Bill S.256

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2172 FILED ON: 1/20/2023

SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 256

By Mr. Cronin, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 256) of John J. Cronin, Manny Cruz and John Barrett, III for legislation to create and expand student pathways to success. Education.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)

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An Act to create and expand student pathways to success.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 6 of the General laws, as appearing in the 2018 official edition, is hereby amended by inserting, after Section 17A, the following section:-

“Section 17B. (a) There is hereby established within the office of the governor a workforce skills cabinet, hereinafter referred to as the “cabinet,” to serve as a cross-agency governance structure for the purpose of advising the governor and relevant executive branch agencies as well as the general court, and aligning the programs and policies of the executive offices of labor and workforce development, education and housing and economic development to improve and expand workforce skills and college and career readiness to meet the varying current and future needs of the Commonwealth and its regions.

(b) The cabinet shall consist of:

1. the secretary of the executive office of education;

2. the secretary of the executive office of labor and workforce development;

3. the secretary of the executive office of housing and economic development;

4. the commissioner of the department of elementary and secondary education;

5. the commissioner of the department of higher education;

6. the chairperson of the workforce development board established by section 7 of chapter 23H of the MGL;

7. the executive director of the Massachusetts workforce association;

8. three members appointed by the governor representing business and industry who-

(i) are owners of businesses, chief executive or operating officers of businesses, or other executives or employees with optimum policymaking or hiring authority; or,

(ii) represent organizations that represent businesses or industries;

9. two members appointed by the governor who represent the perspectives and interests of current or future workforce participants, including the parents of school age students; and,

10. three members appointed by the governor from amongst other college and career readiness and workforce development stakeholder groups.

(c) The appointed members shall each serve three year terms at the pleasure of the governor and serve without compensation.

(d) The governor shall select an individual from amongst its membership to chair the cabinet. The chair shall serve at the pleasure of the governor.

(e) The cabinet shall meet monthly and their meetings shall be public.

(f) In addition to, and within, the general mission of the cabinet as stated in subparagraph (a), the cabinet shall:

(i) facilitate alignment, collaboration, strategic planning, and joint execution among participating state agencies, offices, and other stakeholders around the development of workforce development strategies for the Commonwealth and the expansion of college and career readiness pathways for all, with an emphasis on high school programs;

(ii) conduct a biennial study of all college and career pathway programs that focuses on equity of access to said programs as well as the alignment of said programs with current and future workforce needs, including recommendations on creating a process to phase out programs that are not aligned;

(iii) develop and release an annual report on the state’s top current and future labor market needs;

(iv) oversee the improvement of data collection and reporting on pathways programs by facilitating data linkages between agencies, creating mechanisms to analyze meaningful growth data by specific pathways programs, and building new public-facing data tools;

(v) advise the departments of elementary and secondary education and higher education with regard to student acquisition of the employability skills that should be achieved in their preparation for career success; and,

(vi) submit an annual report to the chairs of the house and senate committees on ways and means, the chairs of the joint education committee, and the chairs of the joint committee on higher education detailing the Cabinet’s work over the past year.

(g) The cabinet shall be staffed by a full time Executive Director who shall be an employee of the office of the governor, selected in consultation with the cabinet.

(h) The cabinet shall have the ability to receive funding to hire additional technical and administrative staff, to award contracts and grants, and to take actions necessary to fulfilling its responsibilities stated herein or as otherwise assigned by the governor.

SECTION 2. Chapter 69 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 official edition, are hereby amended by adding the following three new sections:-

Section 37. (a) Subject to appropriation, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shall pay each school district a certification award calculated as follows:

(i) $1,000 for each student in the district who earns an industry-recognized certification for an occupation that has high employment value, as determined by the executive office of labor and workforce development through the publication of the annual list required of it pursuant to Chapter 23, section 26 of the General Laws as amended by Chapter 179 of the Acts of 2022, or an industry recognized certification that is recognized by any public institution of higher learning in the Commonwealth as a basis for academic credit in such institution.

(ii) $800 for each student in the district who earns an industry-recognized certification that does not meet the criteria of the previous paragraph but addresses regional demands identified by the local MassHire workforce board.

