Breaking Barriers to Employment Initiative: grants.

Existing law, the California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, makes programs and services available to individuals with employment barriers and establishes the California Workforce Development Board (board) to assist the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system and the alignment of the education and workforce investment systems to the needs of the 21st century economy and workforce. Existing law requires the local chief elected officials in a local workforce development area to form, pursuant to specified guidelines, a local workforce development board to plan and oversee the workforce investment system and further requires the Governor to periodically certify one local board for each local area in the state. Existing law establishes the Breaking Barriers to Employment Initiative, which establishes a grant program administered by the board to support prescribed workforce preparation, education, and training programs. Existing law requires the grant to be awarded on a competitive basis and the board to develop criteria for the selection of grant recipients, as specified. Existing law requires an application for the grant to be submitted to the board to include, among other things, designation of a lead workforce development board or community-based organization with specified experience and the designation of a service area. Existing law requires that an application that proposes to serve clients across one or more workforce development areas to include a commitment to notify each workforce development board in the proposed service area. This bill would, instead, specify that the above-described designation is of a partner entity and would allow an exception to that designation requirement, if the lead applicant demonstrates, as prescribed, that securing a partner entity was not possible before the application deadline closed. The bill would prohibit more than 15 percent of all moneys appropriated for the above-described grants from being awarded to a lead applicant that receives the partner entity designation exception. The bill would also delete the above-described requirement to commit to notify each workforce development board in the proposed service area. Existing law requires the board to evaluate an application based on specified criteria, including, among other things, the ability of individuals to succeed in both the broader workforce and education system and in the labor market once they transition into the broader system. Existing law requires that this be measured by tracking these individuals utilizing the existing performance monitoring systems and metrics governing relevant programs and outcomes once they transition into the broader system. This bill would, instead, authorize, rather than require, the board to measure the above-described criteria by tracking individuals, as described above. Existing law requires applicants to provide necessary information to the board to facilitate grant performance evaluation. Existing law requires the board to issue an interim report and a final report on the program, as specified. Existing law requires the reports to include specified information, including, among other things, policy recommendations to provide guidance to the Legislature and the Governor in scaling a permanent program. This bill would additionally authorize grant applicants to provide the necessary information to the board's designee. The bill would remove the requirement that the board issue an interim report and would remove the requirement that the final report include the above-described recommendations. The bill would additionally require the final report to include demographic data and data on languages spoken by populations served by the grant. Existing law authorizes the board to develop necessary policies to ensure that grants awarded under the initiative are consistent with the initiative's intent. This bill would additionally authorize the board to provide technical assistance to grant recipients to carry out the initiative. The bill would authorize the board to provide the technical assistance by contract with a nonprofit organization, as defined, pursuant to prescribed requirements, including, among other things, evaluating proposals through a transparent and competitive process using criteria developed by the board.