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House Education introduces bill to require military options be included in school personalized learning plans
Summary
Representative Hango introduced H.87 to require that personalized learning plans (PLPs) provided to students include information about military-related postsecondary options; the bill removes a previous VSAC requirement included in last year’s draft and would direct the Agency of Education to publish guidance to school districts.
Representative Hango on Wednesday introduced H.87, “an act relating to raising awareness of military related post secondary opportunities,” asking that schools include military-related options in students’ personalized learning plans.
The bill would amend the Flexible Pathways statute to require the Agency of Education to develop and publish guidance and resources so that, beginning no later than grade 7, school staff include admissions processes and requirements for “any and all military related opportunities” when working with students on career development and postsecondary planning, Representative Hango said.
The measure differs from language considered last year by removing a provision that would have required the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) to add military options to its publications, Hango said. “This is similar to last year’s H.739... but ended up staying on the wall in Senate ed,” Hango said. “This bill asks that in the framework used in each secondary or high school or personalized learning plans, PLPs, all military related options for achieving career success are offered to students.”
Why it matters: supporters said the change would ensure students and their families consistently see military career and education pathways — including National Guard enlistment, service academies, ROTC, enlistment in active duty branches and apprenticeship-style arrangements — as part of the set of postsecondary options discussed during PLP planning.
The committee’s Office of Legislative Council walked members through the bill text and its placement in law, describing the change as an amendment to the Flexible Pathways statute (identified in the hearing as “Section 941, Title 16”). The legislative-counsel summary notes the bill requires the Agency of Education to publish guidance and technical assistance and requires school districts to use that guidance in ongoing PLP work with students from grade 7 through grade 12.
Committee members asked about parental opt-outs and whether the bill would require recruiters to meet with students in schools. Hango said the measure does not mandate recruiter visits or compel individual students to meet with recruiters. “It’s not something like a recruiter coming into the school. That’s not what this would require,” Hango said. Instead, he said, the requirement is that “when a student is sitting down to, like, make their PLP... they and their families and other people advising them... are aware that these options exist.”
The representative also said discussions with VSAC made clear that VSAC already lists military-related options on its planning resources, which informed the decision to remove an explicit statutory requirement for VSAC in this draft.
The bill was presented as a focused change to existing PLP guidance rather than a new recruitment policy; committee members pressed on details about timing, the degree of guidance, and the role of counselors and parents in deeper conversations that go beyond listing options.
No formal committee action or vote on H.87 was recorded during the introduction session.
Looking ahead: the sponsor said the bill had been discussed in the legislature last year and could be carried again either as a standalone or as part of a miscellaneous education bill if the committee compiles one.
