APM Chapter 9800 contains performance standards that apply to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in providing services to county partners that are included in a Partnership Agreement. These standards were originally issued on September 1, 2001 and were developed with the input of county and state staff and are the initial standards by which county agencies judge ODJFS performance. These performance standards are set forth in APM Sections 9800 - 9819. and are incorporated in the Partnership Agreement as Article III, F.

The May 5, 2002 revisions are not substantive changes and do not contain any material alterations to the performance standards that apply to ODJFS. The revisions to APM Chapter 9800 are as follows:

APM. 9811 allows the county agency director to directly contact ODJFS Legal Services for changes to names on Clearance distribution instead of going through the account manager who would relay the revised information. APM 9811 was also revised to add the web address for Legal/Policy Central which is the centralized ODJFS InnerWeb location for all clearances, proposed rules, manuals, and related materials;

APM. 9812 no longer limits the provision of training/technical assistance to regional office staff;

APM. 9814 provides that county requests for policy interpretations will be sent directly to appropriate ODJFS program instead of to regional office staff and provides that the ODJFS program staff respond directly to the requesting county. This change also eliminates the need for regional office to forward the request to the central office and to forward the central office response to the county.

APM. 9819 no longer limits the evaluation of ODJFS service delivery to regional offices.

Instructions: Remove pages headed APM.9700 headed Management Information Services dated July 1, 2001 through APM.9899 dated September 1, 2001 and replace with the attached pages dated May 5, 2002.