The school district receiving a certification award must allocate at least 80% of any certification award to the school whose students obtained the qualifying certification. The allocation may not be used to supplant funds otherwise provided for the basic operation of the school. The school receiving a certification award must use the award to support or maintain the program, including the payment of stipends for instructors and the subsidization of fees for low income students to obtain the certification.

(b) Subject to appropriation, the department may pay a certification development award to a school district to support the development of programs to assist students in obtaining industry-recognized certifications described in subsection (a)(i). School districts may use a certification development award to develop instructors able to prepare students to obtain certification, to obtain equipment and other instructional materials to be used for such preparation, or any other purpose directly related to developing programs to assist students in obtaining a qualifying certification.

(i) The number of public school students who are seeking certifications for high demand occupations, identifying the number of such students who are low-income, ELL and/or SPED.

(ii) The certifications earned by such students, including the number of each such certifications earned.

(iii) An analysis of the extent, if any, to which the funding provided for the program during the year was insufficient to make the awards under this section.

Section 38. The department of elementary and secondary education shall promote and support with available resources innovative and collaborative career technical education demonstration programs in which students split their time between their comprehensive high school and a school offering programs under chapter 74; provided, that under such programs, participating students’ daily schedule shall include required academic classes and vocational courses when the equipment is available.

Section 39. The department shall develop, in consultation with the workforce skills cabinet established in section 1 of this act, credentials for students graduating from the state’s high schools in applied knowledge, effective relationships and workplace skills as described in the federal employability skills framework. The department shall develop and disseminate guidance to districts for their consideration in establishing said employability credentials as graduation or completion requirements.

SECTION 3. (a) Section 2 of chapter 70 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 70, the words “or (vii)” and inserting in the place thereof the following words:- (vii) early college / innovation pathways / STEM tech career academies; or (viii).

(b) Table 1 of paragraph (a) of section 3 of said chapter 70, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after row “high school”, the following row:

(PLACEHOLDER FOR TABLE)

SECTION 4. Subsection (c) of section 14B of chapter 71 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out the third sentence and inserting in place thereof the following 2 sentences:-

“Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a city or town may simultaneously be a member of a vocational regional school district and any other type of regional school district. A city or town that belongs to a regional vocational school district may offer a vocational technical education program in its municipal high school; provided, however, that the program is approved under section 2 of chapter 74 of the General Laws; provided, further, that a vocational regional school district and any other type of regional school district serving the same town shall collaborate through the office of career technical education in offering reciprocal non-competitive programs under chapter 74 of the General Laws; provided, further, that said programs meet the labor market needs in a community’s region as determined by Regional Workforce Boards.”

SECTION 5. Chapter 71 of the General Laws is amended by adding the following two new sections:-

Section 100. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

“college and career pathway program”, a high school based program, designated by the department of elementary and secondary education, which offers a sequenced and/or career-themed set of academic and/or work-based learning experiences, including designated early college programs, vocational-technical education programs, innovation pathways programs, and STEM tech career academies which can lead to, in the department’s opinion, improved college and career readiness outcomes.

“individual learning plan”, a plan devised by individual students with assistance from a designated educator that provides a clear and detailed student academic pathway from secondary to post- secondary education or career with regard to coursework, sequencing and experiences beyond the classroom, beginning in the ninth grade or earlier.

“MyCAP”, an acronym for My Career and Academic Plan, a process for creating a student’s individual learning plan as defined in this subsection, and supported by utilization of an online platform,

(b) All public school districts shall ensure that all high school students, beginning in the ninth grade, have developed, with the support of a designated educator and an online platform approved by the department of elementary and secondary education, an individual learning plan as defined in subsection a of this section. Said plans shall allow students to continue to adapt said plans and to make reasonable and relevant changes to their plans through the course of their secondary education that allow for a continuing process of alignment with the student’s needs and planning goals. Districts will provide support to students to participate in the development and refinement of their plans. Districts will also make every reasonable effort to offer students the experiences identified in their plans to ensure alignment with, and accomplishment of, the student’s goals for post-graduate success.

(c) Nothing contained herein will prevent districts from beginning the process of having students develop individual learning plans prior to beginning high school, for students within their jurisdictions.

(d) Districts shall report annually to the department of elementary and secondary education on their progress in meeting the requirements contained in this section.

(e) The department of elementary and secondary education shall develop guidance for districts to oversee and ensure their compliance with the provisions of this section, aligned with their current guidance to districts utilizing the structure of the MyCAP system and its component parts.

