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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 5, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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must inform appropriate State agency staff of a possible exemption and if there is not an appropriate or available E&T
opening for the participant. If the State agency determines the participant does in fact meet an exemption or have good cause, the State agency must then exempt or provide good cause to the individual, if appropriate.
The Department received several comments on the requirement that case managers share possible exemption and good cause information with the State agency. The commenters were supportive and felt the requirement will better target E&T programs to those most likely to benefit; however, commenters felt the proposed requirement did not protect the participant if the State agency fails to act upon the information.
Some commenters also recommended the Department clarify that the case manager should assist the participant in reporting all potential good cause for non-compliance, not just good cause when there is a lack of an appropriate or available opening in E&T. The Department agrees that case managers may assist participants in following-up with State agency staff on the status of an exemption or good cause determination, but ultimately only State agency eligibility staff, having the authority to determine an exemption or good cause, can make that determination. The Department also agrees that case managers must provide to the State agency information on all potential good cause circumstances for non-compliance with a work requirement, beyond just circumstances relating to a lack of an appropriate or available opening in E&T, and has added this to the final regulatory text.
As a result, the Department codifies the final regulation as proposed with the modification that case managers must share with the State agency all potential instances of good cause.
Improving Accountability in State Agency Quarterly Reports Current regulations at 7 CFR
273.7c9, 7 CFR 273.7c10, and 7
CFR 273.7c11 require State agencies to submit quarterly E&T Program Activity Reports. 7 CFR 273.7c11
specifies that the fourth quarter report provide a list of all the E&T components offered during the fiscal year, as well as the number of ABAWDs and nonABAWDs who began participation in each component. The report must also provide the number of ABAWDs and non-ABAWDs who participated in the E&T program during the fiscal year. The Department is committed to ensuring that State agencies are providing mandatory E&T participants with real
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opportunities to gain skills and appropriate services that help them be successful. Therefore, the Department proposed adding additional reporting elements to this fourth quarter report focused on mandatory E&T participants:
The unduplicated number of SNAP
applicants and participants required to participate in an E&T program during the fiscal year and, of those, the number who actually begin to participate in an E&T program. An E&T participant begins to participate in an E&T program when the participant commences at least one part of an E&T program, including an orientation, assessment, case management, or a component. The Department proposed to codify this new requirement by inserting a new paragraph at 7 CFR 273.7c11iii.
The Department received 21
comments on this provision.
Commenters were very supportive, explaining their belief that the new data elements will generate useful information on the take-up rate of E&T
and the number of individuals who actually begin participation.
Commenters expressed their concern that high non-participation rates in E&T
likely indicate increased hardship among those terminated from SNAP and poorly designed or implemented programs that do not engage mandatory E&T participants.
While all commenters supported including the first proposed data element, the number of SNAP
participants required to participate in E&T by the State agency, the Department received several comments suggesting the Department replace the second proposed data element, of those, the number who begin participation in an E&T program, with of those, the number who are successfully placed into a qualifying component. These commenters stated that activities such as orientation and assessment are considered participation and may take place at the State agency prior to component placement, yet generally do not allow participants to meet the minimum hours of mandatory programs. Moreover, commenters explained the language of placement rather than participation narrowly focuses the accountability for placement into a qualifying component on the State agency, whether or not the participant actually appears at the placement site. Other commenters also provided a different variation to the modification described above, requesting to replace and of those the number who begin participation in an E&T program with of those the number who were actually enrolled in an E&T component or case
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management. These commenters, like those above, felt it was important to capture if participants were engaging with the main elements of an E&T
program, rather than just attending an assessment or orientation, but did not have the same concerns with the verbs participate versus placed, and considered case management and component participation equally important to capture.
Two commenters recommended State agencies report both the number of individuals who, as proposed, begin to participate in an E&T program, as well as the number who begin participating in an E&T component. These commenters believed adding the third data element specific to participation in an E&T component would capture issues related to the hand offfrom the State agency to a specific training activity i.e., the E&T component. The commenters stated this has been a challenge for many E&T programs, and obtaining useful information about participation in a component could provide important insights for State agencies and policymakers interested in improving SNAP E&T. Further, these commenters suggested the addition of this third data element would not be a burden to E&T providers or the State agency, as current regulations at 7 CFR
273.7c11 already require the reporting of participation in individual components as well as in an E&T
program.
One commenter suggested a much longer list of data elements to be added to the fourth quarter report, including the number of SNAP participants who are mandated to report for an E&T
assessment, the number of mandatory participants who receive an E&T
assessment, the number of mandatory participants who participate in an E&T
activity, the number who are sanctioned for non-compliance, and the number of those mandated to participate who are later found to be exempt. The commenter also suggested the Department require State agencies to report on the employment rates in the second quarter and the fourth quarter after SNAP recipients are required to participate in E&T. Lastly, a not-forprofit agency suggested the Department also collect both the sanction rate and the employment rate for the full universe of those assigned to mandatory E&T in order to present a complete account of the impact of mandatory programs on SNAP participants.
The Department agrees that the proposed requirement to collect data on the number of participants required to participate in E&T and the number who begin to participate in the E&T program
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