ETA-NFJP-MY-TEGL-07-24.pdf

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION

ADVISORY SYSTEM

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Washington, D.C. 20210

CLASSIFICATION

WIOA-NFJP

CORRESPONDENCE SYMBOL

OWI

DATE

December 5, 2024

RESCISSIONS

None

EXPIRATION DATE

Continuing

ADVISORY: TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE LETTER NO. 07-24

TO: NATIONAL FARMWORKER JOBS PROGRAM GRANTEES

FROM: JOSÉ JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ

Assistant Secretary

SUBJECT: Program Year 2024 National Farmworker Jobs Program Youth Grant Funding

1. Purpose. To announce the availability of up to $925,200 for National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP) Youth Grants.

2. Action Requested. Eligible NFJP Career Services and Training (CST) grantees who are interested in applying for NFJP Youth Grants must submit a complete application by 11:59 PM EST on January 5, 2025, in accordance with the application instructions in section 4.d below.

3. Summary and Background.

a. Summary – Section 127 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) provides that when the amount appropriated under Section 136(a) for WIOA Youth exceeds $925,000,000, the Secretary shall reserve four percent of the excess amount to provide youth workforce investment activities under the WIOA Section 167, the National Farmworker Jobs Program. The Program Year (PY) 2024 WIOA Youth appropriation was $948,130,000. Using the calculation for the set-aside designated in WIOA, $925,200 is available for PY 2024 NFJP Youth Grants.

b. Background – NFJP CST grantees can and may already serve eligible migrant and seasonal farmworker (MSFW) youth. These additional funds will enable successful applicants to deliver more of the youth workforce investment activities described in the NFJP regulations at 20 CFR 685.310 to eligible MSFW youth, which include the activities described for the WIOA Youth program in WIOA Section 129 and 20 CFR

681.460. This funding provides additional resources so that the NFJP grant recipients selected to receive youth funding can increase youth enrollments, and/or increase participant access to education and provide career services and training that result in high-quality, stable employment.

https://www.congress.gov/113/plaws/publ128/PLAW-113publ128.pdf https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685/subpart-C/section-685.310 https://www.congress.gov/113/plaws/publ128/PLAW-113publ128.pdf https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-681.460 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-681.460

4. NFJP Youth Grant Funding Opportunity and Submission Requirements.

a. Eligibility.

i. Applicant Eligibility. Eligible applicants must meet the following requirements:

1. Received an award under the NFJP Grants for Career Services and Training

Funding Opportunity Announcement, FOA-ETA-24-15;

2. Approved to serve eligible MSFW youth under that award; and

3. Did not receive an NFJP Youth Grant in PY 2022 or PY 2023 for the state service area requested in the current application for funding. See previous grant recipients listed below for reference:

Grant Recipients of PY 2022 NFJP Youth awards:

• Proteus, Inc., AZ

• California Human Development Corporation, CA

• Rural Employment Opportunity, MT

Grant Recipients of PY 2023 NFJP Youth awards:

• Rural Employment Opportunity, MT

• PathStone Corporation, NY

• PathStone Corporation, OH

• PathStone Corporation, PR

ii. Participant Eligibility. The services funded through these additional funds are for eligible MSFW youth as defined at the NFJP regulations at 20 CFR 685.110. Eligible

MSFW Youth means an eligible MSFW Youth aged 14-24 who is either individually eligible or is a dependent youth of an eligible MSFW. For information on NFJP program eligibility requirements, see Training and Employment Guidance Letter

(TEGL) 18-16, Change 1 or successive guidance.

b. Allowable Activities.

i. Designing and Providing Comprehensive, Customer-Centered Workforce Services.

Grant funds can be used to enhance a grant recipient’s ability to design and implement customer-centered services, practices, and policies that incorporate trauma-informed care or youth voice engagement, or that create welcoming, safe, non-judgmental, and accessible environments for MSFW youth, including those with disabilities. For instance, activities can include:

1. Career services defined at 20 CFR 685.340 and described further at 20 CFR

680.150.

2. Training services defined at 20 CFR 685.350 and described further at 20 CFR

680.200.

