Page 18

1000.2 TANF MANUAL 10/18 PAGE 14

be entered into the ESP module in VaCMS. States are required to provide data on a quarterly basis. This data is used to compute federal work participation rates as well as to determine Virginia’s compliance with other federal requirements. To meet the federal deadline for reporting, data will be extracted from the system on the first day of the second month following the end of a calendar quarter.

To make sure that the locality and state get credit for all of the cases that are engaged in work activities and avoid the possible loss of federal funding, it is imperative that work participation data is accurately entered into the ESP module by the 15th of the following month. Partial hours of participation must be rounded up or down using the standard rounding rules (.50 or greater is rounded up; .49 and below is rounded down). Virginia will not receive credit for the cases that do not have current work participation rate data entered into the Data Collection and ESP modules of VaCMS.

Actual hours of participation must be entered in the system and must be supported by documentation in the case file. With the exception of unsubsidized employment and OJT, the hours entered into the system on a monthly basis must be verified each month. Self-reporting by a participant is not sufficient documentation.

For unsubsidized employment and OJT, the ESW may enter projected actual hours of participation for up to six months based on current, documented actual hours of work. Verification of employment may be obtained from the EW, but a copy of the verification must be retained in the VIEW record. After six months, or at any point the ESW becomes aware that the hours of employment have changed, the actual hours of participation in unsubsidized employment or OJT must be verified. After the changed employment hours are verified, projected hours of participation should again be entered for up to six months. Actual hours are defined separately for paid employment, including OJT positions, and for unpaid activities.

Employment and OJT: Actual hours for participants who are employed or in OJT mean hours of paid employment, including paid vacations, paid sick leave, and paid holidays observed by the business.

Job Readiness, Group Job Search, CWEP, PSP, Vocational Education and Training, Job Skills Training, Education below Post-Secondary: Actual hours for participants in unpaid activities, with the exception of individual job search, are actual hours of participation, and hours during which the client would have participated but was unable to because the placement was not available due to holiday closure. Based on federal requirements, only the following ten holidays can be included in the calculation of actual hours of participation for participants in unpaid activities: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day and the day after, and Christmas Day. Closures for other holidays, or closures by educational or training institutions for quarter or semester breaks during which the placement is not available to the participant cannot be considered as holiday closures.

In addition to the 10 holidays, 80 hours of excused absences may be counted toward participation in the preceding 12-month period for clients in unpaid activities. Excused absence hours should be counted toward participation only when the hours will enable the client to meet the participation requirement which otherwise would not have been met.

Excused absences that may be counted as actual hours of participation include:

• court dates • appointments with CPS or Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) which cannot be scheduled outside participation hours • unavailability of the scheduled activity due to strike, lockout, or shutdown

Transmittal 65