2018 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 10 - Education and Culture
Chapter 164 - Educational Opportunities
Section 10-95 - *(See end of section for amended version and effective date.) Technical Education and Career School System. Board. Chairperson. Superintendent. Accreditation status. Accountability. Receipt of gifts and donations.

(a) The State Board of Education may establish and maintain a state-wide system of technical education and career schools to be known as the Technical Education and Career System. The system shall be advised by a board that shall consist of eleven members as follows: (1) Four executives of Connecticut-based employers who shall be nominated by the Connecticut Employment and Training Commission established pursuant to section 31-3h, and appointed by the Governor, (2) five members appointed by the State Board of Education, (3) the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development, and (4) the Labor Commissioner. The Governor shall appoint the chairperson. The chairperson of the Technical Education and Career System shall serve as a nonvoting ex-officio member of the State Board of Education.

(b) The Technical Education and Career System board shall offer full-time comprehensive secondary education, and may offer part-time and evening, programs in vocational, technical, technological and postsecondary education and training. The board may recommend to the superintendent of the Technical Education and Career System policies governing the admission of students to any technical education and career school in compliance with state and federal law. The Commissioner of Education, in accordance with policies established by the board, may appoint and remove members of the staffs of such schools and make rules for the management of and expend the funds provided for the support of such schools.

(c) The board and the Commissioner of Education shall jointly recommend a candidate for superintendent of the Technical Education and Career System who shall be appointed as superintendent by the State Board of Education. Such superintendent shall be responsible for the operation and administration of the system. The board may enter into cooperative arrangements with local and regional boards of education, private occupational schools, institutions of higher education, job training agencies and employers in order to provide general education, vocational, technical, technological or postsecondary education or work experience. The superintendent, in conjunction with the commissioner, may arrange for training to be provided to the board at such times, and on such matters, as are deemed appropriate to assist the board in the conduct of its business.

(d) If the New England Association of Schools and Colleges places a technical education and career school on probation or otherwise notifies the superintendent of the Technical Education and Career System that a technical education and career school is at risk of losing its accreditation, the Commissioner of Education, on behalf of the Technical Education and Career System board, shall notify the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to education of such placement or problems relating to accreditation.

(e) The Technical Education and Career System board shall establish specific achievement goals for students at the technical education and career schools at each grade level. The board shall measure the performance of each technical education and career school and shall identify a set of quantifiable measures to be used. The measures shall include factors such as the performance of students in grade ten or eleven on the mastery examination, under section 10-14n, trade-related assessment tests, dropout rates and graduation rates.

(f) The Technical Education and Career System board may accept gifts, grants and donations on behalf of the system, including, but not limited to, in-kind donations, designated for the purchase of equipment or materials, the hiring of teachers at a technical education and career school or the acquisition of real property and the construction of facilities, except no employee of the system may accept any gift, grant or donation as an individual, or on behalf of the system, that is for personal use. Any gift, grant or donation accepted on behalf of the system shall be in accordance with the state code of ethics for public officials set forth in chapter 10. The board shall submit quarterly reports to the Office of Policy and Management concerning all gifts, grants or donations received pursuant to this subsection.

(1949 Rev., S. 1404; September, 1957, P.A. 11, S. 13; 1963, P.A. 203; 1967, P.A. 751, S. 3; P.A. 75-425, S. 27, 57; P.A. 77-614, S. 73, 610; P.A. 87-496, S. 46, 110; P.A. 93-376, S. 6, 13; P.A. 98-252, S. 10, 80; P.A. 01-173, S. 59, 67; P.A. 12-116, S. 69; P.A. 13-207, S. 5; P.A. 17-237, S. 1; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 17-2, S. 72.)

*Note: On and after July 1, 2019, this section, as amended by section 2 of public act 17-237 and section 73 of public act 17-2 of the June special session, is to read as follows:

“Sec. 10-95. Technical Education and Career School System. There is established a state-wide system of technical education and career schools to be known as the Technical Education and Career System. The Technical Education and Career System shall offer full-time comprehensive secondary education, and may offer part-time and evening, programs in vocational, technical, technological and postsecondary education and training.”

