Bill Text - SB99 (2025)

Relative to regional career and technical education agreements.


Revision: Jan. 30, 2025, 8:25 a.m.

SB 99-FN - AS INTRODUCED

 

 

2025 SESSION

25-1103

02/05

 

SENATE BILL 99-FN

 

AN ACT relative to regional career and technical education agreements.

 

SPONSORS: Sen. Watters, Dist 4; Sen. Avard, Dist 12; Sen. Murphy, Dist 16; Sen. Sullivan, Dist 18; Sen. Altschiller, Dist 24; Sen. Innis, Dist 7; Sen. Pearl, Dist 17; Sen. Rosenwald, Dist 13; Sen. Fenton, Dist 10; Sen. Carson, Dist 14; Sen. Perkins Kwoka, Dist 21; Rep. Cornell, Hills. 22; Rep. Ladd, Graf. 5; Rep. Cordelli, Carr. 7; Rep. Noble, Hills. 2

 

COMMITTEE: Education

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill extends access to career and technical education and requires regional CTE agreements to include an access program for full and part time students.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

25-1103

02/05

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Five

 

AN ACT relative to regional career and technical education agreements.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

1  Regional Career and Technical Education Agreements.  Amend RSA 188-E:1-a, III to read as follows:

III. Each RCTEA shall include a calendar conformity agreement to comply with RSA 188-E:5, VII(a) and (b) by aligning the school calendars of sending schools with the school calendars of CTE programs at the receiving school. Agreements shall minimize schedule conflicts to better support CTE students with as many hours as possible to fulfill their program requirements. Agreements should address schedule alignment needs such as: disruptions due to differing start/stop times, unscheduled school closures or events, and daily class start/stop times.  Students from sending districts shall have access to CTE programming on an equal basis as students from receiving districts. RCTEA schools are encouraged to align teacher in-service days to allow joint ventures in teacher professional development and other educational initiatives. There may not be more than 10 instructional days following Labor Day through the last student day of the school calendar year on which one or more of the school calendars of the districts within the agreement are not aligned. When CTE regions overlap, or students attend programs in more than one CTE, the provisions of this section shall apply to both regional centers. The commissioner shall not approve a RCTEA that does not comply with this paragraph, however a RCTEA may contain provisions for waiver by the commissioner of dissimilar days for extenuating or emergency purposes. If the commissioner determines that all schools within the RCTEA have plans and are reasonably working towards the implementation of an aligned calendar to ensure compliance with this paragraph, an annual waiver may be approved, but a waiver for this purpose shall not be extended beyond July 1, 2026.

2  New Paragraph; Regional Career and Technical Education Agreements.  Amend RSA 188-E:1-a by inserting after paragraph V the following new paragraph:

VI. Each RCTEA shall develop a CTE access program ("program") by January 1, 2026, to allow students from sending schools to enroll either part-time or full time in academic courses at the receiving school.  

(a)  Student eligible to participate in a receiving school program shall have been accepted and enrolled in one or more CTE class at the receiving school.

(b)  Students seeking participation in the program shall be eligible for and have access to both sending and receiving RCTEA apportionment seats on the same basis as any other sending or receiving district student.

(c)  Sending school students taking fewer than 3 non-CTE classes shall be considered part-time and shall be designated part-time program students.  

(d)  Students taking 3 or more non-CTE classes shall be considered full-time and shall be designated full time program students.

(e)  Tuition for part-time program students and full-time program students shall be as follows:

(1)  For part-time program students, sending schools shall pay to receiving schools an amount equal to not less than 80 percent of that district's average cost per pupil as determined by the department of education using the most recent available data as reported by the district to the department, divided by 5 times the number of credits that the part-time program student is enrolled in.

(2)  For full-time program students, sending schools shall pay to receiving schools an amount equal to not less than 80 percent of that district's average cost per pupil as determined by the department of education using the most recent available data as reported by the district to the department.

(3)  Part-time and full-time program students shall have access to non-CTE courses at the receiving school on the same basis as receiving school students.

(f)  Sending schools of part-time and full-time program students shall provide transportation to and from receiving schools.

3  New Paragraph; Costs of Students Attending Career and Technical Education Programs.  Amend RSA 188-E:6 by inserting after paragraph IV the following new paragraph:

V.  The state shall provide funding for students qualified to attend a receiving school under RSA 188-E:1-a, VI.

4  Tuition.  Amend RSA 188-E:7, I to read as follows:

I.  The department of education is authorized to pay from its regular budget tuition for full or part-time sending district students, attending programs at designated career and technical education centers or designated career and technical education programs at other comprehensive high schools, whose residence is in a district where the high school of normal attendance does not offer a similar career and technical education program, including students qualified to attend a receiving school under RSA 188-E:1-a, VI.  Students attending a non-public school or chartered public school, the location of which is in closer proximity to a regional CTE center than the school to which their district of residence would send students for CTE, may enroll in the regional CTE center in closer proximity to the non-public school or chartered public school the student attends.

5  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.

 

LBA

25-1103

Revised 1/30/25

 

SB 99-FN- FISCAL NOTE

AS INTRODUCED

 

AN ACT relative to regional career and technical education agreements.

 

FISCAL IMPACT:   

 

 

Estimated State Impact

 

FY 2025

FY 2026

FY 2027

FY 2028

Revenue

$0

$0

$0

$0

Revenue Fund(s)

None

Expenditures*

$0

Indeterminable

Funding Source(s)

Education Trust Fund

Appropriations*

$0

$0

$0

$0

Funding Source(s)

None

*Expenditure = Cost of bill                *Appropriation = Authorized funding to cover cost of bill

 

Estimated Political Subdivision Impact

 

FY 2025

FY 2026

FY 2027

FY 2028

Local Revenue

$0

Indeterminable

Local Expenditures

$0

Indeterminable

 

METHODOLOGY:

This bill, effective for the 2025-2026 school year:

  • Requires that students from sending districts will have access to CTE programs on an equal basis as the hosting district.
  • Requires that each Regional CTE Agreement (RCTEA) develop a CTE access program to allow students from sending districts to enroll full or part-time in academic courses at the receiving school.
  • Defines full and part-time students, and requires the sending district to pay tuition to the receiving district.
  • States that non-public or public chartered school students can attend a regional CTE center that is closer to their school instead of their resident CTE center.
  • Requires the state to provide funding for students qualified to attend a receiving school under RSA 188-E:1-a, IV.

 

The Department of Education states this bill’s potential impact, at both the state and local level, is indeterminable as many variables are unknown (e.g., tuition rates, local costs per pupil determinations, transportation costs, program participation, etc.). The Department states it is not possible to calculate the tuition and transportation costs that each sending district could incur, as it would be dependent upon the receiving district’s local cost per pupil and the cost of transportation. In addition, it is not possible to determine the costs to the state for tuition and transportation for students attending charter and non-public schools as that number is unknown, as is the potential receiving district’s average cost per pupil for tuition. For informational purposes, tuition and transportation reimbursement, an education trust fund expenditure, has been funded in the state operating budget at $9 million per year in each FY 2023, FY 2024, and FY 2025. This bill provides no additional funding.

 

AGENCIES CONTACTED:

Department of Education