1. (a) Implementation.

   1. (1) The provisions of this section shall be implemented by school districts beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.
   2. (2) School districts shall implement the employability skills student expectations listed in §127.15(d)(2) of this chapter (relating to Career and Technical Education Employability Skills, Adopted 2025) as an integral part of this course.
2. (b) General requirements. This course is recommended for students in Grades 10-12. Prerequisite: at least one credit in a course from the Information Technology Career Cluster. Recommended prerequisites: Principles of Information Technology and Computer Maintenance/Lab. Students shall be awarded one credit for successful completion of this course.

3. (c) Introduction.

   1. (1) Career and technical education instruction provides content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills for students to further their education and succeed in current or emerging professions.
   2. (2) The Information Technology (IT) Career Cluster focuses on building linkages in IT occupations for entry-level, technical, and professional careers related to the design, development, support, and management of hardware, software, multimedia, and systems integration services. This career cluster includes occupations ranging from software developer and programmer to cybersecurity specialist and network analyst.
   3. (3) The Informational Technology Troubleshooting course is about applying logic over technical components to identify and resolve problems. The course focuses on developing a methodical approach in IT troubleshooting and leveraging those skills in a workplace environment. In this course, students learn and use proven troubleshooting methods and apply those in a collaborative workplace setting. Students develop personal success skills, including time management and personal accountability measures, strategies for collaboration and teamwork, and effective written and verbal communication skills. The knowledge and skills acquired in the course enables students to use IT resources and data safely, ethically, and within legal guidelines. Students work within a service level model that helps them to interpret, clarify, and diagnose issues with hardware, software, and networking.
   4. (4) Students are encouraged to participate in extended learning experiences such as career and technical student organizations and other organizations that foster leadership and career development in the profession such as student chapters of related professional associations.
   5. (5) Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.

4. (d) Knowledge and skills.

   1. (1) The student develops and models customer-service skills. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) identify and model the characteristics of excellent customer service;
      2. (B) list and demonstrate the steps for opening and greeting a contact;
      3. (C) explain the benefits of using a client's name;
      4. (D) identify habits and situations to avoid when interacting with a client;
      5. (E) explain the importance of keeping clients informed of status changes;
      6. (F) list and demonstrate the steps for putting a client on hold or transferring a call;
      7. (G) identify and demonstrate techniques and strategies for handling difficult calls and situations; and
      8. (H) document all client communications and outcomes clearly and appropriately.

   2. (2) The student applies procedures for various support interaction types. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) describe the primary responsibilities and skills of an IT support specialist and how to deliver consistent, quality service;
      2. (B) explain and demonstrate safety procedures for unpacking, handling, and repacking replacement parts;
      3. (C) describe when to use various support delivery methods and technologies such as in-person, email, phone, web, and remote access;
      4. (D) demonstrate the use of various support delivery models, including in-person, email, phone, web, and remote access technologies, to troubleshoot an issue; and
      5. (E) describe the purpose and value of the security management process and the IT support specialist's role in that process.

   3. (3) The student implements proven troubleshooting methods and strategies within the context of a service level model. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) implement and explain a troubleshooting process for diagnosing issues with hardware, software, and the network;
      2. (B) explain the importance of clearly documenting progress throughout the troubleshooting process;
      3. (C) describe activities common to help desk service level model and incident management processes;
      4. (D) interpret and clarify different types of incidents, problems, and events submitted in the help desk service model or trouble ticketing system;
      5. (E) describe an operational level agreement (OLA) and the role of the IT support specialist in an OLA;
      6. (F) describe what is meant by escalation and the reasons an incident may be escalated;
      7. (G) identify and apply relevant system updates for supported devices; and
      8. (H) describe service and support center metrics, including a service level target and the IT support specialist's role in monitoring and reviewing data related to these metrics.

   4. (4) The student describes and applies best practices for the safe, ethical, and legal use of resources and information. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) demonstrate and describe positive digital citizenship and acceptable use policy when using digital resources;
      2. (B) describe best practices for creating passwords such as increasing password length and password complexity, enforcing password blacklists, resetting passwords, limiting password entry attempts, and using multi-factor authentication;
      3. (C) examine, describe, and demonstrate the use of guidelines for using media, information, and applications protected by copyright;
      4. (D) compare and explain copyright, fair use, public domain, and Creative Commons licensing;
      5. (E) identify and apply licensing guidelines for software, media, and other resources;
      6. (F) explain the importance and uses of encryption;
      7. (G) describe and demonstrate best practices for handling confidential information;
      8. (H) analyze cyber threats and social engineering vulnerabilities and discuss ways to prevent them;
      9. (I) describe various types of security policies and summarize the importance of physical security and logical security measures;
      10. (J) explain the importance of reporting security compromises such as addressing prohibited content and activity; and
      11. (K) identify and demonstrate appropriate data destruction and disposal methods relevant to a given scenario.

