The EUC08 RES/REA program established by the Act sought to promote and improved access to reemployment assistance services among EUC08 claimants, and increased scrutiny of eligibility for benefits. The Act required that claimants who began collecting Tier 1 or who transitioned from Tier 1 to Tier 2 benefits on or after March 23, 2012, participate in the program, which included receiving (1) an orientation to an American Job Center (AJC) and the reemployment services and other resources made available through the center, (2) labor market and career information, (3) individual skills assessments, and (4) a review of their eligibility for EUC08 benefits based on their work search activities. The program's scale was substantial-Faccording to data reported by states to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), between April 2012 and December 2013, more than 5 million claimants were scheduled for EUC08 RES/REA services, and more than 3 million received services, nationwide.

This report presents findings from a study of the implementation of the EUC08 RES/REA program in nine purposively selected states. This study sought to identify strategies used to successfully implement and scale the program; and identify practices for federal, state, and local administrators to consider for similar and future programs. The study was designed to generate answers to a large number of research questions and can be represented by two groups. The first set pertains to states' program designs and implementation experiences and is based primarily on the in-depth discussions with state and frontline staff in the nine study states. The second set pertains to EUC08 claimants' waivers and participation rates. Analysis of state-level aggregate data reported to DOL helped answer questions about the second group of questions. All the study research questions and analyses are descriptive and no causal conclusions about the effectiveness of the EUC08 RES/REA program should be drawn from the findings of this study. Findings from this implementation study focus on the following program activities:

1. Starting, organizing, and staffing;
2. Engaging claimants in program services;
3. Delivering program services;
4. Perceived characteristics and needs of the claimants; and
5. Additional implications for designing, implementing, and assessing future programs.

The evaluators highlighted three implications for designing, implementing, and assessing future programs.

• A mandate for most or all claimants to participate in reemployment services earlier in their unemployment periods might be more effective than one that waits until claimants are long-term unemployed. State and frontline staff in several states thought that it would be better to impose required activities before claimants become long-term unemployed. Whether to engage claimants earlier, how much earlier, and which claimants should be required to participate are unanswered research questions.
• Additional efforts should be made to ensure that data collected and reported for program monitoring purposes are of high quality. Reports should provide accurate and useful information whether the data supports research or program-monitoring purposes and additional efforts to foster data quality may be needed.
• Other factors besides the presence of a similar program might help to influence the ease and success of implementation of a new program that combines reemployment services and eligibility assessments. States without an initial UI REA program consistently faced greater challenges implementing the EUC08 RES/REA program than did the states with a UI REA program.