H.F. No. 417 Summary

• Establishes a Rural Career and Technical Education (CTE) Consortium as a voluntary collaboration led by the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative (SWWC) to provide CTE opportunities across an 18-county service area.

• Consortium must focus on developing collaborative courses between school districts, creating programs aligned with rural regional economy needs, and improving access for students in sparsely populated areas through public and private partnerships.

• May optionally address teacher shortages in CTE fields through incentive funding and training programs, and provide transportation reimbursement grants to ensure equitable regional access.

• Appropriates $5,000,000 from the general fund in fiscal year 2018 as a one-time grant to SWWC to administer the consortium, available until June 30, 2022.

• Requires the Rural CTE Consortium to submit annual reports to the legislature and commissioner of education by January 15, including financial reports for the preceding fiscal year, with the first report due by January 15, 2019.