Senate committee reviews Vermont law on career and technical education governance and tuitioning

Beth St. James of the Office of Legislative Council told the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday that Vermont law lays out three governance models for career and technical education (CTE) and prescribes how centers may collect tuition.

St. James said she was presenting the statutes, not policy recommendations: “I am not a career and technical education expert,” she told the committee, and asked members to direct detailed field questions to CTE practitioners. Her walk-through focused on Title 16, Chapter 37 of Vermont law, which she said contains the state’s CTE provisions.

The statute establishes three principal arrangements: (1) local school districts that operate CTE centers alongside their other K–12 responsibilities (the most common model), (2) stand‑alone regional career technical center school districts whose sole function is to operate a CTE center, and (3) “comprehensive high schools” — public or independent high schools the State Board of Education has designated to serve as a regional technical center. St. James said about a dozen regional centers fall into the first category and named several regional centers by district (for example, Burlington, Hartford Area Career and Tech Center, Green Mountain Tech Center, Randolph Technical Career Center, Stafford Technical Center and Windham Regional Career Center).

St. James summarized how the statutory framework distributes authority and funding. Under the local‑operating model, a school board responsible for the host district runs the center; statute also requires the board to establish a regional advisory board composed of representatives from sending high schools. Under the stand‑alone regional district model, an elected board adopts a budget, then calculates and notifies member districts of each district’s apportioned share; St. James said that share becomes a legal obligation for each member district and is reflected as a budget line item for the sending district. For comprehensive high schools designated as regional centers, tuitioning for outside students follows the town‑tuition statute (Section 8‑24), St. James said.

On eligibility and operations, St. James noted the statutory instruction that "a secondary student shall be enrolled in a program of part‑time or full‑time CTE education at a CTE center if the student applies for the program and is accepted." She added that in practice regional school calendars, transportation arrangements and other practical barriers can affect access and that those implementation questions are matters for the field.

St. James also pointed out that the State Board of Education rule that lists district sending patterns and other CTE rules have not been updated in many years (she cited 2002 for the last rule update) and said she would provide the committee links to the rules and to the Agency of Education’s regional calendar. Committee members asked for field testimony at a future meeting; St. James indicated regional administrators and the State CTE director will be invited back to answer operational and funding questions, including how state assistance for directors, assistant directors and transportation is allocated.

Committee members raised follow‑up questions about how tuition invoices are set and paid, how part‑time tuition is calculated and how advisory boards are formed and staffed. St. James said the statutes specify the advisory board membership and the general obligations but that specific practice can vary by region.

The committee asked staff to circulate the cited statutory sections, the current State Board rules and the regional calendar before the planned field witnesses appear. Members said they want the Thursday session with field representatives to focus on practical financing, transportation and calendar coordination so the committee can understand how statutory duties are implemented in districts and regional centers.

The committee did not take any formal votes on CTE policy during the session.