April 29 -- The Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) invites public review and comment by June 1, 2021 of its proposal to OMB to evaluate the results of the Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth (CAPE-Youth) program.
In FY 2019 DOL's ODEP funded a four-year cooperative agreement for CAPE-Youth. CAPE-Youth is focused on supporting state efforts to align state workforce systems to establish pathways toward careers and financial self-sufficiency for youth and young adults with disabilities (Y&YAD). The ultimate goal of CAPE-Youth is to improve transition and employment related outcomes for Y&YAD through the identification and dissemination of evidence-based practices. To achieve this goal, CAPE-Youth is implementing a rapid cycle research strategy with three primary steps: (a) identify the needs of workforce systems; (b) conduct research and policy analysis that will help address those problems; and (c) based on the findings of research and analysis, develop and disseminate resources to policymakers and key stakeholders.
The Council of State Governments develops and manages the CAPE-Youth services in collaboration with the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University and the Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
CAPE-Youth is supporting Y&YAD in three main focus areas:
1. Youth and adult workforce systems collaboration;
2. Professional development for youth workforce practitioners; and
3. Career pathways and work-based learning such as apprenticeships programs for Y&YAD.
This information collection, which will be done by CAPE-Youth, is intended to accomplish initial information gathering to better support planned future efforts, and will build upon existing research to support the development of products and services for supporting training and employment for youth and young adults with disabilities. CAPE-Youth will use this data collection initially to identify the extent to which promising practices or barriers exist in: 1) Improving collaboration between participants and providers in the youth workforce system, 2) Identify potential Professional Development (PD) areas that practitioners need in their repertoire to serve youth, and 3) Identifying perceived factors or capabilities that may improve the provision of pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) for Y&YAD. Understanding the perceptions of workforce system professionals will help identify barriers and promising practices, and allow CAPE-Youth to develop relevant tools, briefs, and technical assistance that better support their ability to build communities of practices and forge connections across States for the State clients they serve.
The purpose of the CAPE-Youth data collection will be to better understand 1) perceptions of the extent and benefit of collaboration in the workforce system; 2) perceptions among youth workforce professionals about their professional development and training; 3) administrative data on student demographics to understand the general characteristics of program participants receiving Pre-ETS services and 4) the perceptions of the implementation of those administering Pre-ETS. CAPE-Youth will use this data to inform the development of products and services for States and service providers for Y&YAD in conjunction with ODEP. CAPE-Youth will develop products and briefs based on the data collected, and identify promising practices based on existing administrative data collections and research, and the responses from questionnaires included in this package. As noted above, the data collection will focus on three areas: 1) collaboration within States among workforce system agencies; 2) the implementation of Pre-ETS by State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies and gaps and perceived strengths and weaknesses in the provision of services for youth with disabilities; and 3) the strengths and weaknesses of professional development for youth services providers.
CAPE-Youth submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202103-1230-001 Click on IC List for data collection instruments, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation
FR notice inviting public review and comment:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/04/29/2021-08936/agency-information-collection-activities-submission-for-omb-review-comment-request-center-for
For AEA members wishing to submit comments to OMB, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806