Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate and House
Video
Transcript
10 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- SliQ live captions
- Model
- SliQ live ASR
- Processing date
- October 2, 2026
Senator John Payton
Unverified
3:23
members will grab your seat first things firstpresentative Woolridge will you lead us in our opening prayer Bew with
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
3:33
me please Lord thank you for this day and thank you for the opportunity to be here to provide direction for our state help us as we gather here to utilize wisdom and to always make you known and make decisions that are good not only for you but for the people of the state of Arkansas. thank you again for the opportunity to be here to serve and help us to make you known in your name we
pray amen. Thank youpresentative with that
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
4:00
need a motion to approve last month's meeting minutes of a motion of a second of second all those in
Senator John Payton
Unverified
4:09
favor say opposed as have it meetings from July7th and 9th are adopted with that
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
4:14
we'll move on to item c of Cody Waits and Eddie Thomas
Senator John Payton
Unverified
4:30
believe Mister Thomas got some Bradley County roots in him I like that you guys would introduce
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
4:37
yourself for the record and y'all ready to go. thank youpresentative Wardlaw cody White's
Speaker 15
4:42
executive directororkforce connectctions department of commerce Sebastian County native while we're keeping track there any time Arkansas department of Commerce Arkansasorkforce Connections director of officefice of Employment and training
Speaker 17
4:52
thank you to the committee one of the things we wanted to bring to your attention today
Speaker 15
5:01
and just ongoing conversations around workforce development is The
Chair
Unverified
5:04
current structure of workforce innovationpportunity Actaka weOa or WIOA and then some potential changes that may take place in the months ahead at the federal level with the changeo possibly to make Americakilled again or MASA and what implications that may have here at the state of Arkansas and a lot of positives and benefits that we see that could help the system as a whole just as a kind of a housekeeping item wanted to bring some awareness to just the
restructuring that's occurred within the department of commerce underneath Arkansas Workforce nections previously we had a number of different agencies that were housed in different areas or had kind of siloed approach to reporting and structure just this last year we've really redefined and reestablished and realigned all the different agencies that touchch workforce development within commerce under workforce connections so the org chart that you see above with the office of skillsvelopment Office of Adultation of employment and training of which Mr Thomas is the director for Arkansas rehabilitation services division of services
for the blind and the most recent transition is the existing businesso division which also houses our Arkansas manufacturing solutions group which functions as our manufacturing and extension partnership has recently transitioned over from AEDC toorkforce nections as of July 1 to really formally focus on all of our workforce development strategies and business engagement and one singularity approach so a lot of movement that's taking place and a lot of moving around but things that we always try to do is make sure that we're engaging businesses
in a productive fashion we're gonna get into now kind of the current structure of WIOA and how the funds flow from the federal level down to the governor's office to the local CEOs and obviously to the boards and then to serve individuals across the state of Arkansas I'm
Speaker 25
6:55
slide thank you directors if you can see from the diagram listed on the chart of funds start
Speaker 20
7:00
at the United States Department of Labor flowdown to governor who then appoints Arkansasorkforce development board who has the duties and responsibility of the vision and
oversight for the workforce development system it's carried out through the state workforce agency which is Arkansas Workforce Connections who work really closely with the chief elected officials of each region in regions we call them what's a local workforce development areas in our weowa world and we work closely with the chief elected officials who again are your county judges and your mayors. throughout the state who also worked closely with the local workforce development boards who execute and er a service provider for a lot of our
programs there and then you see there on the screen it's kind of for full excuse me the full structure of our onet stop delivery system and as
Chair
Unverified
7:47
you can tell it's it's a little cumbersome as you try to follow all the lines through there and I think part of
Speaker 15
7:53
this effort from weoa whether they reauthorize weowa as it exists today or that they make this transition to a make America skilled again models to somewhat simplify the flow of funds and how that operates at a state level you see on
Speaker 20
8:04
the screen now you'll see the current structure of our Arkansas workforce centers these are the
infrastructure buildings that house most of our programs Arkansasorkforceents is what we call them on the state levell throughout the nation they're called Arkansas excuse me American jobbents 23s centers as you'll see on the screen there has a0 local workforce development areas Real quick, just to kind of go through that
Speaker 31
8:29
a little bit further you have some kind of indicators of comprehensive workforce centers
Chair
Unverified
8:34
versus affiliate centers comprehensive centers are where we you know each local area has to have at
least one comprehensive center within its borders there's no there's no requirement that you have to have more than one although some do I believe have more than one comprehensive center and essentially that's where all the partners that are involved in WIOa have a presence within those centers and so whether it's pretty much all the divisions that you saw that are within work
Speaker 15
