The Washington service corps is established within the employment security department. The commissioner shall:
(1) Appoint a director and other personnel as necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter;
(2) Coordinate youth employment and training efforts under the department's jurisdiction and cooperate with other agencies or departments providing youth services to ensure that funds appropriated for the purposes of this chapter will not be expended to duplicate existing services, but will increase the services of youth to the state;
(3) The employment security department is authorized to place subgrants with other federal, state, and local governmental agencies and private agencies to provide youth employment projects and to increase the numbers of youth employed;
(4) Determine appropriate financial support levels by private business, community groups, foundations, public agencies, and individuals which will provide matching funds for enrollees in service projects under work agreements. The matching funds requirement may be waived for public agencies or reduced for private agencies;
(5) Recruit enrollees who are residents of the state unemployed at the time of application and are at least eighteen years of age but have not reached their twenty-sixth birthday;
(6) Recruit supervising agencies to host the enrollees in full-time service activities which shall not exceed eleven months' duration;
(7) Assist supervising agencies in the development of scholarships and matching funds from private and public agencies, individuals, and foundations in order to support a portion of the enrollee's stipend and benefits;
(8) Develop general employment guidelines for placement of enrollees in supervising agencies to establish appropriate authority for hiring, firing, grievance procedures, and employment standards which are consistent with state and federal law;
(9) Match enrollees with appropriate public agencies and available service projects;
(10) Monitor enrollee activities for compliance with this chapter and compliance with work agreements;
(11) Assist enrollees in transition to employment upon termination from the programs, including such activities as orientation to the labor market, on-the-job training, and placement in the private sector;
(12) Establish a program for providing incentives to encourage successful completion of terms of enrollment in the service corps and the continuation of educational pursuits. Such incentives shall be in the form of educational assistance equivalent to two years of community or technical college tuition for eleven months of service. Educational assistance funding shall only be used for tuition, fees, and course-related books and supplies. Enrollees who receive educational assistance funding shall start using it within one year of their service completion and shall finish using it within four years of their service completion;
(13) Enter into agreements with the state's community and technical college system and other educational institutions or independent nonprofit agencies to provide special education in basic skills, including reading, writing, and mathematics for those participants who may benefit by participation in such classes. Participation is not mandatory but shall be strongly encouraged.
[ 1993 c 302 § 1; 1987 c 167 § 3; 1983 1st ex.s. c 50 § 3.]
NOTES:
Effective date—1993 c 302: "This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect July 1, 1993." [ 1993 c 302 § 9.]