Bill Text: TX SB1622 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relating to measures to support the alignment of education and workforce development in the state with state workforce needs, including the establishment of the Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-05-14 - Not again placed on intent calendar [SB1622 Detail]

Download: Texas-2021-SB1622-Introduced.html

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87R11719 KJE-F
By: Bettencourt S.B. No. 1622

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to measures to support workforce development in the state,
including the establishment of the Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative
and additional employer workforce data reporting.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subtitle G, Title 10, Government Code, is
amended by adding Chapter 2308A to read as follows:
CHAPTER 2308A. TRI-AGENCY WORKFORCE INITIATIVE
Sec. 2308A.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Agency," unless the context requires otherwise,
means the Texas Education Agency.
(2) "Career education and training program" means:
(A) a career and technology education program
offered by a public school or an institution of higher education;
(B) a program administered by the commission
relating to jobs training, skills development, or adult education
and literacy; and
(C) a work-based learning program, such as an
apprenticeship or internship program, that receives state funding
or is administered by the commission.
(3) "Commission" means the Texas Workforce
Commission.
(4) "Coordinating board" means the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board.
(5) "Fund" means the Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative
Fund established under Section 2308A.017.
(6) "Initiative" means the Tri-Agency Workforce
Initiative.
(7) "Institution of higher education" has the meaning
assigned by Section 61.003, Education Code.
(8) "State workforce development goals" means the
state workforce development goals adopted under Section 2308A.006.
Sec. 2308A.002. PURPOSE. The Tri-Agency Workforce
Initiative is established to coordinate and optimize information
and other resources as necessary to:
(1) align career education and training programs to
workforce demands;
(2) provide residents of the state with timely and
accurate information needed to plan education and workforce
pathways; and
(3) enable local and state policymakers to evaluate
the effectiveness of career education and training programs and
progress toward the state workforce development goals.
Sec. 2308A.003. INTERAGENCY AGREEMENT AND STAFFING. (a)
The agency, coordinating board, and commission shall enter into an
interagency agreement establishing policies and processes for:
(1) sharing and cooperatively managing education and
workforce information collected by each respective agency; and
(2) sharing staff, including colocation of staff
assigned to the initiative on a full-time basis, and other
resources necessary to effectuate the state workforce development
goals and the strategies for achieving those goals adopted under
Section 2308A.006.
(b) The policies and processes established in the agreement
under Subsection (a) must ensure that data collected by the agency,
coordinating board, or commission is matched at the student level
and made available for use in accordance with this chapter.
(c) A full-time equivalent employee of the agency,
coordinating board, or commission whose time and effort are
dedicated exclusively to supporting the work of the initiative is
not included in the calculation of the number of full-time
equivalent employees allotted to the respective agency under other
law.
Sec. 2308A.004. QUARTERLY MEETINGS. The agency,
coordinating board, and commission shall meet at least once each
quarter to conduct the business of the initiative.
Sec. 2308A.005. UNIFIED WORKFORCE DATA REPOSITORY. (a) The
agency, coordinating board, and commission shall use the
P-20/Workforce Data Repository established under Section
1.005(j-1), Education Code, as the central repository of career and
education data. After a comprehensive review of data collected by
the respective agency, the agency, coordinating board, and
commission shall incorporate into the repository all data
determined by the executive officer of that agency to be integral to
the state workforce development goals and the strategies for
achieving those goals adopted under Section 2308A.006.
(b) Any data or reports made accessible to the public under
the initiative must comply with rules adopted under Section 1.006,
Education Code, to ensure the appropriate use of data in the
repository, including compliance with applicable state and federal
laws governing use of and access to the data.
(c) The agency, coordinating board, and commission shall
ensure that records deposited in the repository are automatically
matched at the student level on a timely basis to ensure that the
agency, the coordinating board, and the commission and each school
district, institution of higher education, and workforce entity
authorized to access the repository has timely information to
support higher education and workforce application, entry, and
success.
Sec. 2308A.006. STATE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND
STRATEGIES. (a) The agency, coordinating board, and commission
jointly shall adopt and post in a prominent location on the
initiative's and each respective agency's Internet website state
workforce development goals and coordinated interagency strategies
for achieving those goals.
