Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation (Combined or General)
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan [13] must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by title IV of WIOA:
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[13] Sec. 102(b)(2)(D)(iii) of WIOA
- o. State's Strategies
Describe the required strategies and how the agency will use these strategies to achieve its goals and priorities, support innovation and expansion activities, and overcome any barriers to accessing the VR and the Supported Employment programs (See sections 101(a)(15)(D) and (18)(B) of the Rehabilitation Act and section 427 of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA)):
- o. State's Strategies
o. 6. Strategies to improve the performance of the State with respect to the performance accountability measures under section 116 of WIOA
Current Narrative:
Between October 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018, CDOR submitted its first annual WIOA Statewide and Local Performance Report (ETA 9169) to its federal oversight agency, the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). This report aggregates data to match other WIOA core partner performance reports and educates the Congress on local performance and activities as they relate to the WIOA Performance Measures. The CDOR submitted its second performance report in October 2019 and concluded a two-year baseline for collecting and gathering baseline data for WIOA performance measures. The CDOR will begin working with RSA in 2020 to establish standards and target performance measures. Internally, CDOR is using the data collected to analyze internal processes for service delivery, data collection, and data sharing agreements to improve program successes. To achieve all of this, CDOR created an ongoing data integrity team, called the Enterprise Data Governance Board, to identify integrity issues and to propose and implement both technical and operational solutions. One activity of the Board is reviewing performance measures to ensure CDOR data validates the performance measures.
The CDOR continues to work diligently with its core partners, its consumers, and software providers to collect accurate and timely information for open and closed records of services.
WIOA Performance Measures
The CDOR will utilize an updated Accessible Web–based Activity Reporting Environment (Aware) system to collect some of the data needed to calculate the WIOA performance measures and upgraded it to include portions of performance measures that were not previously part of CDOR’s case management system, such as measurable skills gains. The CDOR recently established a Business Systems Governance Board and one of its functions is to identify sections in Aware that could improve data tracking and integrity, including the data collected for performance measures.
CDOR VR staff located throughout California will be collecting consumer data for the performance measures. To support the data collection, CDOR released three guidance circulars in April 2019 on performance measures. The guidance circulars cover the topics of Accurately Documenting and Reporting: Supplemental Wage Information, Measurable Skills Gains, and Credential Attainment. The guidance circulars provide the policy and procedure for documenting each performance measure and what information needs to be collected from participants and recorded in CDOR’s case management system.
Wage data is currently (and will continue to be) collected through an Interagency Agreement with the California Employment Development Department. The CDOR is in the process of developing agreements with CDE to collect their data on consumers that attained credentials and had measurable skills gains. The goal of the agreement is the data is to improve data integrity and improve tracking of the two performance measures.
To improve the measurable skill gains performance, the CDOR will implement the following strategies in PY 2020 and 2021:
- Identify accessible tools for career exploration and apply true LMI to guide IPE development and planning.
- Develop an inclusive vocational assessment process for staff to utilize toward developing IPEs.
- Identify and provide enhanced or expanded supports to remove employment barriers at the beginning of IPE development and throughout planning.
Local Partnerships
The CDOR has partnered and will continue to partner with the local Workforce Development Boards and America’s Job Center of California (AJCCs). The CDOR and California Workforce Development Board will work jointly with the AJCC’s to increase the number of CDOR consumers that are co-enrolled: enrolled in CDOR services and those services provided by the AJCC. The CDOR Central Office staff will provide support to the CDOR District management as they implement the priorities and strategies at the local level. The CDOR will also continue to coordinate with the California Workforce Development Board to update, as needed, local and regional level Memorandum of Understandings for the America’s Job Center of California.