   5. (5) The student applies foundational knowledge and skills for the installation, configuration, operation, and maintenance of desktops and workstations. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) explain the procedure used to install and configure motherboards, central processing units (CPUs), and add-on cards relevant to a given scenario such as a custom personal computer configuration to meet customer specifications;
      2. (B) describe how to implement security best practices to secure a workstation, including software-based computer protection tools such as software firewalls, antivirus software, and anti-spyware;
      3. (C) demonstrate how to identify symptoms or error codes, including no power, no POST, no BOOT, and no video, that indicate device issues and explain how to troubleshoot symptoms or error codes;
      4. (D) describe the process used to install, troubleshoot, and replace random-access memory (RAM) types and data storage;
      5. (E) describe how to troubleshoot, clean, repair, or replace internal components, including heat sink units and thermal paste, exhaust vents and fans, power supply units, power adapters, batteries, wireless elements, and wireless wide area network (WWAN) components;
      6. (F) explain the importance of conducting periodic maintenance, including both physical and electronic cleaning, disk checks, routine reboots, data dumps, and testing; and
      7. (G) describe and demonstrate how to prevent, detect, and remove malware using appropriate tools and methods.

   6. (6) The student applies foundational knowledge and skills about the installation, configuration, operation, and maintenance of operating systems (OS) and software. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) describe and demonstrate the use of OS features and tools relevant to given scenarios;
      2. (B) describe and demonstrate the use of OS utilities relevant to given scenarios;
      3. (C) execute OS command-line tools such as ipconfig, netstat, dir, nbtstat;
      4. (D) troubleshoot and document OS problems relevant to a given scenario;
      5. (E) demonstrate how to use features and tools of various operating systems properly;
      6. (F) troubleshoot and document problems in various operating systems; and
      7. (G) explain database concepts and the purpose of a database.

   7. (7) The student installs, configures, operates, maintains, and troubleshoots issues related to peripheral devices relevant to a given scenario. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) explain and demonstrate how to install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot storage devices;
      2. (B) explain and demonstrate how to install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot printers, copiers, and scanners, including small office home office (SOHO) multifunction devices and printers;
      3. (C) explain and demonstrate how to install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot video projectors and video displays; and
      4. (D) explain and demonstrate how to install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot multimedia devices such as sound cards, speakers, microphones, and webcams.

   8. (8) The student monitors current issues related to the installation, configuration, operation, and maintenance of laptops, tablets, and other mobile devices, including internet of things (IoT) devices. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) explain and demonstrate how to install and configure laptop and netbook hardware to meet customer specifications;
      2. (B) explain and demonstrate how to install components within the display of a laptop;
      3. (C) explain and demonstrate how to connect and configure accessories and ports of mobile devices;
      4. (D) analyze and apply methods used to secure mobile devices;
      5. (E) configure mobile device network connectivity and application support;
      6. (F) demonstrate proper methods to perform mobile device synchronization such as synchronizing information to a laptop or desktop computer; and
      7. (G) explain and demonstrate how to troubleshoot issues relevant to mobile devices, OS, and applications.

   9. (9) The student troubleshoots issues with wired and wireless networks and cloud computing resources. The student is expected to:

      1. (A) explain and demonstrate how to install, configure, and secure a wired network;
      2. (B) explain and demonstrate how to install, configure, and secure a wireless network;
      3. (C) compare wireless security protocols and authentication methods;
      4. (D) analyze, describe, and troubleshoot wired and wireless network problems;
      5. (E) demonstrate the use of appropriate networking tools to fix network issues safely;
      6. (F) explain how computing devices such as laptops and cell phones connect and share data;
      7. (G) describe the components of cloud-computing architectures and features of cloud-computing platforms; and
      8. (H) analyze, describe, and troubleshoot cloud computing resources.

Source Note:The provisions of this §127.695 adopted to be effective August 1, 2025, 50 TexReg 3752.