Washington State

House of Representatives

Office of Program Research

BILL

ANALYSIS

Education Committee

HB 2580

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Summary of Bill

Allows a high school skill center to request assistance from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges if it believes a college is not following a law that requires all colleges to recognize one another's dual credit agreements for secondary career and technical education (CTE) courses.
Requires school district procedures for approving course equivalencies to address both CTE courses that are equivalent to academic courses and academic courses that are equivalent to CTE courses.

Background:

One of the provisions of comprehensive career and technical education (CTE) legislation enacted in 2008 was to require that, if a community or technical college has created an agreement with a high school or skill center to offer college credit for a secondary CTE course, then all colleges must accept that course for an equal amount of college credit. The traditional practice has been that colleges only grant college credit for the schools with which they have signed an agreement or schools within the same Tech Prep consortium as the college. Some colleges may offer to grant the credit, but only after charging the student a fee. The 2008 legislation did not provide an avenue for addressing possible disputes between a college and a high school on this issue.

Another provision of the legislation called for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to provide technical assistance to school districts in appropriate procedures and standards for granting academic credit for equivalent CTE courses. In practice, school districts are sometimes also asked to grant CTE credit for an academic course, particularly for students who find they need an occupational education credit for graduation purposes.

Summary of Bill:

A community or technical college may not charge a student more than a standard transcription fee when asked to grant college credit for a secondary CTE course where another college has agreed to offer such credit. If a high school or skill center believes a college is not following the law pertaining to granting of college credit for secondary CTE courses, it can request assistance from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC). After consideration of the facts of the situation, the SBCTC may direct the college to follow the law.

Procedures adopted by school districts for determining and approving course equivalency must address both CTE courses determined to be equivalent to academic courses, and academic courses determined to be equivalent to CTE courses, including for purposes of meeting high school graduation requirements.