In February 2018, the Council of the District of Columbia unanimously passed B22-0401, the Workforce Development System Transparency Act, and the bill was enacted in March 2018. This bill requires the District’s Workforce Investment Council (WIC) to create a guide detailing the District’s spending on workforce development and adult education programs, as well as the performance outcomes of those programs.
Performance outcomes information will be largely consistent with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) common metrics, and include employment rates, median earnings, credential attainment, and completion rates. In order to collect outcomes data, the bill specifies that to the extent possible, program participant information should be matched with unemployment insurance wage records, the National Student Clearinghouse, the Federal Employment Data Exchange System, and other data sources. Programs may also obtain outcomes information by surveying past program participants.
The first version of this guide will include information about programs managed by seven District entities: the Department of Disability Services, the Department of Employment Services, the Department of Human Resources, the Department of Human Services, the Deputy Mayor for Greater Economic Opportunity, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, and the WIC. By 2020, the guide will include programs administered by an additional fourteen District entities, including the University of the District of Columbia Community College.
WDQC worked with the D.C. Council’s Committee on Labor and Workforce Development to develop and advance this bill. In addition to providing suggestions about outcome measures and data matching policies, Policy Analyst Jenna Leventoff also testified in support of the bill during a committee hearing in September 2017.
WDQC applauds the Council of the District of Columbia for unanimously recognizing the ability of workforce data to improve District residents’ abilities to find the training that meets their needs, and to ensure that the District is making good investments with taxpayer money.
