HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 2128

As Reported by House Committee On:

Education

Title: An act relating to establishing new reporting requirements for the delivery and improvement of career and technical education.

Brief Description: Establishing new reporting requirements for the delivery and improvement of career and technical education.

Sponsors: Representatives Leavitt, Gildon, Entenman, Van Werven, Frame, Kilduff, Rude and Pollet.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:

Education: 2/3/20, 2/6/20 [DPS].

Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. Signed by 17 members: Representatives Santos, Chair; Dolan, Vice Chair; Paul, Vice Chair; Steele, Ranking Minority Member; McCaslin, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Volz, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Bergquist, Caldier, Callan, Corry, Harris, Ortiz-Self, Rude, Stonier, Thai, Valdez and Ybarra.

Staff: Ethan Moreno (786-7386).

Background:

Career and technical education (CTE) is a planned program of courses and learning experiences that begins with exploration of career options and supports basic academic and life skills. As specified in statute, CTE enables the achievement of high academic standards, leadership, options for high-skill, high-wage employment preparation, and advanced and continuing education.

Career and technical education instruction is provided through two general classifications of courses—exploratory and preparatory—both of which must comply with numerous standards established by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). Exploratory CTE courses allow students to demonstrate the application of learning standards in the context of preparing for living, learning, and working. Preparatory CTE courses expand upon exploratory courses, are more intensive and rigorous, and require the mastery of occupational specific skills required to meet industry defined standards for a specific career.

Graduating students must earn at least one CTE credit, but the State Board of Education allows students to meet this requirement through an occupational education course that meets the definition of a CTE exploratory course.

Career and technical education instruction is delivered through programs at middle and high schools, through approved online courses, and at skill centers. Skill centers are regional CTE instructional venues established and operated by a host school district to provide access to comprehensive, industry-defined CTE programs that prepare students for careers, employment, apprenticeships, and postsecondary education. There are 14 skill centers in Washington.

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Summary of Substitute Bill:

Beginning September 1, 2021, each school district must provide a report to the OSPI that includes delineated information related to CTE courses and course offerings. Examples of what the reports must include are as follows:

• a list of the CTE courses available to the district's students during the previous two school years through a skill center, or both. The OSPI is directed to post this information on their website;

• a summary of annual outreach efforts by the district to provide students with information about CTE course offerings;

• the faculty-student ratio in the CTE courses offered by the district, available to the district's students through a skill center, or both;

• the career cluster of the offered courses; and

• the number and type of general and program advisory boards in the district that advise CTE curriculum and instruction, including the composition of the boards, board recruiting practices, and the frequency of their meetings.

School districts must provide the initial report to the OSPI by May 1, 2021, and must provide subsequent reports annually on or before each May 1. School districts also must post the reports on their websites each year by May 1.

Beginning September 1, 2021, and every two years thereafter, the OSPI must provide the education committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate with a report summarizing the information provided by the school districts in the annual CTE reports. The reports of the OSPI must include recommendations for improving the content of CTE courses, including their alignment with industry requirements, and the delivery of CTE instruction.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:

The substitute bill makes the following changes to the original bill:

• changes the initial date by which school districts must provide the required CTE report from May 1, 2020 (for the 2019-20 school year) to May 1, 2021;

• requires the OSPI, beginning September 1, 2021, to annually post lists of CTE courses available to students, by district and for the previous two years, on its website;

• modifies content requirements for the CTE reports districts must provide, including:

  • changing information about requested course locations;

  • requiring districts to specify the "career cluster" of the available courses rather than "industry focus;" and

  • requiring information about CTE advisory boards to indicate whether the boards are general or program specific; and

• changes the initial date for a biannual report of the OSPI to the education committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate that summarizes district-based CTE information and makes recommendations for improving course content from September 1, 2020, to September 1, 2021.

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Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Requested on January 30, 2020.

Effective Date of Substitute Bill: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) Instruction in CTE is paramount to meeting a coming workforce shortage. Career and technical education offers important pathways for all students. Elevating CTE is critical to families, communities, and students.

This bill elevates CTE programs and reporting requirements, and will give the OSPI data that will be helpful in making informed decisions for future policy and program implementation. The OSPI has provided the bill's sponsor with further suggestions for language changes for the bill regarding reporting deadlines and avoiding duplications with existing data reporting.

This bill will result in good statewide data in one location. Stakeholders are still working on language improvements for the bill, but it is a good bill to move forward.

(Opposed) None.

Persons Testifying: Representative Leavitt, prime sponsor; Tim Knue, Washington Association for Career and Technical Education; Rebecca Wallace, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction; and Charlie Brown, Skills Centers Directors.

Persons Signed In To Testify But Not Testifying: Valenzuela Monique, Youth Marine Foundation; Michelle Ledbetter, Pierce County Skills Center; and Amy Miller, White River School District.