TEGL_11-21_acc.pdf

ETA Advisory File Text

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION ADVISORY SYSTEM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Washington D.C. 20210 CLASSIFICATION SCSEP CORRESPONDENCE SYMBOL OWI DNPTTA DATE June 3 2022 RESCISSIONS TEGL 20-20 EXPIRATION DATE Continuing ADVISORY TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE LETTER NO. 11-21TO SENIOR COMMUNITY SERVICE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM GRANTEES FROM BRENT PARTON s Acting Assistant Secretary SUBJECT Program Year PY 2022 Planning Instructions and Allotments for Senior Community Service Employment Program SCSEP State Territorial and National Grantees 1. Pu rpose. To provide SCSEP state territorial and national grantees with the PY 2022 SCSEP allotments and the application instructions for PY 2022 grant submissions. Th is TEGL will also provide guidance regarding Minority Report submissions in the Progra m Na rrative for this yea r. 2. Action Requested. To apply for PY 2022 grant funds SCSEP grantees must follow the instructions in this TEGL and submit all documents to https www.grants.gov with a copy to their respective Federal Project Officer FPO as well as the SCSEP Program Office at grants.scsepdocs dol.gov. Submissions are due 14 days following the publication of this TEGL. 3. S ummary and Background.a.Summary The Employment and Training Administration ETA releases grant planning guidance each program year to advise SCSEP grantees of the number of authorized positions and associated allotments for the program year and ETA s re quirements for obligating funding to grantees. This Training and Employment Guidance Letter TEGL provides SCSEP state territorial and national grantees with the PY 2022 SCSEP allotments and instructions for PY 2022 grant submissions. b. Background SCSEP funds are allocated by a formula provided in Section 506 of the Older Americans Act of 1965 OAA as amended 42 USC 3056d and operate on a PY basis from July 1 through the following June 30. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 Pub. L. 117-103 from this point forward referred to as the Act Division H Title I secs. 106 b and 107 allows the Secretary of Labor Secretary to set aside up to 0.5 percent of each discretionary appropriation for activities related to program integrity and 0.75 percent of most operating funds for evaluations. In PY 2022 after reducing the appropriation by 1 719 000 for set-asides authorized by the Act and transferring 2 000 000 to the Office of the Solicitor SOL per Section 102 of the Act 401 281 000 2 is available for SCSEP program activities . Any funds not used for these reserve activities will be distributed by formula to state territorial and national grantees. SCSEP funds are allocated to and administered through grants to all sta te governors Puerto Rico the District of Columbia and four territories as well as competitively awarded to national non -profit agencies for services across the country. The national non -profit organizations generally compete for the awards every four years subject to annual appropriations . ETA renews SCSEP state and terr itorial grant awards on an annual basis and SC SEP national grants on an annual basis during non -competitive years . Each year ETA requires grantees to submit a grant applicat ion that includes an SF -424 an SF -424A the geographic areas to be served a detailed budget narrative a program narrative signed pr ogrammatic assurances and any optional special requests. 4. Program Details Annual Grant Guidance . This section provides detailed submission instructions for state and territory formula grantees and current national grantees. a. Program Allotments Attachment I . Attachment I detail s the funding amounts and authorized positions for each grantee in PY 2022. b. Grant Application Requirements. Grantees must submit a complete grant package to receive PY 202 2 funds. ETA will generally not obligate funds to any grantee until it has provide d all the information outl ined in this guidance. Additionally grantees must ensure that the components of the grant application package are consistent with each other. i. Application and Budget Information Form . Grantees must submit current versions of the SF -424 Application for Federal Assistance and the SF -424A Budget Information Form. Budgets must include the non -Federal share of at least 10 percent of the total cost OAA Sec. 502 c 1 42 USC 3056 c 1 . These interactive documents and accompanying instruc tions are available at the following link 1 https www.grants.gov forms sf -424 -family.html . ii. Geographic Areas . Item 14 of the SF -424 requires a list of the Areas Affected by Project. Grantees must list the states an d counties the grant will serve and must use www.scseped.org to obtain that information. Grantees may also export the data for the service area s to an Excel spreadsheet and attach the list as a separate document. iii. Budget Narra tive Attachment II . Grantees must submit a budget narrative that provides the information outlined in Attachment II of this TEGL including A detailed description of costs associated with each line item on the SF -424A Budget Information Form . Both the percentage and total dollar amount allocated to participant wages and fringe benefits as described at 20 CFR 641.565 . Both the percentage and total dollar amount allocated to administrative costs as described at 20 CFR 641.856 . Infrastructure contr ibutions to the workforce system in accordance with WIOA Sec. 121 h 29 USC 3151 h . 1 Choose the SF -424 and SF -424A that note Agency Owner as Grants.gov . 