N.Y. Education Law § 4607: Bridge to employment, work tryout and education program

§ 4607. Bridge to employment, work tryout and education program. 1.

The commissioner is hereby authorized and directed to make grants within

the limits of the appropriation available for such purpose, to major

education providers, as defined in the Vocational Education Act of 1963,

service delivery area administrative entities and private industry

councils as established by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) of

1982 in accordance with the provisions of this section, to encourage the

establishment of a bridge to employment, work tryout and education

program for certain targeted populations with businesses with no more

than two hundred fifty employees in any facility and no more than an

aggregate of one thousand employees in the state of New York. Priority

shall be accorded to jointly developed proposals from major education

providers, as defined in the Vocational Education Act, and service

delivery area administrative entities. For the purposes of a statewide

program, the commissioner is hereby authorized to develop regulations,

and to consult with the commissioner of labor, to establish

administrative, program, and expenditure guidelines and standards for

the work tryout experience and the bridge to employment programs

pursuant to this chapter. Such regulations and guidelines shall include

provisions for educational services to meet additional job skill

requirements for youth or adults to continue such employment placements.

2. Any agency or organization, eligible for a grant or contract under

the provisions of subdivision one of this section, which plans to

establish a bridge to employment, work tryout and education program

shall submit an application to the commissioner on or before the first

day of July of each year in which such program is conducted provided,

however, that such application for the nineteen hundred

eighty-seven--eighty-eight pilot program shall be filed by September

first, nineteen hundred eighty-seven. Priority shall be accorded to

jointly developed proposals from major education providers and service

delivery area administrative entities. Such application shall include

but not be limited to, at least a statement of the purpose of the

program, a detailed estimate of the cost of such program, a complete

description of the manner in which the program will operate and how the

program will improve and expand education and placement services

currently offered by the applicant, and such other information as the

commissioner shall require.

3. For the purposes of a statewide program, the commissioner in the

consultation with the commissioner of labor shall evaluate such

applications, using as criteria the merit and value of the various

programs submitted and prior experience of such agency or agencies and

subcontracts in provision of placement services. The commissioner shall

then promulgate a list of those programs that have been selected

according to regulations established by the commissioner.

4. The commissioner shall determine the amount of the apportionment

which shall be made to those programs which he deems to have merit

within the amount of the appropriation therefor.

5. A person who seeks to participate under the bridge to employment,

work tryout and education program must be:

a. (1) a secondary student who has completed an career sequence or

(2) a community college graduate who has completed a certificate or

associate degree program in career education and

(3) unemployed three months after completion of such education; or

b. (1) an unemployed adult at least twenty-one years of age or older

who has completed a career education adult and/or other training program

or have the necessary capacity and past employment history to explore

new job experiences and

(2) meet any of the following qualifications:

(i) single parent;

(ii) dislocated worker;

(iii) long-term unemployed;

(iv) displaced homemaker;

(v) older worker;

(vi) economically disadvantaged;

(vii) handicapped individuals; or

(viii) such other individuals as the commissioner may determine to be

eligible.

c. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the work experience

under this chapter shall not affect any predetermined eligibility under

the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 or any other appropriate

educational services program.

6. Any agency or organization designated by the commissioner to

conduct a bridge to employment, work tryout and education program is

hereby authorized and empowered to do and perform all acts necessary or

convenient to enable it to carry out the provisions of this section and

it is authorized to enter into a contract with any person, firm,

association, partnership or corporation whereby such person, firm,

association, partnership or corporation will provide work tryout

experience to participants enrolled in such program, the consideration

for such contract, if it otherwise meets the provisions of this section,

to be a legal charge against the agency or organization. However, no

placements will be made with any person, firm, association, partnership

or corporation where there is an industry/labor controversy, as defined

in regulations of the commissioner of labor.

7. Use of funds. a. Work tryout experiences. Agencies or organizations

participating in the bridge to employment, work tryout and education

program may provide to eligible participants up to one hundred hours of

full-time or part-time work tryout experiences with small to

medium-sized employers at no cost to those participating employers. No

such experiences may last more than forty hours with any single

employer. Employers who elect to retain a participant from the work

tryout experience may transfer such participants to a bridge to

employment placement component of the program and receive full benefit

of such program. Up to fifty percent of the funds are to be used to

support, administer and promote the work tryout experience program.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, any

participants in the work tryout experience who are returned back to the

program operator because of lack of skills required to retain employment

shall be provided education and training in such skills as the program

operator deems necessary and available from local, state or federal

funded training programs.

b. Bridge to employment placement. The remaining funds are to be

utilized to provide a bridge to employment placement program with small

and medium employers. Eligible agencies and organizations serving as

program operators may subcontract with temporary help services,

employment and training agencies, or employers for placement of

participants with the following support provided from these funds:

(1) Payroll administration and program promotion by the agency or

organization or sub-contractor for up to two hundred eighty hours but

not more than seven weeks for each person placed in employment.

(2) Appropriate share of wages and fringe benefits for such

employment.

Employers will be responsible for payment of at least fifty percent of

the wages and fringe benefits for such employment. After seven weeks of

employment the bridge to employment and education program benefits shall

cease and the employer must pay all expenses.

Employers participating in the program shall not be required to

participate for any specific period of time. Participants may be hired

by participating employers at any time or may be returned to the bridge

to employment and education program operator at any time with a

statement of circumstances and/or work related deficiencies. Continued

employer participation in the program shall be determined by

demonstrated transition to unsubsidized employment at levels established

by the agency or organization and approved by the commissioner. However,

employers who have released an excessive number of participants from the

bridge to employment programs within the first six months of placement

pursuant to commissioner regulations shall be prohibited from seeking

further placements from the bridge to employment program.

c. Employment and training agencies or temporary help services or

other organizations which may serve as subcontractors may charge

overhead and promotional expenses as provided in approved contracts for

work tryout experience and bridge to employment programs as specified in

guidelines and/or regulations of the commissioner. Such agencies,

services or organizations shall endeavor to serve at least fifty percent

of the participants in the bridge to employment program from paragraph b

of subdivision five of this section.

d. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, any eligible

adult who is either economically disadvantaged or handicapped shall be

eligible for forty additional hours of work tryout experience benefits

and one hundred twenty additional hours of bridge to employment

placement benefits.

8. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, any

participants in the bridge to employment and education program who are

referred back to the program operator because of lack of skills required

to retain employment shall be provided education and training in such

skills as the placement agency deems necessary and available from local,

state or federal funded training programs.