(1949 Rev., S. 1404; September, 1957, P.A. 11, S. 13; 1963, P.A. 203; 1967, P.A. 751, S. 3; P.A. 75-425, S. 27, 57; P.A. 77-614, S. 73, 610; P.A. 87-496, S. 46, 110; P.A. 93-376, S. 6, 13; P.A. 98-252, S. 10, 80; P.A. 01-173, S. 59, 67; P.A. 12-116, S. 69; P.A. 13-207, S. 5; P.A. 17-237, S. 1, 2; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 17-2, S. 72, 73.)

History: 1963 act added provisions for state technical institutes; 1967 act deleted provisions regarding state technical institutes, increased period for leasing vocational school facilities from four to five years and substituted “the” for “said”; P.A. 75-425 provided that public works commissioner should handle leases upon request of state board rather than the board itself; P.A. 77-614 substituted commissioner of administrative services for public works commissioner; P.A. 87-496 substituted public works commissioner for administrative services commissioner; P.A. 93-376 changed the description of the schools, transferred authority for the appointment and removal of staff, the management of the schools and the expending of funds for their support from the board to the commissioner “in accordance with policies established by the board”, deleted requirement for the board to include a statement of expenses for the schools in a report to the governor and changed the description of arrangements that the board may enter into for purposes of providing education and work experience, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 98-252 designated existing provisions as Subsec. (a) and added new Subsec. (b) re accreditation problems, effective July 1, 1998; P.A. 01-173 added Subsec. (c) re student achievement goals and school performance measures, effective July 1, 2001; P.A. 12-116 amended Subsec. (a) by adding provisions re technical high school system, board and chairperson and designating existing language re duties of board as new Subsec. (b), added new Subsec. (c) re superintendent of the technical high school system, redesignated existing Subsecs. (b) and (c) as Subsecs. (d) and (e), amended redesignated Subsec. (e) by replacing reference to the State Board of Education with reference to the technical high school system board, and replaced references to the regional vocational-technical school system with references to the technical high school system and made conforming changes throughout, effective July 1, 2012; P.A. 13-207 amended Subsec. (e) by replacing reference to state-wide tenth grade mastery examination with provision re performance of students in grade ten or eleven on the mastery examination, effective July 1, 2013; P.A. 17-237 amended Subsec. (a) by replacing “governed” with “advised”, amended Subsec. (b) by adding “and may offer”, adding “and postsecondary”, replacing “make regulations controlling” with “recommend to the superintendent of the Technical Education and Career System policies governing”, adding “in compliance with state and federal law” and deleting provision re cooperative arrangements, amended Subsec. (c) by adding provision re cooperative arrangements and adding provision re superintendent may arrange for training to be provided to board, added Subsec. (f) re board may accept gifts, grants and donations on behalf of system, replaced references to technical high school and technical high school system with references to technical education and career school and Technical Education and Career System, respectively, and made technical and conforming changes, effective July 1, 2017, and amended former Subsec. (a) by deleting Subsec. (a) designator, replacing “The State Board of Education may establish and maintain” with “There is established” and deleting provision re board membership, amended Subsec. (b) by deleting Subsec. (b) designator, deleting provision re board may adopt policies controlling admission of students and deleting provision re Commissioner of Education may appoint and remove members of staffs of schools and make rules for management and expend funds, deleted former Subsec. (c) re superintendent and board entering into cooperative arrangements, deleted former Subsec. (d) re establishment of achievement goals for students and measurement of performance of schools, deleted former Subsec. (e) re board may accept gifts, grants and donations, effective July 1, 2019; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 17-2 amended Subsec. (a) by deleting “board”, amended Subsec. (b) by adding “comprehensive secondary education” and replacing “such school” with “technical education and career school”, amended Subsec. (c) by replacing “technical high school system” with “Technical Education and Career System” and deleting “technical high school”, amended Subsec. (f) by adding provision re no employee of system may accept any gift, grant or donation for personal use, adding provision re any gift, grant or donation accepted shall be in accordance with state code of ethics for public officials and adding provision re board to submit quarterly reports concerning all gifts, grants or donations received, effective October 31, 2017, and added “comprehensive secondary education”, effective July 1, 2019.