8:58
or ce connections rehab services adult education office of employment training Wagner Peer which we'll get into some of these titles here in
Chair
Unverified
9:03
a minute all of those have a presence in your comprehensive centers of which we have to have at least 10 since we have 10 local workforce development areas and
then local workforce development boards have the option to add additional affiliate sites or affiliate centers that could still serve clients and individuals across the state but there's no requirement that all those partners have to be included in an affiliate center. and just to add just a little bit there we do have over
Speaker 20
9:26
the years we've seen a reduction of the number of centers that we have in the state but we've really kind of tapped into more virtual services more virt virtual assets for those areas that are more rural of those areas who do not have a a physical center just kind of looking at this first slide it's
a lot of numbers there but it's gonna really focus in on the participants served throughout our programs if you look at the chart there we go from 21 what we call program year 21 through 24 and if you look at the down of that it's three particular categories under WOa you have your youth adult and dislocated worker adults are your self explanatory that it's 18 and above dislocated workers are those who have been impacted by no fault of their own massive layoffs those who
maybe are members of certain populations maybe military spouses and so forth that are considered dislocated from their employment and then we have a youth category and it's consists of in school youth which is 14 through 18. and then an out of school youth component which is 16 to24 and those are ones who are usually not engaged in any type of educational program and so if you look across the board there you'll see the numbers for the last four years program years if you see it kind of fluctuates across the board a little there
for instance take PY21 around 900 or so adults were served200 or so dislocated workers and700 or so youth that were servedaggnapoer it's a specific area that that's focusing just on the general population and we provide basic career services like s resume development job search assistance and those other general services to anyone who doesn't have to have an eligibility type service offered to them but if you look across the board you'll see the fluctuation of those numbers some years going down we know
the 21 and22 were the years where the pandemic was heavy and so we saw some movement there if you look at 23 the numbers started decreasing a little bit there and some of that could be tied back to the funding the level of funding and just some of the nature of the program and if you look at the most recent program year 24 we're looking at around 500 or so adults fewer than 100 dislocated workers and then same number for youth uh400 or so and so if you see it's a gradual decrease in
those who we serve and we think some of that is contributed to the amount of additional programs that have been created to serve some of the same population that we serve and I'll just say if you're like me and you
Speaker 31
11:58
look at this slide and you see the big numbers there at the bottom the48,000 the49,000 numbers and things like that you know we start started looking
Speaker 15
12:05
at this data I said well time out are we serving that many people in our local offices with the limited staff that sometimes we may have and the reality of it is is that a lot of those individuals may be accessing their own services online they may be applying for jobs doing job search doing some
of these things and so they're called quote what do they call that self selfservice and so we're actually working right
Chair
Unverified
12:25
now to reduce or kind of break down that number a little bit further to identify which ones are self service and which ones are actually coming into a local office and working with our title Wagnereiser staff so we can provide a more you know accurate number or reflective number of the activity that's happening from Wagnereer within a local office versus a selfservice function that somebody may be doing at their home on their computer laptop iPhone what have you
Speaker 20
12:49
absolutely in correlation to those numbers that are served we also provided a breakdown of the PY25 funding that runs from July12025 into June302026 and so as you can see there we have 10 entities or 10 local workforce development areas represented on this chart most of our local workforce development programs are ran bylanet andlopment districts 8 of the TnR and then there are two distinct entities that also run programs in their areas but if you look on the
chart still have the same categories youth adult dislocated workers and it shows the amount of funding that were allocated to those particular areas if you kind of look at the bottom line there you'll see the fluctuation of funds from program year 21 up until the current year so if you see there we fluctuate somewhere from I'm sorry I'm having just a little time hard time seeing these 14 and current year if we just jump ahead to PY25
around 16.2 million that we have to distribute for statewide activities which we consider those things to things like staffing and operation and special grant special initiatives initiatives that we operate on the state level and then the rest of the funds are allocated to local workforce development board so again they serve as a service provider and provide training opportunities and job seeker opportunities to to individuals with barriers to employment also we serve employers with those funds just any type of assistance that's needed there that's provided through the weowa funding and the weo
Speaker 15
14:23
workforce delivery system. yeah one thing just to note here real quick before we move on I mean if you look at the the far left table right and you work your way to the right you know you'll notice I believe in what they would what I I still call Fy22 it was about 18 million then it went down to 16 then it went down to 15 then it went down to 14 million and so as you can tell like based off the formula that and Eddie can speak to some of the formula and how that works from the federal level and how we actually get our allocation of funds it's not something we really have control over here at the state level but it's a federal
