It is the state’s responsibility to implement the nondiscrimination and equal opportunity requirements of WIOA. This procedure will be implemented through the Nondiscrimination Plan to give reasonable guarantee that all local level recipients and subrecipients will comply and are complying with the nondiscrimination and equal opportunity provisions of WIOA.

1. The final rule (29 CFR Part 37), implements Section 188 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or political affiliation or belief. It also protects any beneficiary (person intended by Congress to receive WIOA Title I-financially assisted aid, benefits, services, or training) from discrimination based on either that beneficiary’s citizenship, or his or her participation in any WIOA Title I-financially assisted program or activity.
2. Secretary’s Order 2-81 authorizes the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, working through the Director, Office of Civil Rights, to establish and formulate all policies, standards, and procedures for, as well as to issue rules and regulations governing, the enforcement of statutes applying nondiscrimination and equal opportunity requirements to programs and activities receiving financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Labor. On October 12, 1986, the Office of Civil Rights was redesignated the Directorate of Civil Rights by the Assistant Secretary. Effective December 12, 1995, the Assistant Secretary redesignated the Directorate of Civil Rights as the Civil Rights Center (CRC). CRC is authorized to monitor and enforce all nondiscrimination and equal opportunity regulations regarding programs receiving financial assistance from USDOL, including Section 188 of WIOA.