Narrative: III. b. 1. B.

SYSTEMS Core partners of this Unified Plan utilize the following case management and management information systems (MIS): Adult Education uses MaineSTARS, Vocational Rehabilitation utilizes AWARE, and Wagner—Peyser and formula program providers utilize the Maine Job Link (MJL) a product of America’s Job Link Alliance that combines case management, performance tracking and reporting and labor exchange job match services in one system. The aforementioned systems comply with current federal reporting requirements for each program. The data elements required for each program are being collected and will be used to support the coordinated implementation of Maine’s strategic objectives. MaineSTARS is a federally approved MIS system compliant with adult education’s National Reporting System. Local adult education programs are required to use MaineSTARS for all intake, demographic, assessment, and attendance data. At the state level, aggregate numbers are compiled in MaineSTARS and used to perform data matches against Maine Department of Labor employment data, high school equivalency completion data, and the National Student Clearinghouse database for postsecondary enrollment. The AWARE system collects and reports data required by the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the delivery of Vocational Rehabilitation services, as well as serving as a case management tool for the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. The system is maintained by its vendor, Alliance Enterprises, and has been updated to meet WIOA reporting requirements. The Maine Job Link (MJL) system collects and dispatches the data required for current formula program performance reports. Reports are created for a variety of programs spanning formula and Wagner Peyser, to Trade and Apprenticeship. MJL also collects data pertaining to the WPRS, RESEA program, the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker, National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), the Jobs for Veteran’s State Grant (JSVG) the Jobs for Veteran’s State Grant (JSVG), and other state funded programs such as the Competitive Skills Scholarship Program,. Conversion to a modern web based data management reporting system was necessary to conform to the new WIOA requirements Maine has migrated to America’s Job Link Alliance (AJLA). While the case management and MIS systems comply with federal reporting requirements for each program, the interfaces between the systems are, at present, limited, and resources for new systems in a small state such as Maine are constrained (states with relatively small populations cannot cover the fixed costs of purchasing and maintaining operating systems as readily as larger states, which receive substantially higher funding allotments). Recognizing that achieving the State’s vision will require greater levels of integration among operating and case management systems, Maine’s WIOA Steering Committee is implementing the following solutions: • Maine’s WIOA Performance Accountability Group, a subcommittee of Maine’s WIOA Steering Committee, has completed an analysis of current systems and has developed a strategy for pulling data from the existing, disparate systems to meet federal WIOA reporting requirements; • Center for Workforce Research and Information (CWRI), MDOL’s labor market information provider, will add the data on participants of core partners to Maine’s workforce longitudinal data system, thereby linking the records of core program participants with their corresponding wage and employment records for program evaluation and reporting purposes; • Wagner—Peyser and formula funded programs will upgrade their MIS system to America’s Job Links Alliance (AJLA). AJLA is a system that includes case management, labor exchange, eligible training provider list and other collection and extrapolation components required by WIOA within the next two years. Most important, AJLA has the capacity to interface with other required programs, like the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation (BUC) and CWRI, and can potentially interface with core partner systems (MaineSTARS and AWARE) to import and export data necessary to conduct an integrated intake/registration or possibly integrated case management to some level; • A Request—For— Information process will be utilized to assess other front—end software solutions that pull data from existing legacy systems in order to support common intake, assessment and case management across core partner programs. In addition, Maine’s workforce longitudinal data system will be used to assist Eligible Training Providers in reporting performance outcome data required under WIOA.

* For the PY 2016 state plan, descriptions of data collection and reporting processes need only include currently known indicators.