(b) The goals adopted under Subsection (a) must:
(1) include goals for the attainment of employment in
jobs that pay a living wage for all career education and training
programs in the state;
(2) be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender
for each workforce development region; and
(3) provide for:
(A) locally determined priorities consistent
with state goals; and
(B) collaborative planning and coordination with
public schools, institutions of higher education, and local
workforce development boards.
(c) The strategies adopted under Subsection (a) must:
(1) include strategies for expanding work-based
learning;
(2) articulate the ways in which the state can best
leverage federal funding; and
(3) be demonstrably guided by:
(A) education and workforce data sets matched at
the student level;
(B) performance evaluation measures, including
return on investment formulas; and
(C) prioritized occupational classifications,
including all target occupations and critical career pathways
designated under Subsection (e).
(d) The agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly
shall update the state workforce development goals and strategies
adopted under Subsection (a) at least every four years, or more
frequently if needed to reflect available data and circumstances.
(e) The agency, coordinating board, and commission shall
designate and update every two years a list of career pathways that
includes the following two priority categories:
(1) target occupations, which include current needs
that exist in one or more regions of the state as reflected in
regional workforce assessments that:
(A) use the best available data and local
employer requests; and
(B) satisfy minimum federal standards for
designations, such as a foundation for qualified use of federal
workforce funding; and
(2) critical career pathways that reflect the best
statewide data and forecasts of attractive skills and careers
expected to grow in the state that may:
(A) be associated with new emerging industries or
new specialty occupations within an industry; or
(B) reflect lateral pathways to better wages for
workers with documented skills that provide promotional
opportunities within or across occupations with targeted upskill
training.
(f) Not later than June 1, 2022, the agency, coordinating
board, and commission jointly shall make recommendations regarding
the development of a modernized and expanded job skills inventory
for the state that classifies and matches evolving skills in a
rapidly changing economy to career education and training programs
and career pathways designated under Subsection (e) that are most
important to the state. This subsection expires September 1, 2022.
Sec. 2308A.007. CREDENTIAL LIBRARY. (a) The agency,
coordinating board, and commission jointly shall establish a
web-based library of credentials issued by any public or private
entity that are:
(1) aligned with recognized skills and industry
standards;
(2) available to residents of the state; and
(3) used by employers in the state.
(b) The agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly
shall designate a host agency or operating entity for the
credential library. The host agency or operating entity shall
perform trend and utilization analysis for each credential in the
library to determine the credential's value in the state labor
force.
Sec. 2308A.008. ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT. The Texas
Workforce Investment Council shall provide administrative support,
including resources and staff, for the initiative.
Sec. 2308A.009. INTERNET WEBSITE. (a) The agency,
coordinating board, and commission shall cooperatively establish a
central Internet website for the initiative that contains publicly
accessible career and workforce information. The Internet website
must include:
(1) a unified dashboard, updated on an annual or more
frequent basis, that reports progress toward accomplishment of the
state workforce development goals, both statewide and
disaggregated by public school and public school campus,
institution of higher education campus, workforce region, and
county;
(2) data on the outcomes of students who participate
in career education and training programs, disaggregated to the
extent practicable by income, race, ethnicity, and gender,
including data for the first, fifth, and tenth years after
completing the program on:
(A) degree and credential attainment;
(B) employment status and industry of
employment; and
(C) median earnings;
(3) analytical tools and guidance supporting the use
of data on the dashboard described by Subdivision (1) for greater
accessibility for a wide range of public, practitioner, and
legislative users;
(4) tools enabling residents of the state to:
(A) explore careers that match the resident's
education and skills and lead to a living wage;
(B) identify and evaluate near-term education
and training opportunities related to the resident's career
interests;
(C) engage in longer-term career planning; and
(D) connect to available jobs through existing
job matching websites;
(5) tools enabling the secure interagency sharing of
information in order to seamlessly refer a website visitor at the
visitor's election to tailored career navigation, support, and
training resources;
(6) tools to support joint program planning,
budgeting, and performance evaluation among:
(A) the agency, coordinating board, and
commission; and
(B) public schools, institutions of higher
education, local workforce development boards, and partnering
entities; and
(7) data necessary to demonstrate return on investment
for each career education and training program, including:
(A) state and local costs;
(B) costs to the student; and
(C) student salary at the first, fifth, and tenth
years after completing the program.
