SUMMARY: This rule specifies the elements of adult career and technical education, and adult workforce training and re-training, costs for which school administrative units, regions and centers may claim reimbursement.

1. Conditions for Reimbursement

A. Adult career and technical education must meet the requirements below.

1. The organized educational activities must offer a sequence of courses that:

a. provides individuals with coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions;

b. provides technical skill proficiency, an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree; and

c. may include prerequisite courses (other than a remedial course) that meet the requirements set forth in this subsection.

2. The organized educational activities must include competency-based applied learning that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem--solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills and occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of an industry, including entrepreneurship, of an individual.

3. Instructional supplies used in adult career and technical education courses and for which reimbursement may be claimed means those supplies that fulfill the purpose of a specific instructional program and, during the teaching process, are actually consumed or worn out through use, or lose their identity through fabrication or incorporation into different or more complete units or substances. Instructional supplies do not include those items that result in a product or service for the student for which lab or materials fees may be assessed, or those items that result in a product or service for the school administrative unit, region or center. (Lab or materials fees should be assessed to cover activities resulting in a product or service for the student.)

4. School administrative units, regions and centers providing adult career and technical education programming and claiming reimbursement in accordance with 20-A MRSA, Chapter 315 must do so in a manner that will support existing co-operative regional arrangements for the delivery of adult career and technical education offerings.

B. Adult workforce training and re-training courses must serve learners in one or more of the following categories.

1. Preparatory adult learners are adults learning new skills in preparation for employment in a job or occupation that is new to them. These students must be enrolled in a planned personal program leading to progressive skill development for entry into the selected occupation.

2. Supplemental learners are adults pursuing courses or activities related to current full-time or part-time employment or wage earning activities. The usefulness of the course to the employment or wage earning activities must be clear and applicable.

3. Certificate learners are adults participating in a sequence of courses that provide individuals with the academic and technical knowledge and skills that individuals need to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging employment sectors.

2. Reports

All programs applying for reimbursement of adult career and technical education or adult workforce training and re-training costs must file reports as required either by federal and state agencies or under 20-A MRSA, Chapter 315.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Title 20, M.R.S.A., Chapter 308-A, Section 2386 and Section 2390; 20-A MRSA §8602

EFFECTIVE DATE:

June 21, 1979 (EMERGENCY August 30, 1979

EFFECTIVE DATE (ELECTRONIC CONVERSION):

May 19, 1996

AMENDED:

February 2, 2008 – filing 2008-40