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.
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.
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.
The Governor of the State receiving a planning grant has the authority to appoint a fiscal and an administrative agency for the partnership.
Each State partnership desiring a planning grant shall submit an application to the Administrator of the Administration at such time and in such manner, and accompanied by such information as the Administrator may reasonable [1] 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A State partnership receiving an implementation grant shall appoint a fiscal and an administration agent for the implementation of such grant.
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.
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.
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.
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.