Chair
Unverified
14:53
formula fund but if you look at the next slide so for this coming year we're we're projected to receive an increase from where we've been trending year over year upwards of 16.2 million and so just to kind of break that down you know a lot of these funds are used for training right so if individuals are coming into a local office and they're being wanting to reskill or upskill in a new occupation they're able to cover costs for training that will cover the costs for wrapround services or supportive service so childcare gas cards fuel reimbursement things of that nature some of the ones we see most often
but then also obviously these local areas have to operate so they have to have administrative
Speaker 38
15:27
costs as well so again three buckets wrapround services or support services training costs and administrative costs Absolutely thank you
Speaker 23
15:34
and and again we talked about the methodology of how those forms those funding are are allocated to
Speaker 20
15:39
the states and then how they're allocated to the local workforce development areas and they're serving certain key factors including unemployment rates civilian labor force rates and so forth that are included in that factor but again it's something that we don't have control over outside of controlling and
managing our employment rates kind of moving to the meat of of kind of some of the things we want to kind of discuss with you we always been moved or shifted maybe possibly into a different program and I'll you'll now to director wait for more of expression on that yeah sure so before we move on I just want
Speaker 35
16:10
to come back to kind of the training funds and everything so just a quick idea of where these funds are going
Speaker 15
16:16
to by an industry sector if Shannon Newton were here she'd be really excited about this a large percentage of them are going to the transportation sector a lot of Cdl truck driving programs
Chair
Unverified
16:26
are funded through this kind of the reason behind that is number one it's pretty quick turnaround in terms of a 4 or5 week program that can end in some of the federal measure that get tracked right so whether it's a measurable skills gain an industry recognized credentials such as a license for CDL and if some of you are looking for this it's not in your packet we can we
Speaker 15
16:43
can add this document to it later but Cdl truck driving things of that nature second I know Rachel bunch is here a lot of see it or a lot of LPN type training programs
Chair
Unverified
16:50
are in training programs are funded through this I was just at the northeast Arkansasorkforce Development
Board last week we had a conversation as it's kind of the partners meeting and it was there was a scrolling kind of marquee of all the individuals that were served there LPN or an RN through those programs so just
Speaker 15
17:06
to highlight a couple of different areas obviously manufacturing is the third one that kind of tops out in the top 4 or5 so as we're talking about kind of this change in what this may look like again there's no guarantee that these things are going to change this will all be discussed at the federal level but when you look
Chair
Unverified
17:21
at WIOA versus mass or or make America skilled again you know obviously the the the big thing that's
Speaker 15
17:26
kind of the talking point is the the combination of the consolidation of 11 different grant programs in the one block grant so the FI26 budget is allocating 2.965 billion for kind of this make Americakilled again and consolidation of all the programs and as you'll see here this is really kind of a breakdown of what all those different programs look like today and then how they would be you know all consolidated into one bucket up at the top and you're right under the 2026 request so as Eddie's talked about in those previous charts where you had the adult
Chair
Unverified
17:57
dislocated worker and youth funds you would no longer really have those three buckets you would just have one bucket of funding that that local areas would be able to leverage to the best of their ability and kind of the population that they see most likely to fit now where that may be the the first come first serve or maybe they set their own stipulations as to how many they want to serve in different areas that's totally up to the local area at least the way that we see it currently and you wouldn't have to track these these programs separately right so for today you know they get a youth breakdown they get an adult breakdown they get a dislocated worker breakdown and then you know if you don't use all your
dislocated worker funds you can move those into adult funds there's just a lot of moving pieces as it relates to what happens at a local level with some of these dollars and putting into one bucket would would obviously reduce some of that back and forth in bureaucracy that they apply to us to move some of these funds around we approved those funds and
Speaker 15
18:43
then they go and expend it and then likewise there's reporting requirements and metrics that are tied to all three of those some very similar some may differ from one to the next so in a lot of ways this creates a big efficiency but as you can see on the screen there's a lot of different areas whether it's youth build
workforce data quality initiative strengthening community college grants all that gets put into one consolidated block grant another big key consideration of this is the fact that we owe
Chair
Unverified
19:05
the funds moving forward or make America skilled getting funds would have to have a minimum of 10% allocated
Speaker 15
19:11
toward registered apprenticeship expansion so take that 16.2 number that we gave you just a little while ago for our FY26 number or PY25 I'll get the hang of that at some point and that's kind of the breakdown of what you would have to use on a rship expansion. good news is for us is we have a lot of apprenticeship expansion taking
Chair
Unverified
19:29
