Under WIOA, the governor of each state may elect to submit either a Unified Plan or Combined Plan to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The Plan should outline the State’s four-year strategy for its workforce development system.
- A Unified Plan includes the six WIOA core programs.
- A Combined Plan includes the six WIOA core programs and at least one Combined State Plan partner program.
- WIOA State Plan Portal
To-Do List
- Find out what type of State Plan you have.
- Read your State Plan and familiarize yourself with the goals and strategies.
- Review the VR services portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan.
The funding is provided under a Federal Fiscal Year (FFY), performance is tracked by Program Year (PY), and your State’s State Fiscal Year might add a third layer if different than the previous cycles.
Your program is funded on an FFY basis, which runs October 1-September 30. This differs from the Federal PY, which runs July 1-June 30 for the collection and reporting of WIOA performance data.
In addition, many states have a State fiscal year that runs from July 1-June 30, with some exceptions. For example, New York begins its State fiscal year on April 1; Texas begins on September 1; Alabama and Michigan begin on October 1.
To-Do List
- Find out the dates for your State fiscal year.
Your State’s VR program is funded through a Formula Grant (often referred to as Section 110 grant funds). The Federal appropriation, of which your grant award is a part, generally increases annually based on the Consumer Price Index Urban (CPIU). However, the final appropriation amount can be impacted by Congressional actions.
Over $4 billion is appropriated to the public VR program each FFY.
Please review the VRTAC Quality Fiscal Resource Management tab under "Grant Award Issuance" for more information.
It is important to understand your budget, how spending flows, the reports you can access, and your financial position.
To-Do List
- Find out the total amount of your Federal Grant Award(s).
- Talk with the State’s fiscal staff about the budget, budget reporting, and your current financial position. Set up a time to meet regularly with your team to track your financial position in alignment with the organization’s goals and priorities.
The Federal share is 78.7%, and you must provide a State match of 21.3% of total program expenditures (Federal and State shares).
RSA has a match calculator that will help you calculate both the non-Federal share based on the grant award amount and the maximum amount of Federal funds potentially available based on the non-Federal share amount.
Please review the VRTAC Quality Fiscal & Resource Management Non-Federal Share tab for more information.
To-Do List
- Speak with fiscal staff about your agency’s sources of match.
- Learn the history of how these match sources came into existence and any special considerations around sustainability.
If you are in a state with both a General and Blind agency and you wish to transfer funds between the programs, YOU MUST make a formal request with RSA to transfer funds. DO NOT use internal accounting adjustments to transfer funds between the two programs.