Bill would create state Office of Career Technical Education to expand student access

BOSTON — Representatives Kate Lipper-Garabedian and Jessica Ann Giannino filed House Bill No. 631 on Jan. 13, 2025, proposing the creation of an Office of Career Technical Education within the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to increase student access to career technical education (CTE) programs aligned with regional labor market needs. The bill is titled “An Act to increase student access to career technical education schools and programs which are aligned with regional labor market needs.”

The proposal would establish an Office of Career Technical Education led by a deputy commissioner appointed by the commissioner of elementary and secondary education with board approval. The deputy commissioner’s duties, as written in the bill, include improving and maximizing CTE across the commonwealth, collaborating with the board to promulgate regulations, and enforcing regulations related to certificates of occupational proficiency.

The bill directs the office to develop student credentials based on applied knowledge, effective relationships and workplace skills described in the federal Employability Skills Framework; to support occupational advisory boards and national teacher-competency testing; and to use pre- and post-technical assessments in both cognitive and psychomotor domains. It also calls for collaboration with recognized industry credential providers to develop state-customized credentials, and encourages the use of Industry Recognized Credentials (IRCs) and the 21st Century Skills for Workplace Success Credential for validation of basic competencies and for externships or chapter 74 program completion.

The office would be required to promote and support demonstration programs that let students split time between comprehensive high schools and schools offering chapter 74 programs, provided required academic and vocational classes and equipment are available. The bill would also encourage articulation agreements with community colleges and public universities and other dual-credit programs so CTE students can earn credit and stacked credentials that lead to an associate degree.

The bill includes data provisions directing the office to engage in statewide data-sharing agreements with credential providers and to create access portals for state and local CTE administrators, teachers, parents and students so stakeholders can assess program effectiveness. It also directs the office to work annually with Regional Workforce Boards to determine regional labor market needs and to promote CTE programs aligned to those needs.

Among program-access provisions, the bill specifies that any comprehensive high school shall have access to at least one career technical education course or an approved CTE internship to increase student exposure to CTE fields. The bill requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to establish and administer a two-year pilot program to incentivize collaboration between faculty and guidance counselors at schools that offer chapter 74 programs and those that do not; at the end of the two-year pilot, DESE must report on the program’s effects and feasibility to the clerks of the House and Senate and to the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Education.

The bill also proposes statutory amendments to existing law: it would add two named organizations to the list in section 3A of chapter 70B (increasing the enumerated membership from 17 to 19), insert a requirement that cities or towns may simultaneously be members of a vocational regional school district and other types of regional school districts while permitting municipal high schools to offer approved chapter 74 programs (with collaboration through the new office and alignment to Regional Workforce Boards), and change a numeric threshold in chapter 71, section 16(q), by replacing “five” with “25.”

The text filed with the House is a legislative proposal and does not indicate final legislative action, committee referral outcomes, votes or enactment. The bill was presented as a petition accompanied by House Bill No. 631; no enacted law or effective date is specified in the filing document.