place and more to come here in the near future so that's something that we see as a positive you know the title re Wagnereisermploymentervices which is what we use to staff a lot of our local offices with as Mr Thomas described some of the basic skills requirements and things that people are coming in to receive job search resume development things like that that would be consolidated as well and then you look at kind of the last two bullets where it talks about some of the federal government breaks down on what they're looking to do at the at the federal level plus some potential cuts to the funding as we see today and I
think we all recognize that's gonna happen whether it's reauthorized as its current or whether it transitions into Ma
Speaker 15
20:05
America skilled again so just a few items to consider we've talked about a couple of these but you know designing services that fit regional and industry community needs instead of having to look and play the game of
Chair
Unverified
20:14
how many youth we're going to serve or what youth funding we have available versus adult or dislocated worker funds obviously this I think would help us from a training and employment perspective if we're able to put more funds in a training pool and we're able to train more individuals to provide more wrapround services to folks
less bureaucracy so state level monitoring reporting we have some of our local boards here today and I know they probably have benefited from this as much as we have but this time last year we had30pl past due monitoring reports dating back to
Speaker 15
20:43
almost 2018 and so if you think about the the process the human capital the resources and the time and attention to detail that it takes to to manage some of that dating all the way back to 18
Chair
Unverified
20:53
it was cumbersome and and it was really bogging down a lot of activity that could be spent on serving people and so now
we're able to report that we've got that down to just 2 and the only thing that we're working on now with them is finalizing some audit submissions so we did a lot of work over this year with our own internal monitoring and auditing team as well as with the local areas and so obviously if we were to make this change right then we see that there's probably going to be a much better benefit to how we have to monitor and report on our local areas versus our own monitoring and reporting to the federal level we've already talked about the 10% requirement for apprenticeships and preapprenticeships redefining key performance indicators I mentioned a minute ago
we're really tracked and taxed on kind of four key metrics really or or maybe a couple others but second quarter employment earnings fourth quarter employment earnings measurable skills gains and credential attainment rate and so we have to negotiate these rates both at the federal level for the state and then we negotiate these rates with the local areas for their own performance measures and so it's a very interesting process as to how it takes place I had this I got the opportunity to sit in one of
Speaker 15
21:55
these last year for the first time and it's hard to kind of understand exactly where some of these numbers come from from the federal level down
and so when we negotiate our own performance metrics we're trying to keep in mind kind of how we want to have growth in our
Chair
Unverified
22:09
own programs but also make sure that we're not setting ourselves up for failure and setting our local boards up for failure we want to make sure that we have goals that are that are achievable and attainable yet make
Speaker 15
22:19
us work to the best of our abilities and then lastly you know if you know from a regional provider perspective and local board perspective depending on how kind of the the funding flows and what makes sense and what happens if we have a 24% cut
Chair
Unverified
22:29
in funding or whatever that dollar amount may be whether it's $20 or or or anything right it could
cause us to have to relook and that our entire workforce development system from a workforce board perspective do we need 10? do we need ive? do we need whatever the numbers are I think that's something that we would have to
Speaker 15
22:46
consider and have to talk about as a state and as a legislature and then lastly just some some things that we're doing just from a strategy we're obviously reviewing our own internal we owea state policies to identify bottlenecks
Chair
Unverified
22:55
and program success and really truly looking at are we being more restrictive than the federal guidance that's the that's the key theme there is making sure that we have no restrictions that are
further than what the federal guidance provides for us working with US Department of laborbor and workforce association so national associations of state workforce agencies national association oforkforce boards national governor's association groups such as that nature provide a lot of information and insight into what's happening at the federal level really having some peer to peer conversations we had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with Utah we had one last week with the state of Louisiana really good discussions that are kind of giving some insight both into
Speaker 15
23:31
what we're looking at and what we're doing versus what some of
those other states are doing and then obviously mapping our
Chair
Unverified
23:38
own programs to the consolidated block grant model and you know obviously there's a conversation happening after actct 145 was passed and kind of the social services and workforce reform study that's being done withinator English representative Bentleys representative backsenator Bryant Senator Bryant as well and so
Speaker 31
23:53
as of that I mean that's that's really the gist of what we wanted to talk about today. Eddie do you
Speaker 15
24:00
have any other comments chairman, I think we're concluded for our presentation and happy to answer any
Senator John Payton
Unverified
24:05
questions we had quite a few in the queue we'll start with uhpresentative Richardson. Thank you
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
24:15
Mr Chair. I had a question regarding the funds that you guys are talking about in as they reenter into the workforce is any of that funding going towards DOC or with those inmates that may be getting out and learning job skills are you guys putting any money into that as well thank you for the question
