Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006

(This measure has not been amended since the Conference Report was filed in the House on July 25, 2006. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 - Amends the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 (the Act) to reauthorize and revise its programs. Renames the Act the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006.

Sets forth definitions for: (1) career and technical education (CTE), requiring that course content be aligned with challenging academic standards; (2) career guidance and academic counseling, which shall include information on baccalaureate degree programs; (3) articulation agreements; (4) scientifically based research; and (5) secondary and postsecondary tech prep students. Excludes the Marshall Islands and Micronesia from the definition of outlying areas, thus excluding them from CTE funding.

Repeals a prohibition against use of funds to: (1) provide funding under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994; or (2) carry out activities that were funded under such Act through programs funded under this Act, unless such programs only serve participants eligible under this Act.

Revises, reauthorizes, and renames title I of the Act as Career and Technical Education Assistance to the States.

Revises requirements relating to reservations and state allotments. Reduces the percentage of appropriations set aside for outlying areas from .20% to .13%. Establishes a separate formula for determining a state's minimum allotment in years when there are additional unreserved appropriated amounts. Authorizes states to use a portion of the funds allowed for administrative costs for the support and development of state data systems relevant to this Act.

Provides for separate local, as well as state, performance accountability systems, including core performance indicators, adjusted performance levels, and annual reports.

Requires certain core indicators of performance for secondary and postsecondary CTE students to be identified in state plans and to include measures of specified matters. Includes, among such measures of secondary CTE student performance, student attainment of challenging academic content standards and student academic achievement standards, as adopted by the state under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).

Requires eligible local recipients to accept state-adjusted performance levels as local-adjusted performance levels, or negotiate with the state to reach agreement on new local-adjusted performance levels, for each of specified core indicators of performance for CTE activities.

Requires state performance level reports, with respect to additional indicators of performance, to: (1) disaggregate data by special populations and by categories described in specified ESEA provisions; and (2) identify disparities in performance between any such category of students and the general population of students.

Revises requirements for an independent advisory panel that is to conduct an evaluation and assessment of CTE programs under this Act.

Extends through FY2012 the authorization of appropriations for national CTE activities.

Provides grants directly to outlying areas rather than through the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory in Hawaii, beginning with the second fiscal year following the enactment of this Act. Makes a grant to the Republic of Palau, but terminates its eligiblity for such funding upon its entering into an agreement for an extension of U.S. educational assistance under the Compact of Free Association.

Eliminates recognition by the Governor of the state of Hawaii as an eligibility condition for receipt by organizations primarily serving and representing Native Hawaiians of CTE grants and contracts from the Secretary.

Directs the Secretary to establish a complaint resolution procedure for grant determinations and calculations for tribally controlled postsecondary CTE institutions. Alters the method of determining the student counts of such institutions, which is used in determining their grant amounts. Extends through FY2012 the authorization of appropriations for such grants for such institutions.

Revises requirements for occupational and employment information and state applications.

Revises requirements for state administrative responsibilities.

Increases from five years to six the period a state plan is required to cover. Allows submission of transition plans for the the first full fiscal year following the enactment of this Act. Allows annual revisions in state plans and requires a review of federally-assisted CTE activities during the second year of a plan. Revises requirements for state plan contents, consultation, and options.

Requires state plans to include rigorous CTE content aligned with challenging academic standards that allows for a coordinated, nonduplicative progression of courses aligning secondary education with postsecondary education.

Revises requirements for state and local program improvement plans. Provides for withholding all or a portion of funds where a state agency or local recipient fails to meet at least 90% of adjusted performance levels for certain core indicators of performance and has: (1) not implemented an improvement plan; (2) shown no improvement within one year after implementing such a plan; or (3) failed to meet at least 90% of an adjusted performance level for the same core indicator for three consecutive years. Allows waivers of such sanctions in exceptional circumstances. Requires technical assistance in improvement activities to be provided by the Secretary to state agencies and by state agencies to local recipients.

Revises required and permissible uses of funds for state leadership activities.

Changes the formula for allocating CTE funds to secondary education programs within a state to base it on the proportion of individuals aged 5 through 17 residing in a school district, rather than those aged 15 through 19.

Revises requirements for local plans for CTE programs.

Revises required and permissible local uses of funds.

Revises requirements relating to tech prep programs. Allows an apprenticeship program of at least two years to substitute for the minimum two years of postsecondary education in tech prep programs.

Requires states to describe how the tech prep programs will be coordinated with the CTE program. Authorizes states to consolidate all, or a portion of, funds received under both programs to carry out the state CTE plan.

Requires each consortium of tech prep applicants to submit a six-year (currently, five-year) plan for the use of a grant. Favors consortiums that coordinate their activities with local CTE fund recipients. Requires a consortium which fails for three consecutive years to meet a minimum state-approved level of performance pursuant to specified indicators under the CTE and tech prep programs to reapply for funding, though the state may terminate its funding upon such failure.

Eliminates the tech prep demonstration program.

Extends through FY2012 the authorization of appropriations for tech prep programs.

Repeals requirements that the Secretary: (1) receive funds collected from fees for use of property, rights-of-way, and easements under federal control to place telecommunications services dependent on use of general spectrum rights for transmission or reception; and (2) use such funds to increase and expand use of technology in vocational and technical education instruction and personnel training.

Authorizes an eligible CTE fund recipient to allow, except as prohibited by state or local law, the meaningful participation in CTE programs of secondary school students attending nonprofit private schools in the area served by such recipient.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov