WorkFirst Redesign Meetings

Good Morning,

Following the passing of HB3141 by the legislature, Governor Gregoire requested the sub-cabinet thoroughly research the current TANF program and offer recommendations by November 2010 for its re-design. This project is a collaborative effort between DSHS, Commerce, DEL, ESD, and the SBCTC. The TANF redesign project is underway and a critical element for review and improvement of the WorkFirst program is to incorporate system-wide input, ideas, and regional best practices.

We are being asked to examine existing policies, expenditures, activities and operations, evaluate critical strategies, and focus on education and training opportunities that lead to employment, making sure WorkFirst parents don’t fall through the cracks. To this end, we are holding a series of regional meetings for 2-3 WorkFirst staff from each college. We encourage you to include your Basic Skills director any other directly invested campus staff for additional contributions to the conversation.

We have a limited time frame to accomplish our mission, compounded by the end of the fiscal year, summer breaks, and vacation schedules. In order to hear from as many of you as possible, we are arranging a series of 6 meetings, grouped by geographical areas and based on DSHS regions and tentatively scheduled. The lead contact for each is below:

Regions 1 & 2 – Deb Wagar of CBC – June 21

Region 3 – Jan Strand of Edmonds CC – June 24

Region 4 North – John Bowers NSCC – June 29

Region 4 South – Maggi Sutthoff RTC – July 6

Pierce County – Jean Watley of Bates – June 28

Region 5 & 6 – Yvette Wixson SPSCC – July 14

Details of meeting times and places specific to each region to follow. Thank you.

JT and 12 week Maximum Error

The “eJAS Component Codes” document at http://www.dshs.wa.gov/esa/wfhand/docs/JAS_component_codes.PDF shows a time limit for JT of “up to 12 weeks”. This is an error. Until this is corrected, please refer to another section of the handbook that provides clarification. The Life Skills vs. Job Skills training document at Life Skills/Soft Skills and Skills Enhancement (Job Skills) Training Differences clarifies that the Job Skills activity is a countable non-core with no time limit.

You may review the complete reference via http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=388-310-1050.

FW: Coding question

Hi Marie

Could you help me understand the best way to code students in SMS? I understand they need to be coded correctly at the beginning of a quarter in SMS. But my question regards students who may change a code say mid-way through the quarter. They may start out as 76 in full time school component of VE. They then gain employment of 20 hours/week. They now can be a 77 with JT coding. Or it could also be the other way around. Do I need to make changes in the middle of the quarter or just wait until the next quarter starts?

I know the guidelines say to put in the coding at registration but I thought I would get your advice about what to do if a student changes during a quarter.

Thank you

-------------------------------------------------------

These are great questions that arise due to the ever changing nature of the students we serve. Many parents transition between intent and income source during a typical year, however we can only report what we are aware of at the point of enrollment. We’ve provided guidance within the WorkFirst Delivery Agreement (for FY11, pages 18 & 19), and additional guidance can be obtained from the materials (link below) Carmen Stewart provided during her coding workshop (December, 09).

Most students will remain in the same Work-Attend code assigned for the entire year. It is not our intent to have you change coding at various time during a quarter. It is important to note that the post-quarter data rollup from SMS will identify the Work-Attend coding in place at the end of the quarter. If a student begins the quarter in a full time program as TANF (coded 76) and you modify the code mid-quarter due to an income change (75), we will capture that student as the last entered Work-Attend code. In this case your quarter end report would identify you served a former TANF (75) and will have no record of the college serving the TANF recipient. I’d suggest coding the student in the new Work-Attend classification at the onset of subsequent quarters. This practice should best represent who you are serving at the point of enrollment. Please let me know if you should have additional questions.

Thank you,

Marie Bruin
360-704-4360 (

Coding Workshop material-
http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/docs/datareporting/2009dec-student-coding-workshop.pdf

Updated WFDA Informational ITV sites

The following colleges will be scheduled to serve as sites for the upcoming WorkFirst Delivery Agreement informational ITV sessions. Both sessions will cover primarily the same information, centered around changes in and questions about the grant application. Many of the sites below have indicated space available for others to join them. If you wish to join a site, please let us know. Thank you.

Thursday, March 18^th 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.