Speaker 20
24:32
so we do partner really close with those agencies who serve the reentry population
we don't have specific awards that go to theOC but through our programming we do provide tuition assistance or tuition assistance may not be the best example but certain program aspects
Speaker 23
24:45
we offer through our training and development department department there'm sorry you were about to say something was just gonna
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
24:51
say you know it's an interesting question and the timing
Chair
Unverified
24:54
is right I mean just this morning I was reaching out to Tracy Dow with department oforrections to talk about some of the pathways that they currently offer and how we can maybe help increase our efforts in kind of a correctional capacity we have provided funding in the past not
necessarily out of this money to support some correctional activities we did some tanna funds it's in partnership with them a couple of years ago to do some Cdl truck driving for some incarcerated individuals but nothing from this pot of money I don't think is directly toddie's point going going into correctional OK thank you
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
25:28
Senator Love you recognize Thank you Mr Chair thank you gentlemen for coming. I want to go back to your funding your your 25 funding because I thought I understood you to say that
ditch your funding was increasing Is that is that correct or incorrect? so projected from from
Speaker 31
25:47
the previous years to what we're about to move into I think last year I think that says 14.8 or
Chair
Unverified
25:52
so it's projected that we're gonna get 16.2 million this year based on the federal guidance and the notice of awards so that would be kind of a a a kind of a rejection of the trend right so we've been trending down for the last four years or so
Speaker 15
26:03
and based on the formulas at the federal level and Eddie if you have some information you'd like to share on how that's broken down senator he can provide that for
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:11
you but we are getting an increase projected this year so my question was with the with the the increased funding and I'm not gonna say it's new funny I'm just gonna say with the increased funding are there new are there new programs coming online with that or are
you are you putting that money into your existing Well, the way it works I mean
Speaker 15
26:30
you got to keep in mind so at it when it comes down to the state level right we have the right to reserve basically up to 15% for statewide activities so of that 16 million we'll take 15% to help operate at statewide level for all of our staff and operations and then everything
Chair
Unverified
26:43
else gets distributed out to the0 local workforce development areas
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:48
who administer those funds OK right and then moving to your your Weo versus the the massa Mesa Have pronounce it whichever whichever part of the
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:02
the the skill the skilled piece is that going to the 2.9 65 million Is that is that
you had it in 20244 million now it's down to 2.9 million those are
Speaker 31
27:22
billions yeah that's so that's at a national level it's kind of their yeah their their national footprint
Speaker 15
27:28
was for right they enacted in 20253.8 so it's considering the reduction the consolidation of all those funds and then the reduction from the previous year's budget Oh so this is not just specific tokansas this is
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
27:41
specific to the numbers duly noted thank you
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:43
that's that's all my questionsir thank you senator.
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
28:03
thank you Mr Chairman and thank you all for being here as you all talk about wrapround services today. I did not hear you all talk about anything that would help with transportation Oh
Chair
Unverified
28:14
yes sir we certainly we we transportation's a big kind of support of services that a lot of local areas provide whether it's gas cards fuel reimbursements I even think some areas may make some subsidized payments on car loans or things of that
Speaker 15
28:26
nature so yeah we transportation assistance is a big part of the wrapround services component of it it's hard to hard to get to training
or hard to get to a job if you can't afford it right or you're not on a bus route so yeah that's one of the big things that
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
28:46
they focus on thank you yes sir Representative Bbentley Thank you chairman thank you guys for being here today. great information. So do we have any data on long term outcomes for these people so once they get trained do we have any six month 12 month data are they still working six months from the time they received their 12 months do we have any data on what our long term outcomes are for these trainings'll defer toddie to to
Speaker 15
29:04
give you a broader answer obviously one of the the two key metrics
Chair
Unverified
29:06
are second quarter employment earnings after exit and fourth quarter employment earnings after exit so we are tracking what those earnings are and so obviously if they're employed we're going to be capturing that but you do bring up a good point because you know those those things that are measured at the federal level those are part of our reporting requirements we're establishing some of our own internal state requirements that we want to begin tracking moving forward as of this coming year so as it relates to that yes we are
Speaker 15
29:27
doing it but Eddie do you have anything to add to that you nailed it the thing that we possibly could add is that you
Speaker 20
29:35
know certain components of our Arkansas department of commerce is working to build dashboards to where we could see more live data and so now typically we have quarterly reporting that we kind of that helps us to kind of keep a on where we are with the outcomes and performance and so forth but we're looking for real time real live outcomes and and and measurements now going forward One quick follow up chairman if that's OK.
