Narrative: III. b. 1. A.

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 a combination of systems, including the One Stop Operating System (OSOS) and the Maine Job Bank (MJB), a labor exchange 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 work is currently underway for needed upgrades to meet WIOA reporting requirements. The OSOS 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. OSOS also collects data pertaining to the RESEA program, the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker, Veterans, Ticket to Work, Work Opportunity Tax Credit and other state funded programs such as the Competitive Skills Scholarship Program, plus more. Major changes to OSOS are necessary to conform to the new WIOA requirements which is a major reason that Maine is as quickly as possible migrating to America’s Job Link Alliance (AJLA), which is expected to be fully WIOA compliant when all the rules are finalized. 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). Moreover, the OSOS system is in need of upgrade, as the development language is now obsolete making the staffing of qualified programmers difficult. 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; Part of this strategy has been moved forward as a result of the ability to apply for the special DWG grant to research and possibly purchase a system for integration of intake and other participant information across core programs. An RFP has been prepared and is almost ready to be released. • 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; In addition, it is hoped they will use similar program tools to assist eligible training providers to conduct the UI wage match for all students to meet the requirement for annual ETPL reporting;• Wagner—Peyser and formula funded programs upgraded 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. Most important, it currently has an interface with the new BUC system just launched and known as RE-EMPLOYME, it is also a tool used by a consortium of UI programs from other states. AJLA has the capacity to interface with other required programs, like 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 has begun 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. See Plans for Data Alignment and Integration. In addition, Maine’s workforce longitudinal data system will be used to assist Eligible Training Providers in reporting performance outcome data required under WIOA.