(b) The agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly
shall:
(1) in September of each year, solicit public comment
on the usefulness of the initiative's Internet website; and
(2) in December of each year, publish:
(A) a summary of actions taken to address
comments received under Subdivision (1); and
(B) trend data regarding the use of the
initiative's Internet website.
Sec. 2308A.010. PERFORMANCE REPORTING. (a) The agency,
coordinating board, and commission shall coordinate data
collection and matching necessary to evaluate career education and
training programs, in accordance with progress measures jointly
adopted by the agency, coordinating board, and commission, with
respect to:
(1) the aggregate impact of the programs on the state
workforce development goals; and
(2) return on investment for each program with respect
to the program's discrete impact on the state workforce development
goals, including a comparison of employment status, occupation, and
salary for each student before participating in the program and at
the first, fifth, and tenth years after completing the program.
(b) Not later than September 1 of each even-numbered year,
the agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly shall
prepare, submit to the legislature, and post on the initiative's
and each respective agency's Internet website a report evaluating
the impact of career and education training programs on the state
workforce development goals with respect to the progress measures
described by Subsection (a).
Sec. 2308A.011. PUBLIC COMMENT. At least 30 days before
adopting state workforce development goals, strategies for meeting
those goals under Section 2308A.006, or a performance report under
Section 2308A.010, the agency, coordinating board, and commission
jointly shall post on the initiative's and each respective agency's
Internet website the proposed goals, strategies, or performance
report and instructions for submitting public comment on those
items.
Sec. 2308A.012. SECURE PORTAL. (a) For purposes of state
and local planning, program evaluation, and continuous improvement
of local and regional education and workforce practices, the
agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly shall establish
and support a secure portal through which authorized personnel of
approved entities can view and analyze comprehensive longitudinal
and the most currently available matched data related to the
progression toward living-wage employment for residents of the
state.
(b) The agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly
shall adopt role-based security protocols that ensure the privacy
and confidentiality of information made accessible through the
secure portal in a manner that complies with any applicable state or
federal law.
Sec. 2308A.013. EMPLOYER RECOGNITION. (a) The governor may
award a Talent for Texas Champions Governor's Award to recognize
leading employers in the state who are contributing to workforce
improvement by supporting priority job training, reskilling, and
upskilling programs and whose contributions align with strategic
priorities for the state, including helping to meet regional
workforce demands and enabling more residents of the state to
attain jobs that pay a living wage.
(b) The agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly
shall nominate employers for the award under this section.
Sec. 2308A.014. STATEWIDE CAREER INTERMEDIARY COUNCIL. (a)
In this section, "council" means the statewide career intermediary
council established under this section.
(b) The agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly
shall establish a statewide career intermediary council to assist
the initiative in achieving the purposes of this chapter.
(c) The council consists of three members, with one member
appointed by the commissioner of education, one member appointed by
the commissioner of higher education, and one member appointed by
the chair of the commission.
(d) In making appointments to the council, the appointing
officers shall coordinate as necessary to ensure that at least one
member is a representative of a nonprofit organization that
provides support services to students transitioning from secondary
to postsecondary education or to participants in job training
programs.
(e) A vacancy on the council is filled in the same manner as
the initial appointment.
(f) Chapters 2110 and 2254, Government Code, do not apply to
the appointment of members to the council.
