Report 2011-111 Recommendations and Responses in 2013-041

Report 2011-111: Federal Workforce Investment Act: More Effective State Planning and Oversight Is Necessary to Better Help California's Job Seekers Find Employment

Department Number of Years Reported As Not Fully Implemented Total Recommendations to Department Not Implemented After One Year Not Implemented as of 2012-041 Response Not Implemented as of Most Recent Response
California Workforce Investment Board 1 2 2 n/a 2
Employment Development Department 1 4 2 n/a 1

Recommendation To: Workforce Investment Board, California

To assist the governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system, the state board should collaborate with state and local workforce investment partners to promptly develop and implement a strategic workforce plan as state law requires. The strategic plan should include, at a minimum, the following elements: clear roles and responsibilities pertaining to the state board, EDD, and other state and local workforce partners; clear definitions for terminology used in the strategic plan, such as quality services; performance measures that are specific to California for evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of WIA-funded programs and activities; and procedures for approving the addition of data elements to EDD's Web-based system and for the exchange of data between EDD and the state board to facilitate the development and implementation of performance measures that are specific to California.

Response

The CWIB submitted its 5-year strategic workforce development plan to the DOL ETA in April 2013 and received approval on 6/7/13. The CWIB established a subcommittee to develop performance and process measures specific to California that define quality services and approved 7 additional performance measures on 8/13/13. The CWIB is working with the EDD to enable the new case management system to capture and aggregate most of the performance data using the DOL ETA WIASRD fields. The CWIB via the State plan has also established definitions of quality workforce services through the creation of criteria for High Performing Local Boards. For the complete response please see the CWIB website: http://www.cwib.ca.gov/res/docs/state_plans/BSA%20Revised%20responses%2012-9-13.pdf

Recommendation To: Employment Development Department

To assist the state board and other workforce investment partners in the development and implementation of state-specific performance measures, EDD should ensure that it works with the state board to develop procedures for approving the addition of data elements to its Web-based system and for the exchange of data between EDD and the state board.

Response

This recommendation has not yet been fully implemented. On September 20, 2013 the Department of Labor (DOL) approved of the State Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Strategic Plan PY 2013-2017 (Enclosure A). On August 9, 2013 the California Workforce Investment Board (State Board) approved State-specific performance measures (Enclosure B). On August 28, 2013, DOL released the Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) 4-13 (Enclosure C) requiring additional data elements for WIA funds. Based on the new data elements required by DOL, the State Board and EDD are working to determine if additional changes will need to be made to California Workforce Services Network (CWSN) to implement the State-specific performance measures.

The EDD plans to launch the WIA module of CWSN in Spring 2014. At that time, CWSN will include the additional required data elements that were released in TEGL 4-13 by the DOL. Additional elements required to meet the State-specific performance measures will be developed and procedures will be in place to start collecting and reporting on the State-specific measure for Program Year 2014-2015.

Current Status of Recommendations

All Recommendations in 2013-041