Bill > H5174

This bill aims to enhance student access to career technical education (CTE) programs that are aligned with local job market needs by establishing a new Office of Career Technical Education within the department of elementary and secondary education, which will be overseen by a deputy commissioner responsible for improving and maximizing CTE statewide and developing policies to strengthen these programs, including ensuring the enforcement of regulations for occupational proficiency certificates. The bill also mandates the development of student credentials based on applied knowledge, relationships, and workplace skills, and ensures instructor competence through occupational advisory boards and teacher competency testing, while also utilizing pre- and post-assessments to measure student learning and collaborating with industry to develop state-customized credentials for career readiness, including supporting the use of Industry Recognized Credentials (IRCs) and dual credit programs with community colleges and universities to allow students to earn credits towards associate's degrees. Furthermore, the bill requires comprehensive high schools to offer at least one CTE course or internship to expose all students to career fields, and it directs the Office of Career Technical Education to work annually with Regional Workforce Boards to identify regional labor market needs and promote CTE programs that meet those demands, while also encouraging outreach and retention efforts to make CTE accessible to all students, including English language learners, students with disabilities, and underrepresented populations. The bill also makes technical amendments to existing laws to include vocational administrators and the Alliance for Vocational Technical Education Coalition in relevant committees and allows cities or towns to be members of both vocational and other regional school districts, and to offer approved vocational technical education programs in their municipal high schools if there is demonstrated student and labor market demand that the regional vocational-technical school district cannot or will not meet, and it increases the number of vocational regional school districts that a city or town can be a member of from five to twenty-five, and establishes a two-year pilot program to incentivize collaboration between schools that offer CTE and those that do not, to provide access to skill-training and career options for all students.

Budget and Finance

Committee on Education (Joint)

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H5174