Public safety: supervised population workforce training: grant program.

Existing law establishes the California Workforce Investment Board (State WIB) to assist the Governor in the development, oversight, and improvement of the state workforce investment system and the alignment of the education and workforce systems, as specified. Existing law also establishes local workforce investment boards to assist in the planning, oversight, and evaluation of local workforce investment. Existing law establishes the Supervised Population Workforce Training Grant Program to be administered by the State WIB. The program awards grants on a competitive basis to counties that propose a project that provides, at a minimum, an education and training assessment for persons who are on probation, mandatory supervision, or postrelease community supervision and are supervised by, or under the jurisdiction of, a county. Existing law establishes criteria for the grant program, including that the education and training needs of both individuals who have some postsecondary education, and those who require basic education and training, are addressed. Existing law requires each project proposed in the application for a grant to include a provision for an education and training assessment for each individual of the supervised population who participates in the project, and provides that a prior assessment of an individual may be used if, in the determination of the State WIB, its results are accurate. Existing law requires grant recipients to report to the State WIB, at least annually and upon completion of the grant period, regarding their use of the funds and workforce training program outcomes. Existing law requires, by January 1, 2018, the State WIB to submit a report to the Legislature using the reports from the grant recipients, and requires the report to contain specified information. This bill would revise the criteria for the grant program by authorizing a grant applicant to address the education and training needs of individuals who have some postsecondary education, or individuals who require basic education and training, or individuals in both categories. The bill would authorize the State WIB to delegate the responsibility for determining the sufficiency of a prior assessment to one or more local workforce investment boards. The bill would also require the report to the Legislature to include a discussion of the education and workforce readiness of the supervised population at the time individual participants entered the program and how this impacted the types of services needed and offered, and whether the metrics used to evaluate the individual grants were sufficiently aligned with the objectives of the program. The bill would also include a statement of legislative findings and declarations. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.