SCS/HCS/HB 1663 - Beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, this act permits the board of education of a school district or charter school that is a local education agency to establish an academic and career counseling program in cooperation with parents and the local community that is in the best interest of, and meets the needs of, students in the community. Schools may use the Missouri Comprehensive School Counseling Program as a resource in developing such program. The act requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop, no later than January 1, 2019, a process for recognition of a school district's academic and career counseling program.
These provisions are similar to HB 187 (2017) and to provisions in SB 587 (2018) and HCS/HB 118 (2017).
This act also establishes the "Career Readiness Course Task Force" to explore the possibility of a course for 8th and 9th grade students covering topics related to various career and educational opportunities. The Task Force shall be composed of members as set forth in the act and shall serve without compensation. The Task Force shall consider a course that contains certain components, as described in the act.
Before December 1, 2019, the Task Force shall present its findings and recommendations to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Joint Committee on Education, and the State Board of Education. Upon presenting such findings and recommendations the Task Force shall dissolve.
These provisions are identical to SCS/SB 873 (2018) and similar to HB 1245 (2018) and HCS/HB 1113 (2017).
JAMIE ANDREWS