3 iv. Program Narrative Attachment III . All g rantees must submit a narrative that includes the information outlined in detail in Attachment II I of this TEGL including Services to minorities Due to delays in data release from the Census Bureau there may be delays in obtaining necessary data for this report for PY 2022. Please note additional guidance for the Minority Report in Attachment III for instruc tions . Organizational structure monitoring and audits. Additionally national grantees may also choose to provide any relevant updates to the statement of work that was included in the grant award documents following the PY 20 20 National Competition. State grantees are not required to provide updates as they provided this information in relevant sections of the SCSEP portion of the WIOA Combined State Plan Modification submitted in Mar ch or their stand -alone SCSEP State Plan. States may modify their plans at any time as well. v. Program matic Assurances Attachment IV . Grantees must review sign and submit the programmatic assurances in Attachment I V that outline program requireme nts ba sed on the OAA and the SCSEP regulations at 20 CFR Part 641. Adobe digital signatures are acceptable. The signatory must be the same individual as the Authorized Representative listed in item 21 of the SF -424. vi. Option al Requests Attachment V . Grantees may submit one or more of the optional re quests described in Attachment V. Note that this TEGL provides updated instructions for requesting to use additional grant funds for training and supportive services activities ATSS requests and ETA encourages grantees to consider how incorporating such activities into their overall service strategy may help improve participant outcomes. c. Notices of Award. ETA will issue Notices of Award with new grant numbers and allocatio n amounts to SCSEP grantees for PY 2022 . d. Office of Management and Budget OMB Approval. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act OMB has reviewed and approved this information collection OMB Control Number 1205 -0040 which expires on November 30 202 4 . Under 5 CFR 1320.5 b an agency cannot conduct sponsor or require a response to a collection of information unless the collection displays a valid OMB Control Number. e. Poverty Guidelines. The Department of Health a nd Human Services HHS published updated Federal poverty guidelines that were effective on January 12 202 2. These guidelines provide the basis for determining the income eligibility of SCSEP applicants and enrollees. Grantees must multiply the appropri ate base poverty guideline by 125 percent or 1.25 to convert the poverty guidelines to low income as defined at Section 518 a 3 A OAA 42 USC 3056p a 3 A . The Poverty Guidelines are published on the HHS website and in the Federal Register. Th e HHS website that provides federal poverty guidelines https aspe.hhs.gov poverty -guidelines also provides a chart with percentages of the guidelines including 125 percent levels. Last year ETA opted to discontinue issuing the Poverty Guidelines annual TEGL to convey the SCSEP poverty guidelines given the availability of the poverty guideline s 4 information via the Federal Register and the HHS website. Grantees should review the poverty guidelines on one of these sites which are effective as of the publication date. ETA will continue to notify grantees informally once the poverty guidelines a re published and to post links to the guidelines at https www.dol.gov agencies eta seniors and https olderworkers.workforcegps.org . Continued SCSEP Provisions of the CARES Act . The CARES Act P ub .L 116 -136 March 27 2020 Sec. 3223 2 provided the Secretary authority to increase the administrative costs for a project as described in OAA Sec. 502 c 3 42 USC 3056 c 3 to an amount not to exceed 20 percent of the grant amount if such an increase is appropriate due to the ef fects of the COVID -19 public health emergency. This TEGL provides SCSEP grantees the opportunity once again to request an increase to their administrative cost limitation to up to 20 percent of the grant amount if the grantee can demonstrate that such an increase will help it mitigate the impact of the COVID -19 public health emergency on its operations employees and or participants. As noted above in the instructions for the Budget Narrative and in Attachment II grantees should note in their Budget Na rrative whether they plan to request the increased 20 percent cost limitation. To use this flexibility grantees must request and obtain ETA s approval according to the instructions in Attachment V Optional Special Requests addressing the justification requirements in 20 CFR 641.870. 5. Inquir ies. Please direct inquiries to your FPO. 6. References . Older Americans Act 42 USC 3056 et seq. as amended through Public Law 116 -131 March 25 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act 202 2 Pub.L. 11 7-103 March 15 2022 TEGL 17 -20 Update d Guidance on Priority of Service Durational Limits and State Plan Submissions April 15 2021 Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020 CARES Act Pub. L. 116 -136 March 27 2020 TEGL 17 -16 Infrastructure Funding of the One -Stop Delivery System January 18 2017 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act WIOA Pub. L. 113 -128 Sec. 121 Funding of One -Stop Infrastructure Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Pub. L. 104 -13 May 22 1995 SCSEP Performance Data Collection Approval Office of Management and Budget No. 1205 -0040 expiration date November 30 202 4 OMB Uniform Administrative Requirements Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards Final Rule 78 FR 78589 December 26 2013 published at 2 CFR Part 200 TEGL 12 -06 Revised Income Inclusions and Exclusions and Procedures for Determining Senior Community Service Employment Program SCSEP Eligibility December 28 2006 VOW Veterans Opportunity to Work to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 Pub. L. 112 -56 November 21 2011 5 Federal Poverty Guidelines Federal Register 87 FR 3315 January 21 202 2 or HHS website at https aspe.hhs.gov poverty -guidelines . 7. Attachments . Attachment I A-IE Funding Allocations and Authorized Positions Attachment II Budget Narrative Instructions Attachment III Program Narrative Instructions Attachment IV Programmatic Assurances Attachment V Optional Requests