Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Many CTE educators have already heard the good news: On July 23, 2018, the U.S. Senate approved legislation to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. School districts have been notified of the Perkins IV 2018-2019 subawards within the WISEgrants system. The application for the 2019-20 school year is set to be available March 1. Okay… But what happens next related to the new law?
“You have to remember,” says Christine Lenske, DPI Grant Specialist for Wisconsin’s Perkins funding, “the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) received news of the reauthorization the same day we did, and they have to determine how to implement the law before states can make their plans.” The DOE is not expected to release any guidance for states on the development of the state plan for a few months.
The new law, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V, for short), takes effect on July 1, 2019, which will mark the beginning of a one-year transition period. This will allow the DPI, in partnership with the Wisconsin Technical College System, to create and submit timelines and a one-year state transition plan to the DOE.
It will take some time to go from reauthorization to creation of the federal and state implementation plans and final implementation at the district level. In conjunction with WCTS DPI will engage stakeholders in the planning process; sharing the plan and related implementation activities with districts and other stakeholders as they develop over the next 10 months. The most up-to-date Perkins V information can be found on the Advance CTE website along with a variety of additional resources.