§ 294r — State Health Care Workforce Development Grants

(a) There is established a competitive health care workforce development grant program (referred to in this section as the “program”) for the purpose of enabling State partnerships to complete comprehensive planning and to carry out activities leading to coherent and comprehensive health care workforce development strategies at the State and local levels. (b) The Health Resources and Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services (referred to in this section as the “Administration”) shall be the fiscal and administrative agent for the grants awarded under this section. The Administration is authorized to carry out the program, in consultation with the National Health Care Workforce Commission (referred to in this section as the “Commission”), which shall review reports on the development, implementation, and evaluation activities of the grant program, including— (1) administering the grants; (2) providing technical assistance to grantees; and (3) reporting performance information to the Commission. (1) A planning grant shall be awarded under this subsection for a period of not more than one year and the maximum award may not be more than $150,000. (2) To be eligible to receive a planning grant, an entity shall be an eligible partnership. An eligible partnership shall be a State workforce investment board, if it includes or modifies the members to include at least one representative from each of the following: health care employer, labor organization, a public 2-year institution of higher education, a public 4-year institution of higher education, the recognized State federation of labor, the State public secondary education agency, the State P–16 or P–20 Council if such a council exists, and a philanthropic organization that is actively engaged in providing learning, mentoring, and work opportunities to recruit, educate, and train individuals for, and retain individuals in, careers in health care and related industries. (3) The Governor of the State receiving a planning grant has the authority to appoint a fiscal and an administrative agency for the partnership. (4) require. Each application submitted for a planning grant shall describe the members of the State partnership, the activities for which assistance is sought, the proposed performance benchmarks to be used to measure progress under the planning grant, a budget for use of the funds to complete the required activities described in paragraph (5), and such additional assurance and information as the Administrator determines to be essential to ensure compliance with the grant program requirements. (5) A State partnership receiving a planning grant shall carry out the following: (A) Analyze State labor market information in order to create health care career pathways for students and adults, including dislocated workers. (B) Identify current and projected high demand State or regional health care sectors for purposes of planning career pathways. (C) Identify existing Federal, State, and private resources to recruit, educate or train, and retain a skilled health care workforce and strengthen partnerships. (D) Describe the academic and health care industry skill standards for high school graduation, for entry into postsecondary education, and for various credentials and licensure. (E) Describe State secondary and postsecondary education and training policies, models, or practices for the health care sector, including career information and guidance counseling. (F) a coherent and comprehensive health care workforce development strategy and barriers and a plan to resolve these barriers. (G) Participate in the Administration’s evaluation and reporting activities. (6) Before the State partnership receives a planning grant, such partnership and the Administrator of the Administration shall jointly determine the performance benchmarks that will be established for the purposes of the planning grant. (7) Each State partnership receiving a planning grant shall provide an amount, in cash or in kind, that is not less that 15 percent of the amount of the grant, to carry out the activities supported by the grant. The matching requirement may be provided from funds available under other Federal, State, local or private sources to carry out the activities. (A) Not later than 1 year after a State partnership receives a planning grant, the partnership shall submit a report to the Administration on the State’s performance of the activities under the grant, including the use of funds, including matching funds, to carry out required activities, and a description of the progress of the State workforce investment board in meeting the performance benchmarks. (B) The Administration shall submit a report to Congress analyzing the planning activities, performance, and fund utilization of each State grant recipient, including an identification of promising practices and a profile of the activities of each State grant recipient. (1) The Administration shall— (A) competitively award implementation grants to State partnerships to enable such partnerships to implement activities that will result in a coherent and comprehensive plan for health workforce development that will address current and projected workforce demands within the State; and (B) inform the Commission and Congress about the awards made. (2) An implementation grant shall be awarded for a period of no more than 2 years, except in those cases where the Administration determines that the grantee is high performing and the activities supported by the grant warrant up to 1 additional year of funding. (3) To be eligible for an implementation grant, a State partnership shall have— (A) received a planning grant under subsection (c) and completed all requirements of such grant; or (B) completed a satisfactory application, including a plan to coordinate with required partners and complete the required activities during the 2 year period of the implementation grant. (4) A State partnership receiving an implementation grant shall appoint a fiscal and an administration agent for the implementation of such grant. (5) Each eligible State partnership desiring an implementation grant shall submit an application to the Administration at such time, in such manner, and accompanied by such information as the Administration may reasonably require. Each application submitted shall include— (A) a description of the members of the State partnership; (B) a description of how the State partnership completed the required activities under the planning grant, if applicable; (C) a description of the activities for which implementation grant funds are sought, including grants to regions by the State partnership to advance coherent and comprehensive regional health care workforce planning activities; (D) a description of how the State partnership will coordinate with required partners and complete the required partnership activities during the duration of an implementation grant; (E) a budget proposal of the cost of the activities supported by the implementation grant and a timeline for the provision of matching funds required; (F) proposed performance benchmarks to be used to assess and evaluate the progress of the partnership activities; (G) a description of how the State partnership will collect data to report progress in grant activities; and (H) such additional assurances as the Administration determines to be essential to ensure compliance with grant requirements. (A) A State partnership that receives an implementation grant may reserve not less than 60 percent of the grant funds to make grants to be competitively awarded by the State partnership, consistent with State procurement rules, to encourage regional partnerships to address health care workforce development needs and to promote innovative health care workforce career pathway activities, including career counseling, learning, and employment. (B) An eligible State partnership receiving an implementation grant shall— (i) identify and convene regional leadership to discuss opportunities to engage in statewide health care workforce development planning, including the potential use of competitive grants to improve the development, distribution, and diversity of the regional health care workforce; the alignment of curricula for health care careers; and the access to quality career information and guidance and education and training opportunities; (ii) in consultation with key stakeholders and regional leaders, take appropriate steps to reduce Federal, State, or local barriers to a comprehensive and coherent strategy, including changes in State or local policies to foster coherent and comprehensive health care workforce development activities, including health care career pathways at the regional and State levels, career planning information, retraining for dislocated workers, and as appropriate, requests for Federal program or administrative waivers; (iii) develop, disseminate, and review with key stakeholders a preliminary statewide strategy that addresses short- and long-term health care workforce development supply versus demand; (iv) convene State partnership members on a regular basis, and at least on a semiannual basis; (v) assist leaders at the regional level to form partnerships, including technical assistance and capacity building activities; (vi) collect and assess data on and report on the performance benchmarks selected by the State partnership and the Administration for implementation activities carried out by regional and State partnerships; and (vii) participate in the Administration’s evaluation and reporting activities. (7) Before the State partnership receives an implementation grant, it and the Administrator shall jointly determine the performance benchmarks that shall be established for the purposes of the implementation grant. (8) Each State partnership receiving an implementation grant shall provide an amount, in cash or in kind that is not less than 25 percent of the amount of the grant, to carry out the activities supported by the grant. The matching funds may be provided from funds available from other Federal, State, local, or private sources to carry out such activities. (A) For each year of the implementation grant, the State partnership receiving the implementation grant shall submit a report to the Administration on the performance of the State of the grant activities, including a description of the use of the funds, including matched funds, to complete activities, and a description of the performance of the State partnership in meeting the performance benchmarks. (B) The Administration shall submit a report to Congress analyzing implementation activities, performance, and fund utilization of the State grantees, including an identification of promising practices and a profile of the activities of each State grantee. (1) There are authorized to be appropriated to award planning grants under subsection (c) $8,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, and such sums as may be necessary for each subsequent fiscal year. (2) There are authorized to be appropriated to award implementation grants under subsection (d), $150,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, and such sums as may be necessary for each subsequent fiscal year.