ID&R coordinators and key ID&R staff should make a point of attending local, regional, statewide and national trainings when possible as part of their ongoing professional development. Developing a State or Local Training Curriculum. The initial training provided to the new recruiter is essential to his or her future success and can help ensure that eligibility determinations made in the recruiter’s first year are correct. Experienced ID&R staff report that most eligibility mistakes are made by the rookie recruiter, which highlights the importance of effective initial training. As mentioned earlier, experienced recruiters can also make mistakes if they do not stay abreast of changes to eligibility requirements and evolving “best practices” in ID&R. Therefore, it is important to provide ongoing advanced training as well. Before an administrator begins to develop a training curriculum or to expand on the national ID&R Curriculum available at , he or she should ask the following questions: Has sufficient time been set aside to train new recruiters? Does the program have copies of the federal law, regulations and Guidance that pertain to the MEP (if not, they are available on the ED’s website at )? Does the program have a and post-assessment that can be given to new recruiters to find out what they already know and help focus the training on their specific training needs (as well as to measure their increased knowledge)? Is the state ID&R manual up-to-date and ready to be used as a primary source of guidance for new recruiters? Has the program developed or borrowed interesting learning activities (such as games, role plays or mock interviews) that can be used to reinforce eligibility rules and interviewing skills? Has the program determined how to select, train and support mentors? (See Chapter 10.) Is the program prepared to respond to questions that new recruiters will have after they begin their work? Has the program developed standards for what a recruiter needs to know before being allowed to make preliminary eligibility determinations and a way of assessing that the recruiter has met the standard? Does the training incorporate a combination of classroom, field-based training, and independent study? Has thought been given to how to evaluate whether recruiters have learned what the curriculum is designed to teach?
ID&R coordinators and key ID&R staff should make a point of attending local, regional, statewide and national trainings when possible as part of their ongoing professional development. Developing a State or Local Training Curriculum. The initial training provided to the new recruiter is essential to his or her future success and can help ensure that eligibility determinations made in the recruiter’s first year are correct. Experienced ID&R staff report that most eligibility mistakes are made by the rookie recruiter, which highlights the importance of effective initial training. As mentioned earlier, experienced recruiters can also make mistakes if they do not stay abreast of changes to eligibility requirements and evolving “best practices” in ID&R. Therefore, it is important to provide ongoing advanced training as well. Before an administrator begins to develop a training curriculum or to expand on the national ID&R Curriculum available at , he or she should ask the following questions: Has sufficient time been set aside to train new recruiters? Does the program have copies of the federal law, regulations and Guidance that pertain to the MEP (if not, they are available on the ED’s website at )? Does the program have a and post-assessment that can be given to new recruiters to find out what they already know and help focus the training on their specific training needs (as well as to measure their increased knowledge)? Is the state ID&R manual up-to-date and ready to be used as a primary source of guidance for new recruiters? Has the program developed or borrowed interesting learning activities (such as games, role plays or mock interviews) that can be used to reinforce eligibility rules and interviewing skills? Has the program determined how to select, train and support mentors? (See Chapter 10.) Is the program prepared to respond to questions that new recruiters will have after they begin their work? Has the program developed standards for what a recruiter needs to know before being allowed to make preliminary eligibility determinations and a way of assessing that the recruiter has met the standard? Does the training incorporate a combination of classroom, field-based training, and independent study? Has thought been given to how to evaluate whether recruiters have learned what the curriculum is designed to teach?
IDR_Manual-V2-2-2013.docx