Speaker 32
29:52
so another question I've got is when I look across
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
29:58
the map of course we automatically go to where our district is I'm trying to look at the spots here for my district and so are we looking
at anywhere we could do a little more mobile outreach to folks to you know I'm just looking at Perry County, Yale County and those folks there andeline so you know I know for some folks it's hard to get to even find I know we do a lot online but are we doing any mobile outreach anywhere to help help folks get connected. We do have mobile units that travel around the state they're in
Speaker 15
30:24
communities all the time whether that's for working with employers who are having layoffs and handling some of those things or whether it's just an invitation to attend and
Chair
Unverified
30:35
set up job fairs or at hiring events so we have it a lot of times at those locations I'll let Eddie speak to some of the virtual things that we're doing he's very proud of that it's been
Speaker 20
30:46
been spearheading some of that so you want to speak to some of the virtual services yes yes sir in September of last year we launched what we're calling the connect employmenter hotline and it's pretty much the same on that individuals who receive unemployment insurance call to for questions about their clients and so forth but those individuals as they're calling in about their unemployment insurance and things of that nature they're
also being directed to our connect hotline and they're being provided with information about all these services that we mentioned today so they're being connected to different resources with the local workforce development boards and some of our other partners like Goodwill and umunity action and so forth that really kind of yield to the same mission that we have and so yeah that's one of the things we're doing there we also offer online training we know that the workforce centers are sometimes just deemed as a job center and so forth but we really want to provide that that those essential skills and those what some people call soft
skills to individuals and so we've stood up a regular schedule of training services also to individuals who may want something just as simple as interviewing techniques or they may want something that that that's more intensive like emotional intelligence and how to deal with individuals on the job one final question so as we're
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
31:52
looking forward we're seeing s snap recipients and medicaid recipients can have to do a work requirement so are we gearing up with DHS to kind of make some connections with them so those folks are getting the training that they need as well we are yeah we're having an ongoing
Chair
Unverified
32:07
conversations with the now secretary mann and Laurri macdonald and their team over there as to how that looks and and again part of actct 145 and the work we're doing there and trying to understand exactly what that impact's going to look like and how we can leverage you know our case management teams their case management teams you know then there's also the eligibility specialists where people are determining eligibility and so I think that's another aspect of this that could be a benefit is if some changes were to make and there were some you know since they're talking about consolidating Wagnereer title3 services which really provide those basic services if we're
able to pull those funds together and hire actually full time full full case managers you know like right now if you call the hotline or if you go to a local office you're somewhat limited if you're working with a Wagneryel title re per you know individual who has can provide basic career services versus being able to work with someone through the full cycle that's perhaps the a one employee that's a case manager to be able to provide all that service to be able to put them on a on a plan to training or a wrapround services or what
Speaker 15
33:02
have you so we are having those conversations with DHS and we'll be continuing to do over the weeks and months ahead. thank you both thank you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
33:08
chairman thank you Thank you just follow up on that question if you look at the map in the green light green there's a big hole there which is the majority of my district so have you closed any affiliate workforce centers and the Recently have any closed don't know which well I think I'd have to ask you to find reason I mean over the
Chair
Unverified
33:35
course of the last handful of years I
know that our footprint has decreased quite a bit and and Eddie you may have to provide the numbers I wanna say we had north of30 something different locations at one point in time
Speaker 15
33:48
and I don't know if that was 10 years ago or6 years ago but as you can see with the funding reductions that took place it became very difficult to operate all these local offices and foot traffic and things of that nature so we have not closed any in the I know not in the last year but I don't know what time frame it was when the last one that shut down was the largest major reduction of
Speaker 20
34:09
officers happened when theAF transitioned over from workforce services to DHS and that was just simply a funding and infrastructure decision there how do
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:18
you decide which centers to close and which ones to leave
Speaker 20
34:23
open.ypically it's a combination between our conversation between those chief elected officials and those local workforce representatives they actually are are making those main recommendations to their local workforce development boards in conjunction with the state workforce agency and so is everything from proximity
from one office to another we also look at what's available via virtual services and then we also kind of look at some of the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:52
data in terms of numbers served in areas OK, well I mean again
I guess it's troubling to me because there's there's not you know northwest north central Arkansas in this area there's there's huge discrepancy between those districts and areas and the
others with affiliate workforce centers so how are you serving those people like an Izzard County In Stone County and Sharp County. how are you serving those people Fulton think it comes back to a little bit about the question thatpresentative Bentley asked is we do have
Chair
Unverified
35:27
our mobile units that are going out to those communities I don't know how often or frequent they've been to that area we can certainly look into that and provide that information for you obviously there's the one in Cersei which I I think we would
all agree probably there's some proximity there that that yields some barrier to perhaps getting employed or or to getting services but there are a lot of avenues now the virtual services that are available through nect the mobile units the local offices that are in the region and then you know to this conversation to this point I mean we're happy to you know have conversations with the white Riverlainning Development district in the north centralorkforcevelopment Board to see if there are opportunities for us to to provide additional capacity in those areas would like that information back
