INA Emergency Justification

Request for Emergency ICR Approval:

Collecting Aggregate Participant Counts for Workforce Investment Act, Section 166, Indian and Native American (INA) program on a Quarterly Basis

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (The Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009—Division A Title VIII, P.L. 111-5. The Recovery Act is intended to preserve and create jobs, promote the nation’s economic recovery, and assist those most impacted by the recession. The Recovery Act provides the U.S. Department of Labor and the public workforce investment system with unprecedented levels of funding for a number of employment and training programs to help American workers acquire new skills and get back to work. The programs include Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title IB; Wagner-Peyser Act, including Reemployment Services Grants; and National Emergency Grants.

If the workforce system is to meet both the letter and the spirit of the law and fulfill its critical role in the U.S. economic recovery, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) must implement the Recovery Act expeditiously and effectively, with full transparency and accountability at all levels. To that end, this request for emergency ICR approval is to modify the frequency of reporting and request the collection of some additional data elements¹ covered under OMB Control Number 1205-0422—Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Title I, Section 166, Indian and Native American Youth Program (ETA form 9085).

The reporting requirements related to this change are designed to keep the additional reporting burden to a minimum, while ensuring that ETA collects the necessary information to report timely information to stakeholders about the use of the Recovery Act funds. Accountability guidelines for the Act emphasize data quality, streamlining data collection, and collection of information that demonstrate measurable program outputs and outcomes. Consistent with the law, ETA will make the reported information publicly available through the Administration’s Recovery website (www.recovery.gov).

INA grantees currently submit a quarterly report (ETA 9085—OMB Control No. 1205-0422) which is submitted 45 days after the end of the calendar quarter. However

To record the impact of the Recovery Act resources, additional information on participants must be collected with a shorter time lapse for receiving the information. Therefore, to obtain a more robust look at participants and services provided with the additional Recovery Act resources, ETA has developed a revised ETA 9085 report which must be submitted monthly.

• Native American Youth Served with Recovery Act Funds Only: INA grantees will report aggregate counts of all Recovery Act youth participants, including the characteristics of participants, the numbers of participants in summer employment, services received, attainment of a work readiness skill, which is required in the Recovery Act, and completion of summer youth employment. INA grantees will also continue to submit an ETA 9085 report on a quarterly basis to report on youth served through the “regular” WIA section 166 youth program

Beginning with the April – June, 2009 quarter, INA grantees will begin submitting the ETA form 9085 youth program report for the “regular” SYS program on a quarterly basis. These reports will be due 45 days after the end of the calendar quarter. In addition to the quarterly program report, INA grantees must submit a monthly Recovery Act report which is due by the 15^th of the following month. The first monthly Recovery Act report will be due on July 15^th for the month of June. For this first report, INA grantees will be required to include any Recovery Act participants that participated in the program prior to June 2009.

1 The additional data elements include:

• Number of participants enrolled in another WIA program (Recovery Act WIA Youth program)

• Number of out-of-school youth age 22-24 (Recovery Act WIA Youth program)

• Work readiness attainment rate (Recovery Act WIA Youth program)

• Summer employment completion rate (Recovery Act WIA Youth program)

2