SB 676

Wisconsin Works and Wisconsin Shares

The Wisconsin Works (W-2) program under current law provides monthly

grants and work experience, in the form of trial employment match program jobs,

community service jobs, and transitional placements, for low-income custodial

parents who are at least 18 years old; monthly grants for custodial parents of infants

who are eight weeks old or younger and for unmarried, pregnant women who are

unable to participate in the workforce because they are in the third trimester of

at-risk pregnancies; job search assistance to noncustodial parents who are required

to pay child support, to minor custodial parents, and to pregnant women who are not

custodial parents; as well as child care subsidies under a program known as

Wisconsin Shares, under which an individual who is the parent of a child under the

age of 13 or, if the child is disabled, under the age of 19, and who satisfies other

eligibility criteria may receive a child care subsidy for child care services that the

individual needs to participate in various educational or work activities. W-2 is

administered, generally, by W-2 agencies under contracts with the Department of

Children and Families (DCF).

Under current law, a W-2 agency must conduct an educational needs

assessment of each individual who applies for an employment position under W-2

and, if the individual and W-2 agency determine that the individual needs or would

benefit from education or training activities and that the individual is eligible for a

W-2 employment position, the W-2 agency must include education or training

activities in the individual's employability plan. Under the bill, a W-2 agency must

conduct an education and training assessment of each individual and, if the

individual and W-2 agency determine that the individual needs or would benefit

from education or training activities to better prepare the individual for

employment, the W-2 agency determines that the individual would likely be

successful in the education or training activities, and the individual is eligible for a

W-2 employment position, the W-2 agency must include education or training

activities in the individual's employability plan. The bill sets out the specific factors

that the W-2 agency must use to determine whether the individual is likely to be

successful in the education or training activities, including whether the individual

can read and write, whether the individual can perform basic arithmetic functions,

whether the individual has stable housing, whether the individual is able to keep

appointments on time, and whether the individual has the support of his or her

family. The bill lists the specific types of education or training activities in which an

individual may participate, including employer-sponsored training, courses in

English as a second language, and technical college courses, and provides, generally,

that an individual may participate in the education or training activities for no more

than 18 total months, that DCF must specify the maximum time of classroom

instruction, and that the individual's employer, if any, must approve of the