UI) Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Grants;
UIPL No. 19-15, and Change 1, Unemployment Insurance (UI) Supplemental Budget Request (SBR) Activities: Quarterly Program Reporting Form & Instructions;
UIPL No. 41-94, Unemployment Insurance Program Requirements for the Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services System;
Employment and Training (ET) Handbook No. 401, 5th Edition, Revised ET Handbook No. 401, Unemployment Insurance Reports Handbook;
TEN No. 18-16, Pathways to Reemployment Tools and Resources; and
TEN No. 37-15, Availability of Assistance Building Profiling Models to Identify Unemployment Insurance Claimants Most Likely to Exhaust Benefits.
Attachments.
Attachment I: Maximum Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Unemployment Insurance (UI) Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Grant Awards by State
Attachment II: Elements of an Unemployment Insurance (UI) Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Grant Proposal
Attachment III: Additional Submission Instructions
Attachment IV: Additional Guidance for Completing the SF-424 and SF-424A
1IMPAQ International. January 2012. Impact of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment Initiative in Nevada; and IMPAQ International. June 2011. Impact of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment Initiative.
2 “Tiered evidence” refers to a policy tool that allows federal agencies to tie federal funding to strategies with evidence, to encourage the use of interventions that have strong evidence of success and test promising new ideas. Sometimes, different levels of funding are tied to the strategies — with smaller amounts of funding available to evaluate new ideas and larger amounts available to replicate interventions with stronger evidence of success (this approach has been used in other DOL grant programs, such as the Workforce Innovation Fund). With the RESEA program, the legislation ties certain levels of future funding to interventions with moderate or high causal evidence ratings, to encourage the use of those interventions that have stronger evidence that they “work,” and requires potentially promising interventions without moderate or high causal evidence ratings, but demonstrated to reduce the number of weeks of receipt of UC by improving employment out-comes, to be under evaluation at the time of use. The goal is to add to the RESEA evidence base, grow the understanding of what interventions work well, for whom, and in what contexts, and expand the use of interventions with strong evidence of success. Similar tiered evidence models are used across federal government programs — including those administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and others.
3 The CLEAR website assesses the quality of impact studies according to its Causal Evidence Guidelines (https://clear.dol.gov/sites/default/files/CLEAR_EvidenceGuidelines_V2.1_12312015.pdf) and provides a rating of the degree to which the research establishes the causal impact of the intervention on outcomes of interest. CLEAR uses three ratings to describe study quality: “high,” “moderate” and “low.” In CLEAR, those terms reflect the extent to which the analysis meets high methodological standards; in other words, the strength of the causal evidence. It is USDOL’s intent to use CLEAR’s causal evidence ratings to inform the definition of “high” and “moderate” causal evidence ratings as they pertain to RESEA interventions and service delivery strategies moving forward to align with the intent of the RESEA legislation.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION ADVISORY SYSTEM |
| Author | ETA User |
| Last Modified By | SYSTEM |
| File Modified | 2018-12-19 |
| File Created | 2018-12-19 |