SCSEP priority and participation limits after 2020 amendments

CLASSIFICATION
   EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION                  SCSEP
               ADVISORY SYSTEM                             CORRESPONDENCE SYMBOL
          U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR                         OWI/DNPTTA
             Washington, D.C. 20210                        DATE
                                                           April 15, 2021

ADVISORY: TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE LETTER NO. 17-20

TO:            SENIOR COMMUNITY SERVICE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM GRANTEES

FROM:          SUZAN G. LEVINE
               Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary

SUBJECT:       Senior Community Service Employment Program – Updated Guidance on
               Priority of Service, Durational Limits, and State Plan Submissions

1. Purpose. This Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) provides guidance to
   Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) grantees regarding updates to the
   priority of service provisions, durational limit waiver categories, and State Plan requirements
   due to the passage of the Supporting Older Americans Act of 2020, which reauthorized the
   Older Americans Act (OAA) and included new provisions regarding certain individuals who
   were formerly incarcerated or under supervision following release from prison or jail.

2. Action Requested. Grantees must use this updated guidance to: 1) identify the priority of
   service for individuals determined to be eligible for the SCSEP program; and 2) determine
   whether extended periods of participation for individual participants within a grant or
   increases to a grant’s average participation cap are allowable, and to track such data.

3. Summary and Background.

   a. Summary. This TEGL shares guidance regarding amended statutory requirements to
      provide priority of service to eligible individuals who have been incarcerated within the
      last 5 years or are under supervision following release from prison or jail within the last 5
      years. The amended statute also includes these individuals as an additional category of
      individuals with barriers to employment. This TEGL provides updated guidance
      regarding related waivers of individual durational limits, as well as state plan reporting.

   b. Background. SCSEP is authorized by the Older Americans Act and was most recently
      reauthorized in Title IV of the 2020 reauthorization, the Supporting Older Americans Act
      (Public Law 116-131). The most recent SCSEP Final Rule (20 CFR 641) was published
      on July 30, 2018. These regulations provided better alignment between the performance
      measures under SCSEP and the performance measures under programs authorized by the
      Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014.

 RESCISSIONS                                              EXPIRATION DATE
 None                                                     Continuing

       Under OAA, SCSEP-eligible individuals must:
         be age 55 or older;
         have an income of no more than 125 percent of the Federal poverty guidelines; and
         be unemployed at the time of enrollment.

       Additionally, when selecting eligible individuals for participation in SCSEP, grantees and
       sub-recipients must give priority to individuals who have specific characteristics,
       described further in 4.d.

4. Impacts of Reauthorization on SCSEP Requirements. The 2020 reauthorization of the
   Older Americans Act added a new category to these priority requirements such that eligible
   individuals who have been incarcerated within the last five years or are under supervision
   following release from prison or jail within the last five years are now a priority population
   for enrollment and an additional category for the most-in-need characteristics.

   a. Definition. For the purposes of this TEGL, “formerly-incarcerated individuals” are those
      individuals who: 1) were incarcerated and released from prison or jail at any point within
      the last five years; or 2) were under supervision at any point within the last five years,
      following release from prison or jail. The five-year period specified in this definition
      refers to the five years preceding the date of first determination of program eligibility, as
      described in 20 CFR 641.505, for initial enrollment into the program.

   b. Effective Date. The changes to SCSEP made by the Supporting Older Americans Act of
      2020 and described in this TEGL took effect one year from that legislation’s enactment,
      March 25, 2021.

   c. Priority of Service. The 2020 reauthorization adds a tenth characteristic category that
      has priority of service over those individuals who meet only the basic eligibility criteria
      related to age, income, and employment. The revised list of priority of service
      characteristics includes individuals who:
           are 65 years of age or older;
           have a disability;
           have limited English proficiency;
           have low literacy skills;
           reside in a rural area;
           are veterans (or eligible spouses of veterans) for purposes of the Jobs for Veterans
              Act, Pub. L. No. 107-288 (38 USC 4215(a));
           have low employment prospects;
           have failed to find employment after using services provided under the Workforce
              Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 (Public Law 113-128);
           are homeless or at risk for homelessness; or
           are formerly incarcerated or on supervision from release from prison or jail within
              five years of the date of initial eligibility determination.

