(A) The State Board of Education shall adopt regulations governing the expenditures of monies appropriated by Sections 59-53-1810 to 59-53-1870 and shall make the regulations known to the various school districts of the State so they may know the conditions under which they are entitled to share in the funds available for career and technology education.

(B) The State Board of Education shall adopt instructional program standards for career and technology programs and a needs assessment format which includes instructional requirements for the special characteristics of the different career and technology programs, using as a guide for career and technology agriculture the standards of quality career and technology programs in agriculture/agribusiness education developed by the career and technology agricultural education profession. The instruction program standards for career and technology agriculture programs must include the instructional programs for the interim between academic years which are itemized in Section 59-53-1860.

(C) These instructional program standards must be incorporated in the South Carolina State Plan for Career and Technology Education as adopted by the State Board of Education. The instructional standards adopted by the State Board of Education must be used to evaluate all career and technology programs.

(D) Local programs of career and technology agriculture education and the school district's needs assessment for agriculture education programs must be reviewed by Clemson University consultants for agriculture education with the participation of an advisory team consisting at minimum of a member of the local advisory committee for career and technology agriculture, a member of the local advisory council for career and technology education, and a teacher-educator for agriculture education from Clemson University. The findings of these reviews must include an explicit statement of the career and technology agricultural education needs of the students and the agriculture community served by the local program. A member of this review team must be allowed to include a minority opinion in the findings of the review. These reviews must be scheduled by Clemson University at intervals adequate to assure local program compliance with the State Plan for Career and Technology Education. Whenever a high school or joint career and technology school's annual report, as required by Section 59-20-60, the Education Finance Act of 1977, on programmatic needs fails to justify or continue offering on a full-time twelve-month a year basis an existing career and technology agriculture education program, the school district board of trustees for the school shall include and consider the findings of the Clemson University review of the local career and technology agriculture program in the needs assessment of the district board of trustee's comprehensive annual and long-range plan for meeting program needs.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 21-697; 1952 Code Section 21-697; 1942 Code Section 5431; 1932 Code Sections 5617 to 5620; Civ. C. '22 Sections 2735 to 2738; 1919 (31) 49; 1980 Act No. 503, Section 3; 2005 Act No. 49, Section 16, eff May 3, 2005.

Effect of Amendment

The 2005 amendment designated subsections (A) to (D), rewrote the section to substitute "career and technology" for "vocational" and make nonsubstantive language changes throughout; in subsection (A) deleted "rules and" preceding regulations; in subsection (B), deleted at the beginning "On or before December 30, 1980"; and, in subsection (D), substituted "Clemson University" for "the State Department of Education" in three places.