(g) The council shall:
(1) identify ways in which career education and
training program providers and employers in the state can
communicate more effectively with students, trainees, and
employees, using common terminology and definitions of skills sets
that match credentials required for attractive jobs;
(2) interpret how effectively labor market demand
information is being used to help:
(A) employers in the state to identify hire-ready
credentials; and
(B) job applicants to understand what skills they
already have;
(3) suggest improvements to the state workforce
development goals and the progress measures adopted under Section
2308A.010; and
(4) examine existing regional workforce
intermediaries for the purpose of recognizing successful efforts
and scaling best practices of those intermediaries to regions
across the state, using the following measures:
(A) identifying and expanding lower-cost,
shorter-term training opportunities;
(B) providing simpler pathways for residents of
the state to attain jobs that pay a living wage, with a focus on
advising, apprenticeships, and internships; and
(C) successfully recruiting and coordinating
partners such as employers, workforce training programs,
community-based organizations, postsecondary educational
institutions, and public schools, to expand and align work-based
learning efforts.
(h) Not later than September 1, 2022, the council shall
submit to the legislature a report summarizing the additional value
provided by the initiative's Internet website, including the
dashboard, tools, secure portal, and guidance described by Section
2308A.009, and any recommendations for legislative or other action
to improve the usefulness of those resources. This subsection
expires September 1, 2023.
Sec. 2308A.015. TARGETED FUNDING TO ADDRESS STATE GOALS.
(a) A state agency that receives funding through the Carl D. Perkins
Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (20 U.S.C. Section 2301
et seq.) or the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (Pub. L.
No. 113-128) or any other federal funding for career education and
training may combine with, transfer to, or delegate to another
state agency that receives such funding the agency's management of
workforce-related funding as necessary to implement the state
workforce development goals.
(b) The agency, coordinating board, and commission jointly
shall submit to the governor and the standing legislative
committees with jurisdiction over state financial alignment
efforts a biennial report on how federal and state funding for
career education and training programs are being spent in
accordance with the state workforce development goals.
(c) A state agency that receives federal or state funding
for career education and training programs shall include in the
agency's legislative appropriations request a description of how
the agency's career education and training programs and
expenditures align with the state workforce development goals.
Sec. 2308A.016. LIVING WAGE. The agency, coordinating
board, and commission jointly shall determine for each county the
wage that constitutes a living wage for purposes of this chapter.
The determination must be based on a common standard that reflects
the regionally adjusted minimum employment earnings necessary to
meet a family's basic needs while also maintaining
self-sufficiency.
Sec. 2308A.017. TRI-AGENCY WORKFORCE INITIATIVE FUND. (a)
The Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative fund is a special fund in the
state treasury outside the general revenue fund.
(b) The fund consists of:
(1) money appropriated by the legislature for deposit
to the credit of the fund;
(2) gifts to the state for the purposes of the fund;
and
(3) money directed by law for deposit to the credit of
the fund.
(c) Money in the fund may be appropriated only for the
purposes of:
(1) modernizing state data for the initiative;
(2) planning, staff, or organizational activities of
the initiative; or
(3) any activities required or allowed under this
chapter to implement the state workforce development goals.
SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 204, Labor Code, is
amended by adding Section 204.0025 to read as follows:
Sec. 204.0025. ADDITIONAL WORKFORCE DATA REPORTING. (a)
The commission shall request that each employer provide to the
commission as part of the employer's routine wage filings under
this subtitle or commission rule and consistent with federal law
and regulations the following workforce data for each employee:
(1) the standard six-digit occupational
classification code;
(2) the employee's status as full time or part time or
the hours worked for the job;
(3) the start date of the employee's current role;
(4) remote work status;
(5) job title; and
(6) end date for an internal role change.
(b) The commission shall provide a public report on employer
participation in the data reporting requested under Subsection (a)
and a cost-benefit analysis on the data to the workforce planning
process in the state.
SECTION 3. Not later than October 1, 2021, the Texas
Education Agency, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and
Texas Workforce Commission shall hold the initial meeting required
under Section 2308A.004, Government Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 4. (a) Not later than January 31, 2022, the Texas
Education Agency, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and
Texas Workforce Commission shall approve the initial state
workforce development goals required under Section 2308A.006,
Government Code, as added by this Act.
(b) Not later than April 30, 2022, the Texas Education
Agency, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and Texas
Workforce Commission shall adopt the initial strategies required
under Section 2308A.006, Government Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.