Boards must promote Project RIO program services, such as fidelity.......

TEXAS WORKFORCE COMMISSION LETTER

ID/No: WD 69-07
Date: December 5, 2007
Keyword: Project RIO
Effective: Immediately

To: Local Workforce Development Board Executive Directors
Commission Executive Offices
Integrated Service Area Managers

From: Laurence M. Jones, Director, Workforce Development Division

Subject: Legislative Budget Board Benchmark for the Number of Project Reintegration of Offenders Customers Served


PURPOSE:
To provide Local Workforce Development Boards (Boards) with:
• information and guidance on increased Legislative Budget Board (LBB) performance benchmarks for the number of Project Reintegration of Offenders (Project RIO) customers served; and
• best practices for establishing business relationships with Project RIO criminal justice partners—i.e., the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), and the Windham School District (WSD).

BACKGROUND:
The 80th Texas Legislature, Regular Session (2007), increased the Texas Workforce Commission’s (Commission) funding for Project RIO during the 2008–09 biennium by 50 percent, with a corresponding statewide increase in the LBB performance benchmark for the number of Project RIO customers served.

WD Letter 52-07, issued August 22, 2007, and entitled “Fiscal Year 2008/Program Year 2007 Allocations, Amended WIA Dislocated Worker Allocations, and Performance Targets,” provides Boards with information on the additional funding for Project RIO in the Boards’ Fiscal Year 2008 allocations.

PROCEDURES:
Boards must be aware that the increase in the statewide LBB performance benchmark for the number of Project RIO customers served requires a corresponding increase in the number of Project RIO customers served by the Boards. Therefore, the Commission has established a noncontracted performance target for each Board for the number of Project RIO customers served, which is set forth in the Monthly Performance Report.
Boards must take measures to maximize services provided to ex-offenders and adjudicated youth, in order to attain the increased LBB target for the number of Project RIO customers served.

Boards must be aware that The Workforce Information System of Texas (TWIST), TWIST Web Reports, and TDCJ Parole Division Reports are available to maximize service provision. In particular, the following tools are available to obtain TDCJ and TYC job seeker information:
• TWIST Scheduler, to outreach dischargees and/or parolees;
• TWIST Web Report, TYC Release and Referral Report, to identify and outreach eligible TYC adjudicated youth;
• TWIST Web Report, Project RIO Referral Report, which shows the status of individuals who have been referred for Project RIO services and who have had a Project RIO Program Detail opened; and
• TDCJ Parole Division PDSUR106A, accessible through the TDCJ Parole Regional Director, listing active parolees by county.

To ensure Boards are aware of their roles and responsibilities in working with Project RIO customers, it is recommended that Boards review Commission rules Chapter 847, Project RIO Employment Activities and Support Services, and previously released Commission guidance.

Under §847.3(c), relating to Board coordination, Boards must:
• maintain ongoing communications with parole offices by routinely reporting outcomes of Project RIO referrals and participation, including successful transition to employment and failure to participate, as specified in §847.3(c)(1); and
• finalize the local Memorandum of Understanding between the Board and TDCJ and TYC parole offices, and WSD, as specified in §847.3(c)(4).

Additionally, Boards must promote Project RIO program services, such as fidelity bonding services and the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, with employers and parole officers to encourage the hiring of Project RIO job seekers, in accordance with §847.3(g).

It is recommended that Boards use the following best practices to establish and maintain positive working relationships with their criminal justice partners, and to ensure that Project RIO participants are provided appropriate services:

• Optimize the working relationships among the Board, contractor, and TDCJ and TYC parole offices.
• Consider having Texas Workforce Center staff participate in outreach activities at local parole offices. This most commonly would occur during new parolee orientations.
• Establish or strengthen relationships with faith-based and community-based organizations serving ex-offender populations.
• Where a TDCJ state jail or Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility (SAFPF) is located within the local workforce development area (workforce area) and has discharged a substantial number of dischargees into the workforce area, consider having Texas Workforce Center staff participate in release activities facilitated by TDCJ Project RIO staff, Institutional Parole Division staff, or TDCJ contractor staff.
• Educate local probation departments on the eligibility of probationers being released from TDCJ facilities.

Note: Care must be taken to differentiate between these probationers and probationers not sentenced to a TDCJ facility. Probationers not sentenced to a TDCJ facility are not eligible for Project RIO.

INQUIRIES:
Direct inquiries regarding this WD Letter to wfpolicy.clarifications@twc.state.tx.us.

RESCISSIONS:
None
________________________________________________________________________

REFERENCE:
80th Texas Legislature, Regular Session (2007), General Appropriations Act, Article VII
Texas Labor Code, Chapter 306
Texas Workforce Commission Project RIO Employment Activities and Support Services Rules: 40 TAC Chapter 847
WD Letter 48-05, issued September 15, 2005, and entitled “Serving Project Reintegration of Offenders Job Seekers”
WD Letter 52-07, issued August 22, 2007, and entitled “Fiscal Year 2008/Program Year 2007 Allocations, Amended WIA Dislocated Worker Allocations, and Performance Targets”
TA Bulletin 127, issued August 28, 2006, and entitled “Report on Texas Department of Criminal Justice Active Parolees by Region”
TA Bulletin 164, issued October 9, 2007, and entitled “Project Reintegration of Offenders TWIST Interface Update”

FLEXIBILITY RATINGS:
No Local Flexibility (NLF): This rating indicates that Boards must comply with the federal and state laws, rules, policies, and required procedures set forth in this WD Letter and have no local flexibility in determining whether and/or how to comply. All information with an NLF rating is indicated by “must” or “shall.”

Local Flexibility (LF): This rating indicates that Boards have local flexibility in determining whether and/or how to implement guidance or recommended practices set forth in this WD Letter. All information with an LF rating is indicated by “may” or “recommend.”