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References: The Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the Trade Act); 20 CFR Part 617; the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, as amended by the Higher Education Amendments of 1992; and General Administration Letter (GAL) No. 1-88. Background: GAL No. 1-88, issued December 2, 1987, provided program guidance to SESAs on the payment of TRA when a worker receives financial assistance such as a Pell Grant, a Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, or a similar grant or training allowance under any Federal law other than the Trade Act. Because of the subsequent Higher Education Amendments of 1992, the revised program guidance in this new GAL supersedes the program guidance in GAL No. 1-88 by providing that Pell Grants and other Federal student financial assistance shall not be deducted from payment of TRA and subsistence and transportation allowances. Other Federal student financial assistance includes benefits under Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Federal educational loan programs, Presidential Access Scholarships, Federal student work-study programs, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Student Assistance. This revised policy on reducing TRA by Pell Grants and other Federal student financial assistance results from a conflict between the provisions of the Trade Act and implementing regulations, which require that payment of TRA be reduced by the amount of a training allowance received pursuant to a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance, and Section 479B of the HEA, as amended by Section 471 of the Higher Education Amendments of 1992, which prohibits the reduction of any Federally financed benefit or assistance based upon the receipt of such student financial assistance. Section 479B of the HEA, as amended, also prohibits the reduction of the amount of training payments due to the receipt of Federal student financial assistance. Conflict between this provision and the non-duplication provision of Section 236(a)(4) of the Trade Act may be avoided through funding pre-arrangements under Section 617.25(b) of the regulations. The Department is preparing additional guidance on this matter. When a State awards Trade Act benefits to a person receiving Federal student financial assistance, the State will notify the appropriate State educational officials consistent with State laws including the Privacy Act requirements. Section 471 of the Higher Education Amendments took effect on July 1, 1993. The justification for the revised policy on reducing TRA by Pell Grants and other Federal student financial assistance is provided in the Attachment to this GAL. Revised Program Guidance on the Payment of TRA: This GAL revises the program guidance provided to SESAs in GAL No. 1-88 on the payment of TRA when a worker who qualifies for TAA also receives a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education. GAL No. 1-88, which was issued prior to the Higher Education Amendments of 1992, provided the U.S. Department of Labor's position at that time on Section 236(a)(3)(C) (presently Section 236(a)(4)(C)) of the Trade Act, as implemented by Section 617.13(c)(2) and Section 617.25(b)(4)(ii)(C)(1) of the regulations, as follows: When Pell Grant funds are disbursed to the worker by the training institution, and the worker is responsible for paying the costs of training and other related, costs, under Section 236(a)(3)(C) of the Act the funds are not for the purpose of the "direct payment of the costs" of training. The Pell Grant funds disbursed to the worker may be used to pay the costs of training or retained for personal maintenance costs. Such funds are categorized as a training allowance under Section 232(c) of the Act (Section 617.13(c)(2)) and are deductible from the weekly TRA payments on a pro rata basis over the term of the training. (Underlining added.) The purpose for citing the above paragraph in GAL No. 1-88 is to emphasize that the regulations previously considered a payment of a Pell Grant to the worker to be an "indirect" payment of training costs and therefore was deductible from TRA. However, because of the amendment to the HEA made by Section 471, no payment of TRA made to a worker for any week beginning after the date of this GAL shall be reduced due to receipt of a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance. Sections 617.27(a) and 617.28(a) of the regulations contain similar provisions reducing the payment of subsistence and transportation allowances if the worker receives similar assistance under another Federal law. Under the amendment to the HEA made by Section 471, such payments made after the date of this GAL may not be reduced on account of receipt of Federal student financial assistance. A worker whose payment of TRA, subsistence allowance, or transportation allowance was reduced due to the receipt of a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance for any week beginning on or after July 1, 1993, may be entitled to reimbursement for the reduced amount, pursuant to the applicable provisions of State UI law for undertaking redeterminations as stated below. Redeterminations of prior determinations of TRA and subsistence and transportation allowance claims shall be undertaken by a State or State agency solely pursuant to the authority in Section 617.50(c) of the regulations and the applicable State UI law as it is applied in the case of regular State UI. Such provisions of the State UI law shall be the sole criterion in determining whether the State or the State agency has the authority to