The Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) grant program of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) supports states in providing assistance to Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants to speed their return to work and shorten the length of time they are receiving UI benefits. Specifically, the REA program requires that a subset of UI claimants attend an in-person REA meeting at an American Job Center (AJC). During the meeting they participate in a UI eligibility review and orientation to AJC services, as well as receiving labor market information and an individual reemployment plan, which includes a referral to an appropriate reemployment service.

In support of DOL's REA2 Impact Study, this report describes the design and operation of the REA2 program in four states: Indiana, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin. Across the four study states, enrollment in the REA2 Impact Study spanned late March 2015 to late April 2016. The report describes in detail the REA program as it was implemented across each of the participating states and includes a review of study eligibility requirements and exclusions, provision of REA-specific services, as well as general reemployment services, claimant compliance with the program, and penalties for noncompliance. The REA2 impact evaluation randomly assigned claimants to one of several distinct treatment groups, each group emphasizing different components of the REA program.

This report also discusses how the rigorous impact evaluation design was integrated into these diverse service delivery systems in a way that maintained the integrity of the study while preserving the state-specific characteristics of the REA programs already operating in each state. This design allows the impact analysis to meaningfully interpret impacts and compare claimant outcomes (UI receipt, employment, and earnings) based on the treatment they received.

The report concludes by highlighting several of the differences across the four state REA programs studied and the implications of these implementation study findings for the upcoming impact analysis. This implementation study, conducted in the spring of 2016, was based on extensive qualitative fieldwork augmented by analyses of administrative data and program documents.