BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2349
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Date of Hearing: April 7, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
Sandre Swanson, Chair
AB 2349 (Fong) - As Introduced: February 19, 2010
SUBJECT : Workforce development: Youth at Work Program.
SUMMARY : Requires the California Workforce Investment Board
(CWIB) to collaborate with the local workforce investment boards
to establish the California Youth at Work Program (Program) to
provide summer job training and work experience opportunities
for youth, as specified. Specifically, this bill :
1)Specifies the Program shall be established with the following
requirements, among other things:
a) The Program must focus primarily on providing summer job
training and work experience opportunities for youth in the
state, and that the period of "summer" shall be from May 1
through September 30 of each year, but that program start
and end dates may vary within this time period.
b) The Program must include a work experience and academic
enrichment components.
c) Eligible youth who participate in the California Youth
at Work Program shall be between 14 years of age and 24
years of age.
d) Low-income youth and certain youth populations facing
barriers to employment, as specified, shall be deemed
automatically eligible for the Program.
e) The Program shall, to the extent feasible and
appropriate, incorporate work-based learning strategies,
work experience and other activities that involve exposing
youth to industrial job opportunities that are key to the
economic region, as specified.
f) Wages or stipends, or both, may be provided to youth in
a classroom-based component of a summer employment
opportunity.
g) The Program shall incorporate career pathways or career
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ladders as part of the summer youth program and should be
coordinated with existing employment training programs and
economic development programs, as specified.
h) The CWIB in consultation with the local workforce
investment boards shall request, if required, any necessary
waivers from the United States Department of Labor, to
ensure effective and efficient implementation of the
Program set forth in this bill.
i) The Program established by this bill shall only be
implemented if the Director of Finance determines that
there are sufficient federal or state funds made available
to the state to expend on for the Program.
1)Specifies that local workforce investment boards are to award
grants or contracts to eligible providers of youth activities,
consistent with federal law or with other funding sources and
to identify eligible providers of training in a manner
consistent with federal law.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW in the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of
1998 requires all states to form state workforce investment
boards, and for Governors to designate local workforce
investment areas and oversee local workforce investment boards.
WIA requires that 85 percent of the federal funds supplied go to
the local workforce investment boards, with the remainder
allocated for state discretionary purposes.
Creates the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(ARRA) which allocates additional WIA funds over the 2009-2010
and 2010-2011 fiscal years. ARRA also makes additional funds
available, which include funding for summer youth programs,
nationally through competitive grants which may be accessed,
among other groups, by state workforce investment boards and
local workforce investment boards.
EXISTING STATE LAW establishes the California Workforce
Investment Board (CWIB), and requires the CWIB to assist the
Governor with promoting the continuous development and oversight
of a well-educated and highly skilled workforce, and development
of the State Workforce Investment Plan.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
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COMMENTS : In February 2009, President Obama signed into law the
ARRA, which sought to use federal stimulus dollars to combat the
current economic recession. In March 2009, the Senate Labor and
Industrial Relations Committee and the Assembly Committee on
Labor and Employment held an informational hearing on the state
of the economy, as well as how the stimulus funds would affect
California. At that hearing, the Legislative Analyst's Office
(LAO) stated that California would receive an additional $494
million for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal years, on top of the
$491 million allocated for fiscal year 2009-10 in WIA funds. Of
the $494 million that we will receive through the ARRA, $188
million has been allocated for youth programs.
After the passage of the ARRA, the federal Department of Labor
released a Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) that
provided specific policy guidance and instructions for how to
expend ARRA funds. One area of focus in the TEGL was on youth
job programs, and how those program funds should be expended,
what programs are allowable, and what definitions should be used
when setting the parameters of youth programs. Specifically,
the TEGL notes the following when discussing youth programming:
While the Act does not limit the use of the Recovery Act
funds to summer employment, the Congressional explanatory
statement for the Act states that "the conferees are
particularly interested in these funds being used to create
summer employment opportunities for youth." ETA [Employment
Training Administration] strongly encourages states and
local areas to use as much of these funds as possible to
operate expanded summer youth employment opportunities
during the summer of 2009, and provide as many youth as
possible with summer employment opportunities?
According to the author, in the summer of 2009, nearly 50,000
youth in California were employed through the Program partly due
to the temporary ARRA funding. The summer youth Program
provided thousands of California youth throughout our state good
jobs with skill building and work readiness training. With the
increase from ARRA being a limited one-time occurrence along
with the significant decreases in WIA funding since 2001, all
but a few WIA youth programs still remain.
Once the ARRA funds are no longer available, the author hopes
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that with the enactment of this bill the California Youth at
Work Program will continue to be an effective and beneficial
resource for disadvantaged youth that will afford them an
opportunity to gain vital work experience and important learning
based strategies, within the guidelines of the WIA, which
benefit the economy by helping California's youth gain the
skills necessary to become and remain competitive in the
workforce.
Prior Legislation
AB 1559 (Committee on Labor and Employment) of 2009, vetoed by
the Governor, would have codified ongoing summer youth job
training programs, as well as the requirements and definitions
presented in the Department of Labor's Training and Employment
Guidance Letter 14-08, facilitating the use of American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds.
SB 410 (Ducheny) of 2009, vetoed by the Governor, seeked to
provide greater oversight over the spending of the federal
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds, as
well as to set clear legislative goals and priorities for the
use of those funds relative to workforce readiness
programs.
SB 302 (Ducheny), Statutes of 2008, Chapter 376, created the
requirement that the Employment Development Department report
annually on the training expenditures made by local workforce
investment boards in the prior fiscal year, and authorized
additional accounting practices.
SB 293 (Ducheny), Statutes of 2006, Chapter 630, restructured
the local workforce investment boards and the state workforce
investment boards, as well as authorized the submittal of
unified local plans for welfare-to-work programs.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California Workforce Association (sponsor)
Opposition
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None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Lorie Erickson / L. & E. / (916)
319-2091