New York

WIOA requires MOUs be entered into by local workforce development boards (LWDBs) and one-stop partners, among others.  The operation of the one-stop delivery system is the shared responsibility of States, LWDBs, elected officials, the six WIOA core program partners, required one-stop partners, one-stop operators, and service providers.  Additionally, the MOU must contain the signatures of the LWDB, one-stop partners, the chief elected official(s), and the period the MOU is effective.  The IFA, which supports the one-stop delivery system, is a component of the MOU.  NYS has established 33 local workforce areas across the State.  During the review, the State shared that only five local workforce development boards had executed MOUs, including IFAs.  It was shared that the IFA approval process is separate from the MOU approval process.  State staff did share that moving forward, the plan is to combine the MOU/IFA approval process since IFAs are included in the respective MOUs.  The five MOUs that were shared had a 36-month duration and expired on July 30, 2023.  The State must ensure the guidelines for MOUs and IFAs are finalized, and all local workforce areas have current and compliant MOUs and IFAs.

States are required to allow local providers to charge indirect costs as part of administrative costs.  AEFLA is a program where federal funding is intended to "supplement and not supplant" other State or local funding; therefore, local providers must use a negotiated restricted indirect cost rate if they charge indirect costs.  In lieu of a restricted rate agreement, local providers may use up to 8%, calculated on modified total direct costs (MTDC).  NYSED incorrectly set a rate of 2.6% for indirect costs for entities other than Local Education Agencies (LEAs), which does not comply with the Uniform Guidance or EDGAR.  The NYSED identifies this cap in the WIOA budget review sheet and addresses indirect costs separately from administrative costs.  According to WIOA, indirect costs are included as part of the administrative costs.  NYSED must prepare and issue policy guidance to inform local providers about the allowability of charging indirect costs using a negotiated restricted indirect cost rate agreement or the 8% rate calculated on MTDC, whichever is appropriate and allowable for the local provider.

WIOA sets a limit on local administrative costs at 5% and provides for a negotiation between the State agency and local provider to determine an adequate level of funds for local administrative costs if the 5% local administrative cost limit is too restrictive to allow for the local administrative activities.  A review of the NYSED’s application revealed that the State requires its eligible providers to use at least 80% of its AEFLA grant for instructional costs and allows up to 20% of its grant for administrative costs.  NYSED’s uniform policy of allowing up to 20% of funds to be used for administrative without a negotiation determining an adequate level of funds for non-instructional costs is inconsistent with statutory requirements.  Additionally, State staff had the sole function of determining which budgeted costs were administrative.  For local providers to be able to negotiate their administrative costs and track them adequately, the categorization of administrative costs should begin with the local provider.  The State must ensure its policies for negotiating administrative cost percentages are consistent with the WIOA statute and program regulations.

States must have a policy on the allowability of fees charged to program participants and communicate that policy to local providers.  When asked for the program income policy, NYSED provided the Employment Preparation Education (EPE) State Aid program policy, which allows a nominal charge to program participants.  In early discussions with State staff, the monitoring team understood this policy to also be relevant to WIOA title II services.  During the local provider focus group meeting, one local provider acknowledged charging $35 per participant for WIOA title II services.  During subsequent discussions, State staff indicated that program fees could not be charged to participants for WIOA title II, only for EPE.  The State has not provided a written policy for the WIOA title II activities.  NYSED must create a written policy specific to WIOA title II and ensure that local providers are trained on that policy.  NYSED should be clear in oral and written communication that the EPE and WIOA title II have separate program income policies.  In addition, the State must include a compliance check as part of its monitoring protocol.