make a redetermination in any case. For this purpose, the State UI law includes judicial decisions of the courts of the State in comparable UI cases as well as State statutory provisions, and thus is the same as the "State law" which is relevant for conformity and compliance purposes under Title III of the Social Security Act. In other words, the authority a State agency has under the State law to make redeterminations of a State UI claim under similar circumstances, and the time limits on such authority, is the authority a State agency has to make redeterminations of TRA and subsistence and transportation allowance claims due to the revised policy in this GAL. No departure from these rules shall be undertaken in any circumstances without the prior approval of the U.S. Department of Labor. In the case of any determination made with respect to any worker whose payment of TRA or subsistence or transportation allowance was incorrectly reduced due to the receipt of a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance for any week beginning on or after July 1, 1993, the State or State agency shall exercise such authority as it has under the applicable State UI law for regular State UI to undertake a redetermination of the Trade Act payment. The procedural requisites of the applicable State law and Section 617.50(c) of the regulations shall be observed in undertaking and making any redetermination, including any notice to the claimant that reconsideration is being undertaken and the issue involved, and affording the worker an opportunity to present evidence and be represented before the claims examiner. If, upon redetermination, it is decided that the worker was underpaid TRA or subsistence or transportation allowance for any week beginning on or after July 1, 1993, due to the receipt of a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance, the worker will be reimbursed for the underpaid amount. However, before reimbursement of TRA is made to any worker, the SESA must make certain that the amount of reimbursement will not exceed the maximum amount of basic TRA payable to the worker as determined in Section 617.14(a) or the number of weeks of additional TRA payable as determined in Section 617.15(b). (As explained in ET Handbook No. 336, SESA UI Program and Budget Plan Handbook, SESAs should report redeterminations on line 5, Section C of the UI-3 report. The MPU value is the same as the allocated initial claims MPU.) The revised program guidance on the payment of TRA in this GAL provides unequivocally that Section 232(c) of the Trade Act and the TRA reduction requirements of Sections 617.13(c)(2) and 617.25(b)(4)(ii)(C)(1) of the regulations are not applicable to Pell Grants and other Federal student financial assistance. This is also true for Section 617.27(a) and Section 617.28(a) of the regulations relative to the payment of subsistence and transportation allowances. NOTE: Funds provided to adversely affected workers from the other above-named Federal student financial assistance programs under the HEA will be administered in the same manner as Pell Grants. Educational and Training Grants Other Than HEA Grants: Educational and training grant funds other than HEA grant funds and Bureau of Indian Affairs Student Assistance will continue to be administered in the same manner as other non-HEA grant funds as required by the Trade Act. Action Required: SESA Administrators are requested to: a. Inform appropriate staff of the revised program guidance on the payment of TRA (or payment of subsistence or transportation allowances) when workers also receive a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance. b. Ensure that the applicable provisions of State UI law for undertaking redeterminations are used to reimburse workers whose TRA payment (or subsistence or transportation allowance payment) was reduced due to the receipt of a Pell Grant or other Federal student financial assistance.

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Background: In Program Year (PY) 94, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) began its support of the One-Stop System by awarding 19 planning and development and six implementation grants to States. In PY 95, ETA funded an additional ten States to implement Statewide One-Stop Career Center Systems. In November 1996, ETA announced that 17 additional States would be awarded implementation grants, bringing the total number of implementation States to 33. Designation of new implementation States continues. It is anticipated that the remaining States will receive implementation grants in either PY 97 or in PY 98. The One-Stop Career Center System continues to expand as local partnerships start up additional One-Stop Centers and self-access services are made available to home and business users through remote dial-in or Internet access. The breadth of services available electronically is expanding. The Evaluation: In June 1995, ETA funded Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) to evaluate State and local One-Stop systems in the first nine States receiving One-Stop implementation grants. The evaluation had the following objectives: Document the progress of the States in planning One-Stop systems and developing policies to support the implementation of these systems; Document the implementation of local One-Stop Centers operating in a wide range of environments; and Identify key factors that facilitate or impede State and local One-Stop systems in meeting the One-Stop guiding principles of universal access, customer choice, service integration and accountability for customer outcomes. Based on the