3. Youth Workforce Services defined at 20 CFR 685.370 and further described at 20

CFR 681.460.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685/subpart-A/section-685.110 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/training-and-employment-guidance-letter-no-18-16-change-1 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/training-and-employment-guidance-letter-no-18-16-change-1 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685/subpart-C/section-685.340 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-680/subpart-A/section-680.150 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-680/subpart-A/section-680.150 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-685.350 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-680.200 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-680.200 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685/subpart-C/section-685.370 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-681/subpart-C/section-681.460 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-681/subpart-C/section-681.460

ii. Outreach, Recruitment, and Strategic Partnerships. Additionally, grant funds can be used to enhance a grant recipient’s ability to create focused outreach, recruitment, and strategic partnerships for MSFW youth. For instance, activities can include:

1. Executing focused outreach and recruitment campaigns designed to reach potentially eligible participants to ensure they receive support to enroll in grant funded activities and increase their awareness of other available worker protections and services.

2. Assisting individuals who are determined not eligible for NFJP services with connecting to other services offered by community partners necessary to overcome any barriers to obtaining good jobs.

3. Leveraging existing partnerships with the local workforce development board, state monitor advocate, and state workforce agency and enhance strategic partnerships with community organizations or other entities to identify and enroll eligible participants.

4. Other activities that expand access to NFJP services for MSFW youth.

c. Application Components.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will only fund applications that are responsive to the requirements of this TEGL. To be considered for this additional funding, applicants must submit a complete, high-quality application package through

Grants.gov. The required components of the application package are as follows:

i. SF-424 - Application for Federal Assistance. An electronically submitted SF-424 through Grants.gov constitutes an official signed document. The SF-424 must identify the legal name of the applicant, along with the organization's Unique Entity

Identification number (UEI) and its Employer Identification Number (EIN), all of which must match the same information listed in the organization’s current registration with the System for Award Management (SAM), found at https://www.sam.gov. Please review the SF-424 instructions document included on

Grants.gov to ensure the correct completion of the SF-424. The state service area must be noted under the Areas Affected by Project Field #14.

ii. Budget and Budget Narrative. The Budget and Budget Narrative documents do not count against the page limit requirements for the Project Narrative. Applicants must submit the following budget documents:

1. SF-424A, Budget Information - Non-Construction Programs Form. Please review the SF-424A instructions document included on Grants.gov to ensure the correct completion of the SF-424A. The total funding amount entered must match the funding requested in Field #18 of the SF-424.

2. Budget Narrative - The Budget Narrative must follow the detailed instructions provided in Attachment II. Each line item/category amount on the Budget

Narrative must match the line item/category amount totals listed on the SF-424A.

https://www.sam.gov/

3. Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) - Grantees including indirect charges on line 6.j of the SF-424A that are supported by a NICRA or Cost

Allocation Plan (CAP) must submit a current or recent copy of the NICRA or

CAP as part of this application. If a new NICRA has been requested but not finalized, the grantee must include a copy of the request. Please include the letter showing the date it was submitted. Grantees may elect to use a de minimis rate if the organization meets the requirements as described in 2 CFR 200.414(f).

iii. Project Narrative. The applicant must submit a Project Narrative for an application to be considered responsive. The project narrative should be succinct, self-explanatory, and well organized so that reviewers can understand the proposed project. The Project

Narrative is limited to five pages and must include information about the project design. Applicants must describe the activities the grant funding will support

(allowable activities are described above in Section 4b). Additionally, please describe current staff capacity and, if appropriate, explain any changes for staffing that would result from receiving the funding requested. Applicants must explain increased enrollment levels or improved service quality that would result from receiving funding requested.

d. Application Review and Award.

Applicants may apply for grants of up to $300,000 each. To receive this additional funding, applicants must meet all requirements described in Section 4.c and submit a responsive application that addresses the grant application components outlined in this

TEGL. If an applicant omits any of the documents described within this TEGL, or substantially fails to address the requirements of one or more of such documents, their application will be deemed non-responsive and not funded. ETA encourages applicants to submit quality final applications before the deadline. While previous applicants may submit subsequent versions of their application if they realize that edits are needed, doing so will delay the submission and may cause an application not to be funded. ETA will consider the latest submitted application to be the official submission.

ETA will only award PY 2024 NFJP Youth Grants to applicants who meet the eligibility requirements specified earlier in this TEGL. ETA will award funds to eligible, responsive applications on a first come, first serve basis. If there are more responsive applications than available funds, ETA will fund applications based on the order of receipt until it depletes available funds. For these reasons, ETA encourages eligible applicants to submit their applications via Grants.gov as soon as possible. The deadline for all application packages is 11:59 PM EST on January 5, 2025. ETA may stop accepting applications earlier than this date if available funds are depleted before the official closing date.

