Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA) State Plan comment period

For the original publication, please click here. The following is a text version of the original publication.
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To: Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services participants, providers, families, and stakeholders
From: Kylee B. Hope, Director, Bureau of Rehabilitation Services (BRS)
Re: Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA) State Plan comment period
Date: November 24, 2015

Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA), each state is required to submit a four-year State Plan that outlines the state’s workforce development strategy for the state’s workforce development system. Indiana is required to submit the Unified State Plan to the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education by March 3, 2016. WIOA aims to foster better alignment of federal investments in job training, to integrate service delivery across programs and improve efficiency in service delivery, and to ensure that the workforce system is job-driven and matches employers with skilled individuals. One of WIOA’s requirements is for planning across core programs, which includes the writing of a Unified State Plan. The core programs include:

• The Adult Program (Title I of WIOA)
• The Dislocated Worker Program (Title I)
• The Youth Program (Title I)
• The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Program (Title II),
• The Wagner-Peyser Act Program (Wagner-Peyser Act, as amended by Title III), and
• The Vocational Rehabilitation Program (Title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by Title IV).

The initial draft of Indiana’s Unified State Plan is now available for public comment. Comments are requested for content, language, and overall implementation of the plan. Comments will be accepted until 4 p.m. (EST), December 21, 2015. The plan and ways to provide public comment may be found on the WIOA State Plan Comments web page and public meetings will also be scheduled in the near future. 

For additional WIOA information please visit the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services website here or the U.S. Department of Labor website here.