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| [ Introduced ] | [ House Amendment 001 ] |
90_HB2081eng
New Act
Creates the Education, Job Training, Placement,
Retention, and Re-Employment Act. Provides that the
Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Community
College Board, the Department of Commerce and Community
Affairs, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the
Illinois Department of Labor, the Department of Veterans
Affairs, the Prairie State 2000 Authority, the Department of
Children and Family Services, the Department of Employment
Security, the Secretary of State, and the Department of
Rehabilitation Services, or the Department of Human Services
as its successor agency, shall each develop a plan to
accommodate those who will be affected by the changes in
welfare as a result of the implementation of the federal
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act of 1996. Each of these entities shall also study the
impact of its plan and report to the legislative leaders of
the General Assembly and the Governor no later than January
31 each year and make appropriate adjustments to programs
each year after evaluation. Effective immediately.
LRB9005176SMdv
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1 AN ACT concerning job training services.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 1. This Act may be cited as the Education, Job
5 Training, Placement, Retention, and Re-Employment Act.
6 Section 5. Legislative findings and purpose.
7 (a) The Illinois Department of Public Aid has developed
8 a Plan for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to
9 replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program
10 and to implement the federal Personal Responsibility and Work
11 Opportunity Act of 1996.
12 (b) The new Department of Human Services is the lead
13 agency in implementing the State TANF Plan. Its mission is
14 to "enable Illinois residents to achieve maximum
15 self-sufficiency and independence by providing integrated
16 family-oriented services, partnering with communities, and
17 measuring outcomes".
18 (c) The TANF Plan categorizes welfare recipients into
19 three groups: Not Job Ready, Job Ready, and Working and sets
20 time limits on receiving assistance for recipients of cash
21 assistance ranging from 24 months, under the Targeted Work
22 Initiative for parents (both Job Ready and Not Job
23 Ready) whose youngest child is age 13 or older, up to a 60
24 month lifetime limit for all Illinois families (both Job
25 Ready and Not Job Ready) and their children. Only 10% of the
26 current caseload of 150,000 that is not working is estimated
27 to be Job Ready at this time.
28 (d) The clock on all of these time limits will begin to
29 run as to all recipients of cash assistance in August of
30 1997.
31 (e) The TANF Plan addresses job training and other
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1 services necessary to move both Job Ready and Not Job Ready
2 welfare recipients into the workforce by planning on asking
3 each area of the State "to develop, coordinate, and target
4 resources needed to serve the population in the area....to
5 develop a local service delivery plan".
6 (f) This Act targets some of Illinois' extensive
7 education, job training, placement, retention and
8 re-employment resources necessary to the accomplishment of
9 the aims of the TANF Plan, in order to assure that adequate
10 resources will be available and in place in communities to
11 implement plans to move families from welfare to work
12 starting in August of 1997.
13 Section 10. Applicability. This Act applies to the
14 following: the Illinois State Board of Education, the
15 Illinois Community College Board, the Department of Commerce
16 and Community Affairs, the Illinois Department of
17 Transportation, the Illinois Department of Labor, the
18 Department of Veterans Affairs, the Prairie State 2000
19 Authority, the Department of Children and Family Services,
20 the Department of Employment Security, the Secretary of
21 State, and the Department of Rehabilitation Services, or the
22 Department of Human Services as its successor agency, each of
23 which is currently in receipt of substantial funding,
24 including State general revenue funds, for adult education,
25 job training, and related services.
26 Section 15. Definitions.
27 "Additional barriers to employment" means, but is not
28 limited to, alcoholism or substance abuse history, a criminal
29 record, current or recent history of being a victim of
30 domestic violence, history of incest or other abuse, partial
31 disability or health or mental health problems, or having
32 been in receipt of cash welfare benefits or unemployed for a
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1 period in excess of five years.
2 "Affected agency" means each agency of State government
3 to which this Act applies, as set forth in Section 10.
4 "Community-based providers" means not-for-profit
5 organizations with local boards of directors that provide
6 some or all of the job services defined herein.
7 "Education and job training services" means instruction
8 in literacy, English as a Second Language, Adult Basic and
9 Secondary Education, General Educational Development (GED)
10 preparation, job readiness, interviewing and resume
11 preparation, job seeking, soft skills, and vocational skills
12 and apprenticeship training in the classroom and on-the-job.
13 "Job placement services" means identifying jobs in which
14 there are open positions and which correspond with the
15 education, training, and experience of the people enrolled in
16 the affected agency's job training program, coordination of
17 client referrals to identified employers, assistance in
18 making application for open jobs, and follow-up assistance
19 with clients through the application process.