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
36:13
just because as I'm looking at this a lot seems to be central Arkansas and then kind of four corners and you're leaving out so I mean Cersey County which I knows about an hour and a half to Harrison But I mean there's just a big hole there and I'm not sure if either one of you have personally driven from am il ia or Fulton County hand Cove to Cersey, Arkansas I
would invite you to drive that road. you know and and so it's concerning to me because if you look at and I would also challenge you to look at those those counties. Yes, I represent them but they're actually poorer than the counties in the delta. er se i County is So you know I I guess that's troubling to me because it looks like some decisions were made to close and I know one did in Cercy County affiliate workforceenter and so it's a little disturbing to me to be frank with you to see kind
of that big hole there. and then the last thing is I would I do appreciate the shout out that you made with Rachel bunch and what's happening in workforce and the lead that they're taking just because in Sarcy County the other night or last Thursday night they came up to me and they said thank you so much for the support for the grants and they have4 LPns that are enrolled and graduated and are being put to work right there locally so the
private sector's getting it done and so you know we need to be sure that we're utilizing taxpayer dollars wisely. thank
you thank youenenator if I can 11 just point of clarification
Speaker 20
37:56
is that the centers that you see listed on the map are those who are certified American job centers but we do also have adult education centers and Arkansas rehabilitation services officers throughout some of those areas that aren't listed here and so we have some representation and we lean on them a little bit
Speaker 23
38:15
more for some of our workforce services just they're just not considered certified affiliate or comprehensive be helpful to
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
38:22
have that map overlay over this that'd be great thank you Representative barnett
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
38:32
Thank you chair I did have a few
questions regarding the apprenticeship opportunities are those funded through your agency Yes they are they're through a different division
Chair
Unverified
38:43
than employment training they're through the office of
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
38:47
skillsvelopment and then I wanted to know do you have any data relating to how many of those apprenticeship opportunities result in permanent or long term job placement Sure yeah so two things one by nature if you're enrolled in
Speaker 15
39:01
an apprenticeship of which we have close to I think 900,010,000 apprentices statewide at this point you are employed in a full time
Chair
Unverified
39:06
job and so like one of the things that we're tracking though is like from the time to to the beginning you know probably 85 to90% of our apprenticeships in the state are
construction trades electricians and plumbers just because of the four year requirement to in order to get the licensure so one of the things that we're tracking is what is the actual completion rate of a four year apprentice so from year one to year four what's the actual completion right to getting their journeyman license so we're tracking that but the second piece of that is kind of on a preapprentice level we've made some investments in preapprenticeship programs that align with like a full registered apprenticeship and so we're trying to get some data around like what is the matriculation rate from a individual that may be 18 or could still be in high school or
even in an adult level that gets involved in a a kind of an upskilling pre apprentice program that actually enrolls in an apprenticeship so we have that data and are happy to
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
39:57
share it and then the other question I had
are there any districts that are struggling with finding those apprenticeship opportunities. No I don't don't I mean districts in terms of school
Speaker 64
40:07
districts or like representative districts map like no not necessarily with apprenticeship I mean
Chair
Unverified
40:14
we have providers all across the state a specific in the construction trades now we've
had a lot of expansion in the manufacturing sector to do apprenticeships as well as in the IT space I think we have close to 800 active apprentices in the manufacturing space and probably another4 or500 in the information technology space so we have a pretty good broad reach in terms of apprenticeship programs whether it's the builders builders and contractors Arkansas struction Education Foundation national Apprenticeship Training Foundation who have locations all across the state there's very good proximity to training programs from an apprenticeship perspective
Speaker 91
40:50
if you're looking for it thank you yes sir thank you
Speaker 42
41:06
Representative Springer Thank you Mr Chair. good afternoon how would
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
41:09
you but it works right you got it can you provide additional data with respect to your nurse training services that that you mentioned, I know you talked about the other apprenticeships can you provide
data on that given the fact that we need nurses RNs LPns here in Arkansas two things one the
Speaker 31
41:27
first comment that we made previously was you know specific to local workforce development areas who are using their
Speaker 15
41:32
funds they get to help train people for jobs a lot of that sometimes goes into training individuals that are eligible in those types of nursing career pathways and so we can pull that data from this document here and and provide that to the committee and to yourself so we'll do that and then the second thing was is we put out some grants and
things of that nature too the healthcare association to upskill nurses from medication assistant certified individuals up to LPns and from CNAs to MACs and has had overwhelming success I wanna say 100% completion rate 100% pass rates on the CNA to MAC front now we've just launched this medication assistance certified into an LPN program and so we'll we'll see those outcomes I guess sometime next spring I think next next spring almost summer but we expect nothing less
than than success there as well so and I think there's probably70 individuals that enrolled in that LPN program today so that's just one drop in the bucket and we certainly hope to grow that more and further. I believe that's in Jonesboro in northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith LittleRock and you know we hope to expand that out after we run through this pilot phase in other areas of the state thank you seeing no other questions thank you for great presentation.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
42:54
you Mr Chairman. So guys we'll move into the
Senator John Payton
Unverified
42:58
interim study proposals do something a little bit different because5 of them are senatoreyton's and all five of them have the same subject so Senatoreyton I'm gonna recognize you to go ahead and get started on talking through those ive and members just so you understand you're looking through them we following senator Irvin's request last meeting they will all be transferred to a subcommittee we sent an email to the sponsors to ask them which subcommittee they'd like them to