Cascadia
Big Bend
Bates
Clark
Centralia
Walla Walla
Highline
Grays Harbor
Spokane IEL
Columbia Basin
Olympic
Shoreline
Bellevue

Monday, March 22^nd 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.

Bellingham Tech
Tacoma Community College
Everett
Highline
Peninsula
Clover Park
South Seattle
Lower Columbia
Yakima
Spokane Falls
Bellevue

December eJAS release-SBCTC

Good afternoon,

 

Input from the colleges is an important factor when assessing the effectiveness and operative value of the eJAS system.  Based on information you have shared several import modifications have been programmed and promoted during the month of December.   The eJAS modifications are a result of issues identified by users, system enhancements, and requests from partner agency leads. 

 

The attached document highlights the changes of particular interest and help to the college system.   We will continue to put forth suggestions and requests on your behalf.

 

Please let us know if you should have additional questions or concerns.

 

The State Board WorkFirst Team,

 

Workforce Education
State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
1300 Quince St. SE
P.O. Box 42495
Olympia, WA 98504-2495
ph: 360-704-4360 fax: 360-704-4418 Fax

 

 

eJAS Problem reports

Good Morning,

 

There are two eJAS problem reports currently being worked by IT Solutions that could affect your process of reporting monthly participation.  Examples are below;

 

1.    PR 56124 - A client has a JT component opened from 9/1/09 and a scheduled end date of 10/31/09.  The contractor accepts the component on 9/1/09 and then refers back on 9/23/09.  The DSHS case manager closes the component with an actual end date of 9/30/09.  When the contractor views the Multiple Client Monthly Participation page, the Hover date will show 9/1/09 through 9/30/09.  They are expecting to see 9/23/09 which was the refer back date.  When you access the client and look at their individual Client Monthly Participation page, it shows the JT component with a Hover date of 9/1/09 through 9/23/09 for the contractor and then 9/24/09 through 9/30/09 for DSHS.

There are two elements to note; 1) The recent modification in eJAS only de-obligates us from the requirement to report as of the RB date, it does not automatically close the component or enter the Actual End date.  Those two actions must still be completed by the case manager.  Until the fix is implemented you may check the accuracy of the hover date by going to the individual client participation page.

 

2.     PR 45445- This is one where the DSHS case manager puts in an actual end date on a component to close it, but the system is not assigning that end date to the contractor.  Now this does not happen on all cases, but when it does, it requires a datafix for us to manually put in that end date.  These you can see by looking at the component history.  The component will have an actual end date of say 9/30/2009, but the contractor will show an end date of 00/00/0000.  

Ex:

Top of Form C	PE	PRE-EMPLOY	09/22/2009	02/19/2010	10/21/2009	40		034DGC	IC	11/30/2009	Refer Back-Parent Has No Childcare
	3AZ--10/06/2009-00/00/0000 Bottom of Form

Cases meeting this description should be noted and referred to the EJAS help desk for a datafix to manually enter the date.   Hope this assists in providing some clarification to recent issues.  Please continue to advise should additional circumstances occur.

 

Thank you,

D. Marie Bruin
Policy Associate
Workforce Education
State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
1300 Quince St. SE
P.O. Box 42495
Olympia, WA 98504-2495
ph: 360-704-4360 fax: 360-704-4418 Fax

e-mail: mbruin@sbctc.edu
 

 

 

Exciting! New! WorkFirst blog!

Good Afternoon,

The NEW WorkFirst blog can be found at http://workfirstsbctc.blogspot.com/ . This new site hopes to provide you the program information you need in an easily accessible format. We intend to post the following types of information;

Program announcements
Policy changes
Questions & Answers
Archived responses

Comments

You will need a Gmail, Google, AIM, or similar account to allow you to comment through the blog. Just follow the instructions on the BlogSpot, and you should have no problem posting comments. Because the blog will archive posts based on subject matter, please be precise with your subject titles to make it easier for everyone to follow.

Please remember that unlike email, everybody will be able to read your comments. And while I will be checking the blog each day, old fashioned email is still the most expedient way to get answers to any questions you may have.

I will also post questions and answers that might be of benefit to all. Like all posts, the blog magically archives them by date and subject for easy search ability.

Thanks so much! I am looking forward to this being a successful tool for WorkFirst providers.

Marie Bruin