       The 2020 reauthorization does not impact how grantees and sub-recipients must apply
       these priorities, as described in 20 CFR 641.520:

          Persons who qualify as a veteran or qualified spouse under § 2(a) of the Jobs for
           Veterans Act, 38 U.S.C. 4215(a), and who possess at least one of the other
           priority characteristics;
          Persons who qualify as a veteran or qualified spouse under § 2(a) of the Jobs for
           Veterans Act, 38 U.S.C. 4215(a), who do not possess any other of the priority
           characteristics;
          Persons who do not qualify as a veteran or qualified spouse under § 2(a) of the
           Jobs for Veterans Act (non-veterans), and who possess at least one of the other
           priority characteristics.

d. Individual Durational Limit Extensions. Additionally, those participants identified as
   individuals with barriers to employment and most-in-need will now include formerly-
   incarcerated individuals, as defined in section 4.a. above. Formerly-incarcerated
   individuals are, therefore, now eligible for an additional 12 months of participation under
   their individual participant durational limit, pending ETA approval of the grantee’s
   revised individual durational limit (IDL) policy (20 CFR 641.570(b)).

   The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) blanket
   extension described in TEGL 22-19, “Program Year (PY) 2020 Planning Instructions and
   Allotments for Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) State,
   Territory, and National Grantees; and Implementation of SCSEP Provisions of the
   CARES Act” is separate and distinct from the standard IDL requirements described
   below.

   Consistent with 20 CFR 641.570 and the most recent guidance on IDL policies in TEGL
   22-19, grantees must provide their IDL policies to ETA for approval, and usually do so
   when submitting their annual grant plans. Grantees may adjust their IDL policies at any
   time by submitting them to ETA for approval. As explained in TEGL 22-19, Attachment
   V, grantees may choose one of three options for their IDL policies:
       1) Provide no extensions to any participant beyond the statutory 48 months.
       2) Allow extensions for participants with any one of the eight barriers to
          employment that are waiver factors, which include:
              a. Having a severe disability;
              b. Being frail;
              c. Are age 75 or older;
              d. Meeting the eligibility requirements related to age for, but do not receive,
                 benefits under title II of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.);
              e. Living in an area with persistent unemployment and are individuals with
                 severely limited employment prospects;
              f. Having limited English proficiency;
              g. Having low literacy skills; or
              h. Being a “formerly-incarcerated individual,” as defined by section 4.a.
                         above.
       3) Allow extensions for a specified subset of the eight barriers only, e.g., limited
          English proficiency only; limited English proficiency plus either severe disability

           or being 75 or older; or any subset combination of the barriers as identified in the
           grantee’s policy.
   If a grantee can document that a current participant would meet the requirement for this
   waiver factor (that is, at their date of initial eligibility determination, they were within
   five years of their date of release from being incarcerated or under supervision after
   release from prison or jail), then the current participant would be eligible for the IDL
   extension for this waiver factor. Both Option 2 and Option 3 allow the retroactive
   consideration of this new waiver factor.

   Grantees that have not adopted Option 2 or 3 for their IDL policy but wish to offer
   extensions for formerly-incarcerated individuals should submit their revised IDL policy
   to their Federal Project Officer. Grantees that already have an approved IDL policy that
   falls into Option 2 do not need to take any additional action at this time to activate this
   newly available waiver factor; on March 25, 2021, grantees with Option 2 policies will
   automatically be able to provide IDL extensions to eligible participants, both current and
   future.

e. State Plan Reporting. State grantees, in collaboration with the national grantees
   operating in their states, will be required to report on the relative distribution of formerly-
   incarcerated individuals as part of the Four-Year State Plan, next due in 2023. ETA will
   provide specific guidance on this requirement in the 2023 State Plan instructions.

f. SPARQ Data Collection. Updates are underway to allow for the specific tracking of
   this priority population in the SPARQ database. ETA will require grantees to track this
   information once the system change is complete. Until such time as this system change is
   made, a sample hard-copy data collection template is available to help grantees track this
   information (see Attachment I).

g. Documentation. Below are allowable forms of documentation of an individual’s
   qualification as formerly incarcerated, as described in TEGL 23-19, “Guidance for
   Validating Required Performance Data Submitted by Grant Recipients of U.S.
   Department of Labor (DOL) Workforce Programs.” Each of these documents must
   include the relevant date of release from incarceration (or from supervision from release
   of incarceration) in order to corroborate that it occurred within the five-year period:
        Documentation from the Adult Criminal Justice System;
        Written statement or referral document from a Court or Probation Officer;
        Referral transmittal from a Reintegration Agency;
        Signed intake application or enrollment form;
        Case notes;
        Needs assessment;
        Self-attestation; or
        Federal Bonding program application.

h. Related Resources. To support the employment prospects of formerly incarcerated
   individuals, ETA supports the Federal Bonding program, which provides fidelity bonds

       to employers to protect them from losses resulting from illegal acts of persons that they
       hire. This resource that can be very beneficial for SCSEP grantees as they support
       formerly incarcerated participants with unsubsidized employment. Training and
       Employment Notice (TEN) 07-20, “Resources for Serving Youth and Adults Involved
       with the Justice System,” provides information on Federal Bonding and other resources
       to support this population.

