career education

career education Sec. 406. (a) It is the sense of Congress that— (1) every child should, by the time he has completed secondary school, be prepared for gainful or maximum employment and for full participation in our society according to his or her ability: (2) it is the obligation of each local educational agency to provide that preparation for all children (including handicapped children and all other children who are educationally disadvantaged) within the school district of such agency; and (3) each State and local educational agency should carry out a program of career education which provides every child the widest variety of career education options which are designed to prepare each child for maximum employment and participation in our society according to his or her ability. (b) It is the purpose of this section to assist in achieving the policies set forth in subsection (a) by— (1) developing information on the needs for career education for all children; (2) promoting a national dialogue on career education designed to encourage each State and local educational agency to determine and adopt the approach to career education best suited to the needs of the children served by them; (3) assessing the status of career education programs and practices, including a reassessment of the stereotyping of career opportunities by race or by sex; (4) providing for the demonstration of the best of the current career education programs and practices by the development and testing of exemplary programs and practices using various theories, concepts, and approaches with respect to career education; (5) providing for the training and retraining of persons for conducting career education programs; and (6) developing State and local plans for implementing career education programs designed to insure that every child has the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for gainful or maximum employment and for full participation in our society according to his or her ability. (c) (1) In order to carry out the policies, purposes, and provisions of this section, there is established in the Office of Education an Office of Career Education (hereafter in this section referred to as the “Office”). The Office shall be headed by a Director. (2) The Director of the Office shall report directly to the Commissioner. 88 Stat. 552 (d) For the purposes of this section, the term “career education” means an education process designed— (1) to increase the relationship between schools and society as a whole; (2) to provide opportunities for counseling, guidance and career development for all children; (3) to relate the subject matter of the curricula of schools to the needs of persons to function in society; (4) to extend the concept of the education process beyond the school into the area of employment and the community; (5) to foster flexibility in attitudes, skills, and knowledge in order to enable persons to cope with accelerating change and obsolescence; (6) to make education more relevant to employment and functioning in society; and (7) to eliminate any distinction between education for vocational purposes and general or academic education. (e) The Commissioner shall conduct a survey and assessment of the current status of career education programs, projects, curriculums, and materials in the United States and submit to the Congress, not later than November 1, 1975, a report on such survey and assessment. Such report, shall include recommendations of the Advisory Council created under subsection (g) for new legislation designed to accomplish the policies and purposes set forth in subsections (a) and (b). In exercising his authority under clauses (ii)(III) and (ii)(V) of section 434(b)(1)(A) of the General Education Provisions Act, for any fiscal year, the Commissioner shall require State educational agencies and local educational agencies to report on their efforts to prepare students for gainful or maximum employment. (f) (1) During the period beginning with the enactment of this section and ending June 30, 1978, the Commissioner is authorized to make grants to State and local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and other nonprofit agencies and organizations to support projects to demonstrate the most effective methods and techniques in career education and to develop exemplary career education models (including models in which handicapped children receive appropriate career education either by participation in regular or modified programs with nonhandicapped children or where necessary in specially designed programs for handicapped children whose handicaps are of such seventy that they cannot benefit from regular or modified programs). Grants made under this subsection shall be consistent with the policies set forth in subsection (a) of this subsection. (2) During the period beginning one year after the enactment of this section and ending June 30, 1977, the Commissioner is authorized to make grants to State educational agencies to enable them to develop State plans for the development and implementation of career education programs in the local educational agencies of the States. Such plans shall be designed to carry out the policies and purposes set forth in subsections (a) and (b). (g) (1) Subject to part D of the General Education Provisions Act and within ninety days after the enactment of this section, there is established a National Advisory Council for Career Education which shall be composed of— (A) the Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for Education, the Commissioner of Education, the Director of the Office of Career Education, the Director of the National Institute of Education, the Administrator of the National Center for 88 Stat. 553Education Statistics, the Director of the National Science Foundation, the Chairman of the National Foundation for the Arts, the Chairman of the National Foundation for the Humanities, the Chairman of the National Advisory Council for Vocational Education, all of whom shall serve in a nonvoting ex officio capacity; and (B) not less than twelve public members broadly representative of the fields of education, the arts, the humanities, the sciences, community services, business and industry, and the general public, a majority of whom shall be engaged in education or education-related professions. (2) The public members shall be appointed by the Secretary. The Secretary shall select the Chairman from among the public members. The members shall serve for terms of three years with not more than four seats rotating in any one year. The Commissioner shall provide such staff and funds for the Council as deemed necessary and such staff and funds shall be in addition to those provided elsewhere in this title. (3) The duties of the Council shall be to advise the Commissioner on the implementation of this section and carry out such advisory functions as it deems appropriate, including reviewing the operation of this section and all other programs of the Division of Education pertaining to the development and implementation of career education, evaluating their effectiveness in meeting the needs of career education throughout the United States, and in determining the need for further legislative remedy in order that all citizens may benefit from the purposes of career education as prescribed in this section. (4) The Council with the assistance of the Commissioner shall conduct a survey and assessment of the current status of career education programs, projects, curricula, and materials in the United States and submit to Congress, not later than November 1, 1975, a report on such survey and assessment. Such report shall include recommendations of the Council for new legislation designed to accomplish the policies and purposes set forth in subsections (a) and (b). (h) For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this section, the Commissioner is authorized to expend not to exceed $15,000,000 for each fiscal year ending prior to July 1, 1978.