Amendment #817 to H4100

Veterans Academic Credit for Service Experience

Representatives D'Emilia of Bridgewater, Bastien of Gardner, Hunt of Sandwich, Jones of North Reading, Peterson of Grafton, Hill of Ipswich, Poirier of North Attleborough, deMacedo of Plymouth, Andrews of Orange, Creedon of Brockton, Dwyer of Woburn, Ferguson of Holden, Finn of West Springfield, Howitt of Seekonk, Kuros of Uxbridge, Lombardo of Billerica, McMurtry of Dedham, O'Connell of Taunton, Ross of Attleboro, Murphy of Weymouth and Diehl of Whitman move to amend the bill by inserting after section xx the following section:—

“SECTION XX. Chapter 15A of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2010 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting, after section 41, the following new section:—

Section 42. (a) The board shall coordinate and adopt a uniform policy requiring each public institution of higher education to award educational credits to a student who is enrolled in such an institution and who is also a veteran, as defined in clause 43 of section 7 of chapter 4, for the student’s military occupation(s), and military training and experience relevant to the occupation(s), and for courses that were a component of the student’s military training or service; provided, that the occupation(s), training, experience, or courses meet the standards of the American Council on Education or equivalent standards for awarding academic credit; provided further, that the award of educational credit is based upon a institution’s admissions standards and is consistent with the mission of the commonwealth’s system of public higher education, as defined by the board, pursuant to section 1 of chapter 15A.

(b) The board shall consult and collaborate with the boards of trustees in implementing the policy set forth in subsection (a) and the policy adopted by the board shall, to the greatest extent possible, provide for consistent application by all the commonwealth’s public institutions of higher education and promote accurate and complete academic counseling.

(c) The board shall adopt all necessary rules, regulations, and procedures to implement the provisions of this section, effective beginning January 1, 2013 and continuing thereafter.”.