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Education panel hears plan for statewide student career-development platform; vendor outlines costs
Summary
House Bill 505 would direct the Department of Education to develop an electronic career-development platform for students, parents and educators. A vendor testified the service could be deployed statewide for about $8.50 per student per year plus a one-time implementation cost of roughly $200,000.
Lawmakers discussed House Bill 505, a proposal to create an electronic platform for career-development plans that would allow students to maintain an online profile, track extracurriculars, build résumés and explore in-demand careers. Sponsors framed the measure as an extension of prior work on career readiness and said it would shift "graduation plans" toward longer-term career development.
Saxon Phipps, co-founder and co-CEO of Year13, described his company's platform and said several states and districts use similar systems. Phipps said the platform is already available through Microsoft Education Network and estimated deployment at around $8.50 per student per year; a one-time state-level deployment and integration cost was estimated at about $200,000. He said the platform is currently used starting around eighth grade.
Committee members asked about alternatives, data access and privacy. Phipps said data would be stored locally and de-identified for broader analysis; he told the committee Year13 had not experienced a cyberattack in 14 years of operation. Members also asked about competing platforms; Phipps named several vendors and noted Google and other providers offer career tools.
Committee members raised the usual ‘‘subject to appropriation’’ question for IT projects; sponsors said they would consider adding appropriation language and noted the governor's office supports career pipeline efforts. The bill was discussed in a policy hearing; no vote was taken.