Applicants who do not submit a complete, comprehensive package with required documentation will not be considered.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRd93f2a98b1f6455/section-200.414

Final award amounts will be determined subject to available funds. If the total requests are less than the available funding, or if additional funds become available, grant awards may be increased proportionately. If ETA does not receive responsive applications, it may request applicants, whose applications were deemed non-responsive, to resubmit a revised application for reconsideration, depending on the availability of funding. ETA will negotiate the final funding amount. ETA may require grant recipients to revise budget documents prior to award execution to account for discrepancies between funding requests and actual award amounts.

e. Period of Performance.

The anticipated period of performance for NFJP Youth Grants will be January 1, 2025 to

September 30, 2025. Selected awardees will receive NFJP Youth funding on a separate grant. It will not be added to the PY 2024 NFJP CST Grant.

f. Use of Funds.

i. NFJP Youth Grant recipients are subject to the Uniform Guidance: Uniform

Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal

Awards at 2 CFR Part 200 and OMB’s approved exceptions for the Department at 2

CFR Part 2900 (Uniform Guidance-DOL specific).

ii. Given that this additional funding is separate from the NFJP CST Grant funds, proposed expenditures for this grant are not required to meet the 70 percent minimum threshold for employment and training services as described in funding opportunity announcement, NFJP-FOA-ETA-24-15 Section IV.E.

iii. See 20 CFR 685.440 for additional information about costs classification and 20 CFR

685.450 for the administrative cost limit for NFJP. Administrative costs under this award follow the definition at 20 CFR 683.215.

5. Reporting Requirements.

a. Financial Reports.

All award recipients are required to report financial data on the ETA-9130 Financial

Report through the U.S. Health and Human Services Payment Management System

(PMS). Reporting quarter end dates and the associated due dates for those reports are as follows: quarter ending March 31 is due May 16; quarter ending June 30 is due August

15; quarter ending September 30 is due November 15; and quarter ending December 31 is due February 15. The final financial report must be submitted no later than 120 calendar days after the end of the quarter encompassing the period of performance end date. For additional guidance on ETA's financial reporting, see TEGL No. 16-22 and TEGL No.

16-22, Change 1.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-B/chapter-XXIX/part-2900 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-B/chapter-XXIX/part-2900 https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/grants/2024%20pdfs/FOA-ETA-24-15.pdf https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685/subpart-D/section-685.440 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685/subpart-D/section-685.450 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685/subpart-D/section-685.450 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-683/subpart-B/section-683.215 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/tegl-16-22 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/tegl-16-22-change-1 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/tegl-16-22-change-1

b. Quarterly Performance Reports.

Applicants awarded an NFJP Youth Grant must submit quarterly a Form ETA–9179

Quarterly Narrative Reports to communicate progress of NFJP Youth Grant and outcomes for WIOA performance indicators and any additional performance indicators.

Performance accountability requirements for all NFJP grant recipients are available at

TEGL No. 14-18. For the purpose of assessing NFJP performance overall, ETA will consider performance outcomes achieved via activities fully or partially funded through these NFJP Youth grants as additive to youth outcomes achieved in the grantee’s main

NFJP CST Grant in the relevant Program Year, applying the same definitions, calculations, and timing rules.

6. Inquiries. All NFJP CST grantees applying for youth funding must submit inquiries or questions for this funding opportunity to NFJP.OGM@dol.gov.

7. References.

• Section 167 of WIOA (Pub. L. 113-128), Title I, enacted July 22, 2014.

• 20 CFR, Part 685, WIOA Final Rule, effective October 18, 2016.

• TEGL No. 14-18, Aligning Performance Accountability Reporting, Definition, and

Policies Across Workforce Employment and Training Programs Administered by the

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), March 25. 2019.

• TEGL No. 18-16, Change 1, Program Eligibility and Enrollment Guidance for the

National Farmworker Jobs Program, July 21, 2021.

• Federal Register: PY 2024 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I

Allotments; PY 2024 Title III Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service Allotments and

PY 2024 Workforce Information Grants.

8. Attachment(s). Not applicable.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/training-and-employment-guidance-letter-no-14-18 mailto:NFJP.OGM@dol.gov https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-113publ128/pdf/PLAW-113publ128.pdf https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/chapter-V/part-685 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/training-and-employment-guidance-letter-no-14-18 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/training-and-employment-guidance-letter-no-18-16-change-1 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/09/2024-10074/program-year-py-2024-workforce-innovation-and-opportunity-act-wioa-title-i-allotments-py-2024-title https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/09/2024-10074/program-year-py-2024-workforce-innovation-and-opportunity-act-wioa-title-i-allotments-py-2024-title https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/09/2024-10074/program-year-py-2024-workforce-innovation-and-opportunity-act-wioa-title-i-allotments-py-2024-title