The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), administered by the U.S. Department of Labor (Department), is the largest source of Federally-funded employment and training services. The program services, provided by state and local WIA agencies, involve many statutory and regulatory requirements applied uniformly across the country. Due to state and local area differences, WIA allows states to apply for waivers of WIA regulations, providing greater flexibility in serving the specific needs of local populations. These waivers may affect how resources are allocated or the types of employment and training services available to various groups.
Between Program Years (PY) 2008 and 2010, the Department approved more than 750 state-requested waivers of statutory and regulatory requirements. To learn more about the implementation and possible effects of waiver implementation, ETA contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct an evaluation of selected waivers approved in PY 2008 through 2010. This study includes two interim reports and one final report. The first interim report was published in August 2012 and is available on the ETA Research Publication Database Web site (http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/FullText_Documents/ETAOP_2012_14.pdf).

Drawing from the two interim reports and additional analysis, this final report summarizes the findings from all phases of data collection under the study. The final report contains broad analysis of information collected by phone interviews from 20 state administrators, and supplemented by 12 local site visits. This report is a stand-alone document that encapsulates the entire study. Some of the observations in the final report include lessons learned from the waiver implementation process such as the need to streamline the waiver request process and waiver-related paperwork requirements and the need to share information and guidance on waivers and their potential uses as well as the benefits of approving waivers for longer periods of time.