5. Inquiries. Please direct inquiries to the appropriate Regional Office.

6. References.
    Supporting Older Americans Act of 2020, Public Law 116-131 (March 25, 2020);
    SCSEP Final Rule, 75 FR 537864 (September 1, 2010), and 83 FR 146 (July 30, 2018)
      published at 20 CFR Part 641;
    TEN 07-20, Resources for Serving Youth and Adults Involved with the Justice System
      (November 23, 2020);
    Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (May 22, 1995)(as amended);
    SCSEP Performance Data Collection Approval (Office of Management and Budget No.
      1205-0040) (expiration date November 30, 2021).

7. Attachment.
   Attachment I: SCSEP Data Collection Sample Template

                                                                                       Attachment I

             SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

                                  Participant Information
1. Last name ______________________                2. First name_________________________
3. Middle initial __________                       4. Social Security # ___________________
4a. Participant ID ____________                    5. Home phone (____) ________________
5a. Cell phone (____) ________________
6. Mailing address
   _____________________________________________________________________
   a. Number and Street, Apt. Number; or PO Box

   _____________________________________________________________________
   b. City                                                         c. State

   _____________________________________________________________________
   d. ZIP Code                                                      e. County

6a. Participant’s e-mail address ______________________________________________
6b. Emergency contact: Name_________________ Phone (____) _________________
Relationship ________________________________

7. State of residence if different from mailing address ____________________________
8. Homeless              Yes          No                8a. Urban/rural           Urban          Rural
9. Application date for enrollment or re-enrollment ______________(MM/DD/YYYY)

                                   Eligibility Information
10. Date of birth________________(MM/DD/YYYY) 11. Number in family______
12. Receiving public assistance? (Check as many as apply)
   a. No                                                  b. Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
   c. TANF                                                d. State or local welfare (General Assistance)
   e. Suppl. Nutrition Assistance (SNAP)                  f. Subsidized housing
   g. Social Security Disability (SSDI)                   h. Other
(specify)______________________

13. Employed prior to participation?

   i. Employed        ii. Employed, but with notice of termination                    iii. Not employed

14. Total includable family income (12-month or 6-month annualized)
     $______________

15. Family income at or below 100% of poverty level?                            Yes         No

                                                                                        Attachment I

             SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

16. Formerly a participant in any SCSEP project?                               Yes          No
17. Transferred from another project?                         Yes      No
     If yes, specify prior grantee code _____________________________________
      Date of transfer ____________________________

17a. Change of sub-grantee?                                    Yes      No
     If yes, specify prior sub-grantee code __________________________________
     Date of change __________________________

                      Other Personal Characteristics and Information

18. Gender            Male         Female            Did not voluntarily report

19. Ethnicity: Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?
                      Yes          No                Did not voluntarily report
20. Race (Check as many as apply)
   a. American Indian or Alaskan Native                       b. Asian
   c. Black, African American                                 d. Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
   e. White                                                   f. Did not voluntarily report
21. Education ________ last grade completed (Select one code from following list)
00=no grade school             88=GED or certificate of equivalency for HS
1-11 years of school           13-15 years of school completed (1-3 years of college)   19=doctoral degree
A11=completed 12 years of      16=BA/BS or equivalent                                   21=vocational/technical
school but no HS diploma       17=education beyond a bachelor's degree                  degree
12=HS diploma                  18=master's degree                                       22=associate's degree

22. Limited English Proficiency (LEP)                      Yes          No

23. If LEP, please specify primary language _____ (Select one code from following list)
10. Amharic                 20. Hebrew               30. Mon-Khmer (Cambodian)           40. Spanish
11. Arabic                  21. Hindi                31. Navajo                          41. Tagalog
12. Armenian                22. Miao (Hmong)         32. Persian (including Dari)        42. Thai
13. Bosnian                 23. Italian              33. Polish                          43. Urdu
14. Cantonese (Yue)         24. Hungarian            34. Portuguese                      44. Vietnamese
15. French                  25. Ilocano              35. Punjabi                         45. Yiddish
16. French Creole           26. Japanese             36. Russian                         46. Other_____
17. German                  27. Korean               37. Samoan                           ____________
18. Greek                   28. Laotian              38. Serbo-Croatian
19. Gujarathi               29. Mandarin             39. Somali

