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On May 24, the Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) jointly announced the 15 states that are eligible to apply for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Incentive Grants. ETA and OVAE have made $10 million of WIA Title II funds available for the grants.
The states eligible for incentive grants are: Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The funds are available through June 30, 2015, and must be used to support innovative workforce development and education activities authorized under WIA Title I or Title II, or under the Carl D. Perkins Act.
ETA and OVAE based eligibility on whether a state has exceeded its performance levels for WIA Title I and Title II. In determining eligibility, ETA and OVA examine performance goals related to employment after training and related services, retention in employment, improvements in literacy levels, and other measures.
Under current law, state grantees must be awarded not less than $750,000 and not more than $3,000,000; however, the funds available were not sufficient to support the minimum grant for all of the qualifying states. ETA and OVAE instead distributed 95 percent of the $10 million available evenly among the eligible states, and then allocated the remaining 5 percent based on how much funding the eligible states typically receive for WIA Title I and Title II.
Eligible states must submit their applications to ETA by July 8, 2013.
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