1. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Driven
Providing talent for the 21st Century
Creating an MOU/IFA that Works: Lessons Learned
Bill Robinson, Director
Bureau of Services for Blind Persons

2. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
Date of Enactment – Signed into Law 7/22/2014 General effective date – July 1, 2015 (Corresponds to beginning of Program Year) Implementing Regulations – Final Rules - general effective date of September/October 2016

3. WIOA – Core Partners
WIOA Title I. B: Adult, Dislocated Workers and Youth
WIOA Title II: Adult Education and Literacy
WIOA Title III: Wagner-Peyser
WIOA Title IV: Vocational Rehabilitation

4. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act – Core Partners
WIOA – CIE, EE, Pre-ETS, SMW
Holding the mandates are the Four Core WIOA
Partners – In Michigan the programs are housed
In TIA, DHHS and LARA

5. ALIGNMENT OF CORE PARTNERS
In Michigan, alignment occurs via the Unified State Plan (USP) which unites the WIOA Core Partners through but not inclusive of:
The one-stop delivery system
Performance accountability
Pre-Employment Transition Services
Employer Engagement/Business Services
Program Year / Program Year Reporting

6. Michigan Workforce Structure
The Statewide Workforce Development Board is known as the Governor’s Talent Investment Board. See WIOA Section 101(b) There are 16 Workforce Development Boards in the State of Michigan, doing business as Michigan Works! Agencies. The one-stops or American Job Centers are branded in Michigan as Michigan Works! One-Stop Service Centers.

7. Collaborative Efforts for MOU’s/IFA’s
WHO? – Workforce Leadership with the Talent Investment Agency (TIA); VR Leadership comprised of Michigan General and Michigan Blind WHEN? – Occurred over the period of initial MOU development and subsequently over the period of initial IFA development HOW? – Monthly touchpoint meetings or conference calls. RESOURCES – Each MOU partner had input. DOL/TIA issued policy directives for MWA’s. TIA was available for ongoing support and consultation

8. MOU – Workforce Development Boards
From the 16 local WDBs, Michigan Blind received:
Draft MOU’s
Several “Final” MOU’s ready for signature
One “Final” MOU that provided only a partner signature (one-party agreement)
Several “Templates”

9. Michigan Blind Challenges:
Unlike the general agency – the blind agency does not have a contracts staff person residing within the agency. Fortunately, the Director has years of experience drafting contracts. In addition, there is a strong partnership with the DSA contracts staff and a good relationship with Workforce leadership.

10. MOU Prerequisites Partner Relationships Contract drafting expertise
Identifying common interests
Identifying the non-negotiables
Good communication skills
Understand the WIOA requirements for both VR and Workforce. That means reading the policy directives from RSA/DOL and using the Technical Assistance Centers

11. MOU Non-negotiables
Due to lack of time, staff and also in order to administer local MOU’s efficiently and effectively – Michigan Blind took the approach that all the MOU’s needed to follow a standard format that incorporated the technical template issued by DOL/RSA however customized for blindness. TIA supported Michigan Blind.

12. Effective MOUs
Naming and Term Who is the Agreement between? How long is the Agreement? How is the Agreement Identified? How is the Agreement Tracked?

13. Effective MOUs Parties and Recitals
Parties – “successors and assigns” / Definitions
Recitals:
Purpose
Affirmative statement – blind rehab agency
Expectation – Services must be provided regardless of VR presence

14. Effective MOUs
II. Vision and Principals This section contains some of the goals that are common interests but may not be provided based on resources

15. Effective MOUs III. Service Provision and Coordination
Spells out the goals each party to the agreement will provide
WDB
LARA/BSBP
Joint Responsibilities

16. Effective MOUs Part IV – Budget and Infrastructure Costs
The trigger to the Parties working towards an IFA is the execution of the MOU.
The WDB must demonstrate proportion of use and relative benefits provided
Duties and responsibilities of the MOU are separate from the IFA

17. Effective MOUs
Part V and VI – Referral and Inclusion Strategies Added some specificity regarding Communication Accessibility – “individuals with vision impairments” Part VIII – Other Provisions – Think about a common referral form – here is where we protected PII under 34 CFR and notice of litigation to DSA/DSU

18. Effective MOUs Part VIII – Duration of Agreement
Set up by Program Year and made it expire June 30, 2020 so that it is on a term consistent with the Unified State Plan.
Part IX – Fairly simply Amendment/Assignment
Part X – Certifications
- Note – The DSU must be a party to the Agreement – It is not sufficient for the DSA only to sign

19. Infrastructure Funding Agreements (IFA) –PY 2017
Program year July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018 – IFA was only required by Partners who either had an FTE or a dedicated program phone line or computer in the One-Stop. Costs were allocated based on FTEs. Therefore, BSBP did not have an obligation and TIA indicated to the MWAs or WDBs that no IFA was required with BSBP. However, DOL did a review of the MOU’s and IFA’s and determined all partners whether there was an obligation to contribute or not were required to have an IFA

20. Infrastructure Funding Agreement (IFA) – PY 2018
BSBP is now in the process of negotiating IFAs for PY The One-Stop Partners defined “relative benefit” for PY 2018 as follows:
It was agreed that the total # of active participants served (funded with admin or program funds) by required partner in zip codes assigned to the ____region (___ counties) would be the base. Active participants served are defined based on the previous budget year of the IFA (Program Year July 1 - June 30).

21. Relative Benefit Scale
Clients Served Scale:
#Served
FTE
0-25
26-75
.05
76-125
.10
.20
.30
.40
276+
.50

22. Effective IFA Conformity Must reference the MOU
want each one to be as simple as possible,
contain all the necessary IFA elements
One-year agreements since IFA is dynamic and MOU is not
Possess a mechanism to true-up actual IFA contributions with actual participants and actual budget

23. Talent is the engine of success

24. WIOA PERFORMANCE DRIVEN!

25. Michigan Bureau of Services for Blind Persons
Thank you! Questions? Resources – Generic MOU/IFA in Word Format Contact:

26. Other Resources - DOE
Infrastructure Funding of the One-Stop Delivery System:
One-Stop Operations Guidance for the Am Job Center Network:
Performance Accountability Guidance for Core Programs:
Joint Guidance on Data Matching – Performance Rpting. and Evail.
Vision for VR as a Partner in Workforce Development System:
Vision for the One-Stop Delivery System:
RSA: One-Stop Infrastructure Costs FAQs:
OCTAE 17-3: Infrastructure Funding of the One-Stop Delivery System:

27. Other Resources - DOL USDOL TEGL 17-16, issued January 18, 2017
United States Department of Labor (USDOL) Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) 16-16, issued January 18, 2017
2 Code of Federal Regulation Part 200 (Uniform Guidance)