Section 101. All public high schools in Massachusetts shall offer at least one foundational computer science course that includes rigorous mathematical or scientific concepts and aligns with standards established by the department of elementary and secondary education. In doing so, each high school will ensure that each student has the capacity to access said course within a four year course of study.

SECTION 6. (a) The workforce skills cabinet, created in SECTION 1, shall be charged with developing a set of strategic goals for the Commonwealth, its agencies and education and training institutions, in coordination with the governor’s office and in consultation with the departments of elementary and secondary education and higher education, regarding the expansion of college and career pathway programs for students that enhance and improve the likelihood of successful outcomes for high school graduates in college and career endeavors. The goals shall include the achievement of universal access for all of the state’s high school students to said pathway programs, which shall include, but not be limited to, early college programs, vocational/technical education programs, innovation pathway programs, STEM tech career academies, and other similar programs and courses of study. The cabinet will include, in its consideration of the establishment of said goals, that each pathway program should contain at least one, or more, of the following elements:

(i) the ability of students to earn college credit while in high school;

(ii) the ability of students to earn industry-recognized credentials in high school;

(iii) the ability of students to participate in a meaningful and relevant work-based learning experience while in high school; and,

(iv) the ability of students to receive dedicated career counseling while in high school.

(b) The cabinet will develop, in consultation with the governor’s office and the departments of elementary and secondary education and higher education, a plan for the achievement of the goals established in accord with subsection (a) that includes strategies to be implemented, timelines for meeting interim outcomes and final outcome, resources to be allocated, and any other consideration, including an accounting of the persistent inequities inherent in not achieving said goals. The cabinet will report annually on its progress and that of the Commonwealth and its agencies in achieving universal student access to student learning pathways and establish milestone outcomes toward that achievement whose progress will be reported on as part of its annual reporting.

SECTION 7. The department of elementary and secondary education shall conduct a review of all offices, programs and processes under its jurisdiction which are involved in designation and oversight of college and career pathway programs, and act to organize department activities in a way that fosters coordination and uniformity across offices and programs with regard to administration of college and career readiness programs and their respective elements. The department will report to the legislature’s joint committee on education and the ways and means committees of the house and senate by July 1, 2024, as to what actions it has taken, or plans to take, with regard to implementation of the requirements of this section. The department will, as part of its reporting, recommend any changes in statute it deems necessary to facilitate the coordination of college and career readiness initiatives under its jurisdiction.

SECTION 8. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following term shall have the following meaning:

“work-based learning”, an educational method that takes place related to work or a specific career, usually in a workplace, prompting students to learn about the environment in a chosen career path and allowing them to gain exposure to the world of work in ways that help them develop skills that employers value and enhance their opportunity for career success but which may be difficult to acquire in a classroom setting.

(b) The department of elementary and secondary education, in consultation with the workforce skills cabinet created in SECTION 1 of this act, shall conduct a study of the barriers that exist to creating greater student access to meaningful work-based learning opportunities in the state’s public schools. Said study shall address issues such as transportation, employer liability, personnel, scheduling, curriculum, logistics and any other consideration which may be determined to have the effect of limiting opportunities for students to participate in relevant and meaningful work-based learning. The results of said study shall be issued, along with recommendations for actions to expand work-based learning opportunities in the schools of the Commonwealth, as a report to the legislature’s joint committee on education and the ways and means committees of the house and senate by July 1, 2024.

SECTION 9. The department of elementary and secondary education shall require of every public school district a plan for implementing the MassCore curriculum as a requirement for graduation for all of their students. Said plans shall be submitted to the department no later than December 31, 2024 and shall outline the strategies and timeline for implementation that includes, but need not be limited to, changes to curriculum offerings, staffing needs, financial requirements, scheduling restructuring and data related to the current shortfall, if any, in providing universal access to a MassCore course of studies in said district. Each plan will outline its strategy for universal access to MassCore for all of its students to be implemented no later than for the class of 2030.

SECTION 10. Section 5 of this act will take effect on September 1, 2026.

Name:	District/Address:
John J. Cronin	Worcester and Middlesex
Manny Cruz	7th Essex	1/23/2023
John Barrett, III	1st Berkshire	2/7/2023