24. Low literacy skills?                Yes           No

                                                                            Attachment I

           SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

25. Veteran (or eligible spouse of veteran)?
   a. Veteran         b. Eligible spouse of veteran        c. Non-covered person
      If veteran, post-9/11 era veteran?            Yes        No

26. Disability?
   Yes, self-report                            No
   Yes, documentation                          Did not voluntarily report

27. At risk of homelessness?            Yes          No

28. Displaced homemaker?                Yes          No

29. Failed to find employment after using WIA Title I?             Yes       No

30. Low employment prospects?               Yes           No

30a. Incarcerated or under supervision following release from prison or jail within the last
5 years?          Yes         No

31. Personal characteristics comments

                                                                   Attachment I

           SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

                                   Certification

I hereby certify that the above information is true and accurate to the best of my
knowledge and belief. I understand that if I intentionally provide inaccurate
information, I may be terminated from the SCSEP program and may be subject to legal
penalties.

32. Signature of applicant
     ______________________________________

33. Date of signing

     _______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

                                                                            Attachment I

              SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

                                 Eligibility Determination

34.       Eligible          Ineligible

35. If ineligible, reason (Check as many as apply)

      a. Age         b. Income       c. Residence outside of state
      d. Failed to complete application or provide required documentation
      e. Other (specify) ________________________________________

36. If ineligible, action taken (Check as many as apply)

      a. Referred to One-Stop        b. Referred to social services
      c. Referred to another project
      d. Placed in unsubsidized employment pursuant to MOU
      e. Other (specify) _________________________________________

                                  Enrollment Information

37. Placed on waiting list?                        Yes          No

38. Community service assignment?                  Yes          No

39. Grantee name __________________________________________________

39a. County of authorized position _____________________________________

40. Co-enrollments? (Check as many as apply)

      a. WIOA               b. Employment Service         c. Adult Education
      d. College/Community College
      e. Other (specify) ____________________________________________________
      f. None

40a. Date of orientation _______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

40b. Date of last physical or waiver ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

40c. Date of last IEP __________________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

                                                                                    Attachment I

             SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

40d. Job interest codes: 1________              2 ________            3________

1. Art, Design, Entertainment,        8. Food Preparation and Service     15. Production, Assembly, Light
Sports, and Media                                                         Industrial
2. Business and Financial             9. Healthcare                       16. Protective Service
Operations
3. Community and Social Services      10. Legal                           17. Retail, Sales, and Related
4. Computer and Mathematical          11. Maintenance and Custodial       18. Self-Employment
5. Construction, Installation, and    12. Management                      19. Transportation and Material
Repair                                                                    Moving
6. Education, Training, and Library   13. Office and Administrative
                                      Support
7. Farming, Fishing, and Forestry     14. Personal Care and Service

41. Enrollment comments

42. Signature of director or authorized representative

      ____________________________________________

43. Date of eligibility determination
      __________________________(MM/DD/YYYY)

                                                                            Attachment I

              SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

                                         Recertification
44. Number in family______

45. Total includable family income (12-month or 6-month annualized)
$_____________

                                          Certification

I hereby certify that the above information is true and accurate to the best of my
knowledge and belief. I understand that if I intentionally provide inaccurate
information, I may be terminated from the SCSEP program and may be subject to legal
penalties.

46. Signature of participant on recertification ____________________________

47.       Eligible          Ineligible

48. If ineligible, reason (Check as many as apply)

      a. Income      b. Failed to complete application or provide required documentation
      c. Other (specify) ________________________________________

49. Signature of director or authorized representative on recertification
        ______________________________________

50. Date of recertification determination ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

                                                                          Attachment I

           SCSEP Participant Data Collection Sample Template

                              Waiver of Durational Limit

51. Severe disability?          Yes      No
51a. Date of last update ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

52. Frail?                      Yes      No
52a. Date of last update ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

53. Old enough for but not receiving SS Title II?      Yes                No
53a. Date of last update ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

54. Severely limited employment prospects in area of persistent unemployment?
                                Yes      No
54a. Date of last update ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

55. Limited English Proficiency (LEP)?      Yes No
55a. Date of last update ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

56. Low literacy skills?        Yes      No
56a. Date of last update ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

57. 75 or over?        Yes        No

58. Incarcerated or under supervision following release from prison or jail within the last
5 years?           Yes       No
58a. Date of last update ______________________ (MM/DD/YYYY)

59. Recertification/waiver comments