evaluation, SPR has completed an analysis of the progress made by the States during the early phase of the implementation process. The site visits were made between September 1995, and October 1996. The first nine States to receive implementation grants were the focus of this study. These States were Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin. The local sites studied were New London Connecticut Works Career Center and Willimantic Connecticut Works Career Center, Connecticut; Eastside Workforce Development Center (Indianapolis) and Lawrenceburg Workforce Development Center, Indiana; Creston Workforce Development Center and Des Moines Workforce Development Center, Iowa; Columbia Employment and Training Center and Eastside Career Center (Baltimore City), Maryland; FutureWorks Career Center (Springfield), Massachusetts; Minnesota Workforce Development Center - Anoka County (Blaine), Minnesota; Wood County Employment Resource Center (Bowling Green), Ohio; Arlington Career Center and Lake Jackson Career Center, Texas; and Waukesha Workforce Development Center (Pewaukee), Wisconsin. The Final Report: The Final Report is comprehensive and provides in-depth explanations on a wide range of topics, from building partnerships to physical facilities and capacity building. The Report is over 300 pages in length. The Report is designed, however, to facilitate use by a wide range of users, with varying levels of interest and time. The Report includes a six and one-half page Executive Summary, which provides in easy-to-read format the following: Key Findings (Accomplishments); Factors Influencing Implementation; Progress In Meeting The Four Principles; and Recommendations For Federal, State and Local Policy-Makers. The body of the Report is organized in three major sections: State and Local Organization and Governance; Development of the Infrastructure to Support One-Stop Systems; and Service Design and Delivery. The ten principal chapters of the report are organized under these sections as follows: Organizing and Governing One-Stop Systems Chapter I. Guiding One-Stop Systems: The State Role Chapter II. Building Local Partnerships and Governing One-Stop Systems Building the Infrastructure to Support One-Stop Systems Chapter III. Developing Appropriate Physical Facilities for One-Stop Oper ations Chapter IV. Creating an Effective One-Stop Information Infrastructure Chapter V. Building Staff Capacity Chapter VI. Financing One-Stop Services Chapter VII. Marketing One-Stop Systems Chapter VIII. Measuring One-Stop Performance and Planning for System Improvements Designing and Delivering One-Stop Services Chapter IX. One-Stop Services to Individual Customers Chapter X. One-Stop Services for Employers The final section of the Report, Summary and Conclusions, summarizes the changes that have occurred in services to employer and job seeker customers because of this integrated One-Stop System. The Report indicates that the changes which have occurred in the system should not be underestimated. "Both employer and job seeker customers were enthusiastic in describing One-Stop Career Centers as improvements over the previous uncoordinated system." Companion Documents: There are two companion documents that may be of interest, the Practitioners' Guide and the Appendix. A separately bound Appendix to the Report consists of the individual One-Stop profiles of the experiences of the nine States and 14 local Centers included in the study. The Practitioners' Guide is based on the findings of the Evaluation. It focuses on the challenges of developing customer-oriented services in a One-Stop environment and provides detailed examples of the different strategies case-study sites have used to address these challenges. The Practitioners' Guide is scheduled for completion by November 1997. The Practitioners' Guide will be the basis for System Building Training sessions to be provided to interested States and local sites. SPR will be conducting these sessions beginning in November and December 1997 and in Calendar Year 1998. Availability: The Report, as well as the Appendix, is now available on Training and Technology Resource Center's (TTRC) One-Stop web page: www.ttrc.doleta.gov/one-stop/eval.htm. Upon completion, the Practitioners' Guide will also be placed on the website. The Final Report is in Portable Document Format (PDF). The Appendix, the profiles of the nine States and 14 local sites, is in both ASCII and PDF. PDF provides considerable flexibility. It permits the reader to do word searches, e.g., one can find references by subject matter by typing in the key words. It also permits the reader to print by section or page. ETA is providing additional flexibility by organizing the Final Report so that the reader can download specific chapters. Hypertext links are also provided to facilitate the reader connecting with related material. Hard copies of the Final Report, Appendix, and Practitioners' Guide can be obtained from your Regional Administrator. Action Required: This report should be of interest to all States and local sites involved in the One-Stop System. All State and local staff working with One-Stop implementation should be provided an opportunity to review this report. Everyone is encouraged to provide comments on the Final Report, Appendix, and Practitioners' Guide (when available). Comments, including suggestions, can be made to the appropriate Regional Office or through the Internet. On the Internet, comments should be addressed to: IMPLEMENT@doleta.gov. ETA will utilize this account to receive and respond to comments or suggestions.

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