20 "Job retention counseling and services" means counseling,
21 career advancement services, direct services, and
22 coordination of services designed to help newly employed
23 workers keep their jobs, through job counselors, job support
24 groups, and job mentors who assist these workers in resolving
25 problems that arise on their jobs as well as with personal or
26 practical problems, such as with transportation or day care,
27 that could affect their ability to keep their jobs.
28 "Job services" means education and training services, job
29 placement services, job retention and counseling services,
30 and re-employment services as defined in this Act.
31 "Re-employment services" means job training and placement
32 services designed to help individuals who have lost their
33 jobs or who are employed to find new jobs quickly.
34 "Soft skills training" means training related to
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1 punctuality, proper work attire, work habits, appropriate
2 on-the-job problem solving and conflict resolution, and
3 understanding and abiding by employer rules.
4 "Welfare recipients" means persons who are receiving
5 welfare or have received welfare assistance within the
6 previous two years, and non-custodial parents of children
7 receiving welfare assistance who are unemployed or employed
8 at the poverty level or below.
9 Section 20. Duties of affected agencies.
10 (a) Each affected agency shall immediately develop a
11 plan which:
12 (1) identifies separately all budgeted resources
13 currently being used for education and job training
14 services, job placement services, job retention and
15 counseling services, and re-employment services for all
16 populations and for welfare recipients;
17 (2) notwithstanding any other provision of State
18 law, targets job services for welfare recipients;
19 (3) includes programming for welfare recipients
20 with additional barriers to employment;
21 (4) adds, to programs where it is not currently
22 included, job readiness, soft skills, job retention
23 services, and re-employment services to its offering of
24 job services;
25 (5) specifies how it will work with, at the local
26 level, business and industry to correspond its job
27 service programming with their specific local labor
28 demands, in the context of employers' openings and
29 available job titles and the education and skills needed
30 for those job titles;
31 (6) seeks waivers of any federal laws that
32 interfere with the accomplishment of targeting job
33 service resources; and
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1 (7) shall be implemented by July 1, 1997 and shall,
2 at that time, be submitted to the General Assembly and
3 the Governor and shall be made available to the public.
4 (b) In carrying out their duties under this Act, each
5 affected agency shall make maximum use of experienced
6 community-based providers of job services by contracting with
7 these providers to provide these services to the maximum
8 extent that the capacity of these providers allows.
9 Section 25. Performance-based programming; evaluations.
10 (a) All job services provided by affected agencies shall
11 be subject to performance-based evaluations, whether the
12 services are provided directly by the affected agency or
13 through contracts.
14 (b) Each affected agency shall be responsible for
15 setting minimal outcomes for each program it operates and for
16 collecting and collating outcome data for each of its program
17 sites. Separate minimal outcomes shall be developed for:
18 (1) programs that serve people with a steady past
19 work history;
20 (2) programs that serve people who are welfare
21 recipients; and
22 (3) programs that serve people with additional
23 barriers to employment.
24 (c) Each affected agency shall require each program site
25 within its jurisdiction to submit to it on an annual basis,
26 for each of the three populations described in subsection (b)
27 of this Section, broken down by demographic groups served
28 (which shall include persons on welfare, persons on welfare
29 within the last two years, and persons who are the
30 non-custodial parents described in this Act, and each other
31 discrete demographic population served, whether by mandate or
32 program design), and further broken down by race and gender,
33 the following:
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1 (1) the number of persons who entered the job
2 training program;
3 (2) the number of persons who completed the job
4 training program;
5 (3) the number who obtained employment within two
6 months of completion and their average and median wages;
7 (4) the number who obtained employment within six
8 months of completion and their average and median wages;
9 (5) the number from paragraphs (3) and (4) who
10 retained their initial jobs after 12 months; and
11 (6) the number from paragraphs (3) and (4) who lost
12 their jobs within the first year, and of those the number
13 who were re-employed, and their average and median number
14 of weeks between jobs, and their average and median wages
15 after re-employment.
16 (d) Each affected agency shall demonstrate the extent to
17 which its job services are being provided by community-based
18 providers.
19 (e) Each affected agency shall provide a summary of the
20 data it has collected from its program sites to the Governor
21 and the 4 leaders of the General Assembly, which shall
22 include a ranking by outcomes of each program site (broken
23 down by those with a work history, those on welfare, and
24 those with additional barriers to employment), no later than
25 January 31 of each year.
26 (f) Each affected agency shall annually evaluate its
27 programs and contracting policies either to improve or cancel
28 the programs and services that are provided by program sites
29 that either do not meet the agency's minimal outcomes or fall
30 within the lower 40% of overall outcomes (separately
31 considering programs and services serving people with a
32 steady work history, on welfare, and with additional barriers
33 to employment).
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1 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
2 becoming law.