WIOA identifies the primary indicators of performance required to be reported annually by all WIOA core programs.  WIOA Common Performance Reporting identifies the reporting criteria for these indicators.  Document review, discussion with NYSED staff, and a review of the State MIS, ASISTS, revealed data collection and reporting issues within the system regarding the credential attainment rate and MSG indicators of performance.  A review of the methodology for the credential rate indicator revealed the following calculation errors:

1. The denominator for the secondary credential component of the credential rate indicator includes all participants who, during the program year, enter the program without a secondary credential, enroll in a secondary level program, and exit the program.  NYSED did not have the restriction of “entered the program without a secondary credential” as part of the cohort definition.
2. NYSED includes only participants in the secondary credential cohort who began the program year in a secondary level program but does not account for students who move into a secondary level program during the program year.
3. The credential rate indicator is reported based on participants who exit between January 1 and December 31.  For PY 2021, this date range is January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.  However, NYSED’s methodology reported the credential rate indicator based on a timeframe of exiting between July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
4. The denominator for postsecondary includes participants dually enrolled in an adult education program and a postsecondary level program who exit from both programs.  This includes participants who enrolled in and exited from an Integrated Education and Training (IET) program.  NYSED’s methodology for the postsecondary credential cohort includes participants who enrolled in IET or Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education (IELCE), but it does not require exiting from these programs.  Additionally, not all IELCE participants are dually enrolled in a postsecondary level training program, so they may not all be eligible for the postsecondary credential cohort.

Each component must be addressed to accurately report State performance for the credential rate indicator.

Additionally, Measures and Methods for the National Reporting System for Adult Education indicates that only the most recent MSG should be reported for a participant on NRS Table 4.  MSG includes five types of gain: achievement of at least one Educational Functioning Level (EFL), attainment of a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, secondary or postsecondary transcripts or report cards, satisfactory or better progress report towards established milestones, or successful passage of an exam that is required for a particular occupation or progress in attaining technical or occupational skills.  MSG data on local program reports reflected more gains on NRS Table 4 than the total participant count for the program.  This indicated that the methodology did not account for the most recent MSG gain.  There is a concern that this could also impact the State-level MSG data, so the correct methodology must be applied to ensure accurate reporting for MSG.

States are required to report performance information for all participants served.  For purposes of AEFLA, a participant is defined as a reportable individual who has had at least 12 contact hours within a PoP.  States must be able to track PoPs for participants while also retaining the ability to calculate unduplicated counts of participants across PoPs.  Discussion with NYSED staff and a review of the State MIS, ASISTS, revealed that there is no function within the system nor a procedure to consolidate participant records for federal reporting.  Participants within the system who attend multiple local programs must be reported as a single participant for federal reports.  Thus, all local program records pertaining to an individual must be consolidated to form a single record for the program year.  This additional step must be implemented as part of the data review process for generating the federal aggregate reports and to comply with the WIOA performance accountability requirements.

Program regulations require that information on barriers to employment be collected during program intake and reported as part of the Statewide Performance Report (SPR).  WIOA defines an individual with a barrier to employment as a member of one or more of 11 specified populations, that includes Low Levels of Literacy and exhausting TANF within two years.  After reviewing NYSED’s MIS, ASISTS, and intake forms, the review team observed that the State is not collecting Low Levels of Literacy as an individual barrier to employment at the time of program intake.  This data element is a component of the combined barrier to employment listed on the annual Statewide Performance Report (SPR) as “English Language Learners, Low Levels of Literacy, and Cultural Barriers.”  Data review revealed that NYSED underreported this combined barrier on the SPR for PY 2021 (17.75%).  All students who are eligible to be enrolled in Adult Education meet the definition of Low Levels of Literacy.  Discussions with NYSED staff revealed that the barrier was reported solely based on the Cultural Barriers component of the combined barrier in PY 2021.  NYSED must implement data collection processes that capture all required barriers to employment elements individually at the time of program intake.

Furthermore, the data review for NYSED’s SPR revealed that the “Exhausting TANF within two years” barrier was not reported in any year under WIOA.  A review of local program files revealed multiple participants marked this barrier on their intake forms.  This indicates an issue in the data reporting of barriers to employment.  Although NYSED reports a high percentage of barriers to employment (81.29%) compared to the national average (61.35%), this issue limits the State's reported barriers.  NYSED should review the MIS to determine if other barriers to employment are being reported inaccurately and then update the MIS to ensure accurate reporting for all barriers to employment.