Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act reauthorization signed by President Trump
Published: August 1, 2018
President Trump signed into law legislation that reauthorizes and updates the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. The $1.2 billion program was last reauthorized in 2006.
The measure, H.R. 2353 - Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act maintains the current formula for allocating Perkins Act funding among states and also preserves the system for distributing funding within states. Further, the legislation allows states to set their own goals for CTE programs without approval of the Education Secretary, and requires progress towards those goals.
Under this reauthorization, local funding recipients must submit applications to the state that are based on a comprehensive CTE needs assessment.
After being stalled in the Senate for the last year, H.R. 2353 passed the Senate in its amended form by a voice vote on July 23 and was concurred in the House by a voice vote on July 25. The new law becomes effective July 1, 2019.
Specifics of the new legislation include:
- Alignment with the Every Student Succeeds Act for greater state/local flexibility to establish "high quality" programs and standards that are to also be commensurate with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act for coordinated programming and reporting;
- Requires disaggregated data reporting for student subgroups to help inform programmatic improvements for closing achievement gaps, similar to ESSA;
- Allows states the option to reset their baseline funding levels one time to comply with maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements so that MOE would be at least 95 percent of a state's fiscal effort per student, or 95 percent of a state’s aggregate CTE expenditures;
- Requires local applications to address several areas including plans to acclimate students to CTE/career exploration in earlier “middle grades,” effective academic and career counseling services, targeted services for at-risk students, and career readiness for students pursuing employment opportunities in non-traditional fields; and
- Requires local grant recipients to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment with stakeholders every two years, as specified.
If you have questions about the CTE reauthorization, contact Erika Hoffman with CSBA's Governmental Relations Department.