go to so basically today is the transfer of these to the labor subcommittee at Senatoreyton's request.irator Payton you're
recognized Thank you Mr Chair colleagues adamsd1 through dive on your agenda ive interim study proposals pertaining to workers' compensation benefits I don't know if anybody noticed but back during the regular session this year I had filed5 bills dealing with trying to modify the workers' compensation
coverage and there was a lot of vigorous input from both sides and we had quite a debate in on the senate end in the in the senate public health committee and basically had hadd both sides agreeing to some compromise but we never could settle on exactly where that needed to be it was getting close to the end of the session we had a lot of other things on our plate and so I asked for these to be an interim study so that both the house and the senate jointly could have
meetings and let the stakeholders come and present the current climate and what they feel like needs to be changed in our workers' compensation laws in Arkansas if you employ two or more people you're required by law to obtain workers' compensation insurance coverage for your employees All of my adult life I've been an employer and I've had to purchase workers' comp and and I never liked the idea that the government forced me to do
it and always wanted the cheapest you know raid or whatever I could get and and and that was seemed to be noncompetitive and and I had a few issues over the years But I guess I said all that to say this I came into this role 12 half 13 years ago very biased to the employer side. And every time a bill came up
I just wanted to know was that gonna keep rates low or lower them or raise them you know and but I had a constituent a couple of years ago contact me her husband was injured on the job and it it is very serious and Basically he was a heavy equipment mechanic making a little over $100,000 a year and he was crushed and and very injured nobody could deny that
it didn't happen on the job that wasn't serious They immediately went bankrupt because you know there's they're standard of living was based on a little over $100,000 a year income and they had two vehicle payments and a house payment and a party barge and some luxury items you know and immediately their pay was based on 2/3 of72,000 dollars a year and so as you can imagine
Along with all the medical needs that they had It bankrupted them and so I began to listen there's a book this thick On Arkansas state comp rules and laws that the lawyers have to know and and So as a committee I'm asking that we Move these to interim study under the labor andvi subcommittee so that we can let the stakeholders come to explain these nuances to you I've come to believe that that we need to update our workers comp
laws and maybe simplify it to some extent and I'm willing to say that these5 bills that I had filed in the interim I mean in in the during the session they were a result of me negotiating with myself as an employer and as the legislator trying to represent my constituents but we need more people at the table than just John
negotiating with his self so I would appreciate a good vote and let's move this to subcommittee where we can bring the stakeholders in to
testify proper request without objection so be it. we'll move on to Representative Grantwi's which is
Speaker 42
47:54
gonna be presented by Representative rose
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
48:01
Thank you Mr Chairman. uhpresentativegramlich regretted being unable to attend today he's actually with an organization right now who he
worked with in the original proposal for House bill 1996 which is the ISP we're referring to today. I want to share a couple of comments from him and then a couple of specifics about this and then Mr chairman if you have any questions be glad to to facilitate the
two major components of this proposal are an educational piece for students to know the laws surrounding child labor and then a second educational piece
for companies who happen to break the law so that they can come into compliance and this is more about educating those who make mistakes not those who are serial or egregious offenders the proposal ensures that Arkansas leads with education not just enforcement and it supports students learning responsibility through work while reinforcing the state's duty to keep children safe and
in a school and in school and so as we look at or as we face rising violations we believe that this balanced approach offers a constructive path forward and so with that I'd like to have ISP referred to the appropriate subcommittee perpresentativegramlich and the chairman at this time thank you thank you for bringing this I wanted
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
49:36
to just add something I know
and I'm not sure if this is something that is still it was when my kids were there but it's their senior year they can only they they there are kids that just take a handful of classes and they're not there all day long and the the you know what I was told was so they could go to work but but the majority of them were not and so it'd be really interesting I think as you're doing your study to try to get some data perhaps from the department of education
on exactly what is happening there and if they're tracking that at all or if they're seeing if those students are actually working or not you know because in my opinion I'd rather them be in school all day or in school and then at work versus just you know at playing video games or whatever so I'm I'm just I like this and I appreciate that y'all are bringing this forward just my input and two cents' worth because I think that would
be really good informationenator great question, great
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
50:48
point. I'll make sure to add that to the notations forpresentative Grahamlich and I would agree with you of the students in some type of a work study program or a work during school program they should be working they shouldn't be unaccounted for and I'm sure it would lead or does lead to accidents incidences and getting into trouble so thank you no objection
Senator John Payton
Unverified
51:09
request to move it to the labor subcommittee is is made
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
51:15
Thank you Mr chairman members seeing no other business we stand adjourn she's right that's you
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration to Approve the July 7, 2025, and July 9, 2025, Meeting Minutes [Exhibits B1-B2]
C. Discussion of Making America Skilled Again Initiative [Exhibit C]
D. Consideration for Adoption of Interim Study Proposals (ISP) [Exhibits D1-D6]
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Senator John Payton
Unverified
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Speaker 15
Speaker 17
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 23
Speaker 25
Speaker 20
Speaker 31
Speaker 38
Speaker 35
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 32
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
Speaker 64
Speaker 91
Speaker 42
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified