(a) The Department of Human Services shall develop and describe categories of approved work activities for transitional employment assistance recipients in accordance with this section. The rules shall be subject to review and recommendation by the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Approved work activities may include unsubsidized employment, subsidized private sector employment, subsidized public sector employment, education or training, vocational educational training, skills training, job search and job readiness assistance, on-the- job training, micro enterprise, community service, and work experience. For purposes of this section:
(1) “Unsubsidized employment” is full-time employment or part- time employment that is not directly supplemented by federal or state funds;
(2)(A) “Subsidized private sector employment” is employment in a private for-profit enterprise or a private not-for-profit enterprise which is directly supplemented by federal or state funds. A program recipient in subsidized private sector employment shall be eligible for the same benefits as a nonsubsidized employee who performs similar work. Before receiving any subsidy or incentive, an employer shall enter into a written contract with the department which may include, but not be limited to, provisions addressing any of the following:
(i) Payment schedules for any subsidy or incentive such as deferred payments based on retention of the recipient in employment;
(ii) Durational requirements for the employer to retain the recipient in employment;
(iii) Training to be provided to the recipient by the employer;
(iv) Contributions, if any, made to the recipient's individual development account; and
(v) Weighting of incentive payments proportionally to the extent to which the recipient has limitations associated with the long-term receipt of welfare and difficulty in sustaining employment. In establishing incentive payments, the department shall consider the extent of the recipient's prior receipt of welfare, lack of employment experience, lack of education, lack of job skills, and other appropriate factors.
(B) The department may require an employer to repay some or all of a subsidy or incentive previously paid to an employer under the program unless the recipient is terminated for cause;
(3)(A) “Subsidized public sector employment” is employment by an agency of the federal, state, or local government which is directly supplemented by federal or state funds. A program recipient in subsidized public sector employment shall be eligible for the same benefits as a nonsubsidized employee who performs similar work. Before receiving any subsidy or incentive, an employer shall enter into a written contract with the department that may include, but not be limited to, provisions addressing any of the following:
(i) Payment schedules for any subsidy or incentive such as deferred payments based on retention of the recipient in employment;
(ii) Durational requirements for the employer to retain the recipient in employment;
(iii) Training to be provided to the recipient by the employer;
(iv) Contributions, if any, made to the recipient's individual development account; and
(v) Weighting of incentive payments proportionally to the extent to which the recipient has limitations associated with the long-term receipt of welfare and difficulty in sustaining employment. In establishing incentive payments, the department shall consider the extent of the recipient's prior receipt of welfare, lack of employment experience, lack of education, lack of job skills, and other appropriate factors.
(B) The department may require an employer to repay some or all of a subsidy and incentive previously paid to an employer under the program unless the recipient is terminated for cause;
(4) “Work experience” is job-training experience at a supervised public or private not-for-profit agency or organization or with a private for-profit employer which is linked to education or training and substantially enhances a recipient's employability. Work experience may include work study, training-related practicums, and internships;
(5) “Job search assistance” may include supervised or unsupervised job-seeking activities. Job readiness assistance provides support for job-seeking activities, which may include:
(A) Orientation in the world of work and basic job-seeking and job-retention skills;
(B) Instruction in completing an application for employment and writing a resume;
(C) Instruction in conducting oneself during a job interview, including appropriate dress;
(D) Providing a recipient with access to an employment resource center that contains job listings, telephones, facsimile machines, typewriters, and word processors; and
(E) Preparation to seek or obtain employment, including life skills and literacy training, and substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, or rehabilitation activities for those who are otherwise employable;
(6) “Education” includes elementary and secondary education, education to obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma, and education to learn English as a second language. In consultation with adult education or rehabilitative services, a person with a high school diploma or the equivalent who tests at less than a working functioning level shall be eligible to participate in basic remedial or adult education. If an individual does not have a high school diploma or equivalency, “education” also includes basic remedial education and adult education;
(7) “Vocational educational training” is postsecondary education, including, at least, programs at two-year or four-year colleges, universities, technical institutes, and vocational schools or training in a field directly related to a specific occupation;
(8) Job skills training directly related to employment provides job skills training in a specific occupation. Job skills training may include customized training designed to meet the needs of a specific employer or a specific industry;
(9) “On-the-job training” means training and work experience at a public or private not-for-profit agency or organization or with a private for-profit employer which provides an opportunity to obtain training and job supervision and provides employment upon satisfactory completion of training;
(10) School attendance at a high school or attendance at a program designed to prepare the recipient to receive a high school equivalency diploma is a required program activity for each recipient eighteen (18) years of age or younger who:
(A) Has not completed high school or obtained a high school equivalency diploma;
(B) Is a dependent child or a head of household; and
(C) For whom it has not been determined that another program activity is more appropriate;
(11) Participation in medical, educational, counseling, and other services that are part of the recipient's personal responsibility agreement is a required activity for each teen parent who participates in the Transitional Employment Assistance Program; and
(12) “Community service” is time spent engaged in an approved activity at a government entity or community-based, charitable organization.
(b) All occupational training shall meet at least one (1) of the following requirements:
(1) Be on the statewide or appropriate area list of occupations in the Guide to Educational Training Programs for Demand Occupations published by the Division of Workforce Services;
(2) Be on that list for another area within the state to which the Transitional Employment Assistance Program recipient has signed a commitment to relocate;
(3) Be for a specific position for which an employer has submitted a letter demonstrating intent to hire persons upon successful completion of training; and
(4) Be in an occupation in local demand but not shown on the state or area demand list if the local demand is documented or will be documented by the area workforce development board through a state-prescribed methodology.
(c) Each state agency and each entity that contracts to provide services for a state agency shall establish recruitment and hiring goals which shall target ten percent (10%) of all jobs requiring a high school diploma or less to be filled with transitional employment assistance or food stamp recipients.
(d)(1) The department shall require participation in approved work activities to the maximum extent possible, subject to federal and state funding. If funds are projected to be insufficient to support full-time work activities by all program recipients who are required to participate in work activities, the department shall screen recipients and assign priority in accordance with the implementation plan.
(2) In accordance with the implementation plan, the department may limit a recipient's weekly work requirement to the minimum required to meet federal work activity requirements and may develop screening and prioritization procedures within employment opportunity districts or within counties based on the allocation of resources, the availability of community resources, or the work activity needs of the employment opportunity district or county.
(e)(1) Subject to subdivision (e)(2) of this section, an adult in a family receiving assistance under the program may fill a vacant employment position in order to engage in a work activity described in subsection (a) of this section.
(2) No adult in a work activity described in subsection (a) of this section which is funded, in whole or in part, by funds provided by the United States Government shall be employed or assigned:
(A) When any other individual is on layoff from the same or any substantially equivalent job; or
(B) If the employer has terminated the employment of any regular employee or otherwise caused an involuntary reduction in its workforce in order to fill the vacancy so created with an adult described in subdivision (e)(1) of this section.
(3) The department shall establish and maintain a grievance procedure for resolving complaints of alleged violations of subdivision (e)(2) of this section.
(4) Nothing in this subsection shall preempt or supersede any provision of state or local law that provides greater protection for employees from displacement.
(f) The department, subject to review and recommendation by the board, shall establish criteria to exempt or temporarily defer the following persons from any work activity requirement:
(1) An individual required to care for a recipient child until the child reaches twelve (12) months of age, if the caregiver is an active participant in a home-based or part-time center-based quality-approved early learning program, where available, that requires parental involvement and is approved by the Department of Education under the Arkansas Better Chance Program Act, § 6-45-101 et seq.;
(2) An individual required to care for a recipient child until the child reaches the maximum age specified by rule, not to exceed twelve (12) months of age;
(3) A parent or caregiver with a disability, based upon criteria set forth in rules;
(4) A woman in the third trimester of pregnancy;
(5) A parent or caregiver who is caring for a child relative with a disability or an adult relative with a disability, based upon criteria set forth in rules;
(6) A minor parent less than eighteen (18) years of age who resides in the home of a parent or in an approved adult-supervised setting and who participates in full-time education or training;
(7) A teen parent head of household under twenty (20) years of age who maintains satisfactory attendance as a full-time student at a secondary school;
(8) An individual for whom support services necessary to engage in a work activity are not available;
(9) An individual who, as determined by a department case manager, is unable to participate in work activities due directly to the effects of domestic violence. All case manager determinations made under this subdivision (f)(9) shall be reviewed by a supervisor within five (5) days of such determination;
(10) An individual unable to participate in a work activity due to extraordinary circumstances;
(11) A parent or caregiver over sixty (60) years of age; and
(12) Child-only cases.
