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Dear Colleagues,
Hands-on learning opportunities for our students and future generations are one of our top priorities when it comes to creating vibrant learning experiences, which is why I am looking forward to National Apprenticeship Week this week.
This is an opportunity to recognize the work behind apprenticeship opportunities, where employers, business leaders, community-based organizations, educational institutions and government agencies organize events to highlight the achievements and importance of supporting a highly skilled workforce to meet industry demands, creating the way for students to land good jobs upon graduation.
As we all know, it may be difficult for some high school students to know exactly what they want to do as professionals. This is why the Kentucky Department of Education works to offer opportunities for students across our state to explore career and technical education (CTE) pathways, apprenticeships, dual credit opportunities and certifications.
CTE pathways ensure a smooth transition for our graduates into the workforce or post-secondary programs by providing early post-secondary opportunities through recognized industry certifications and credentials, CTE end-of-program certificates for articulated postsecondary credit and CTE dual credit.
Although this is a national celebration, our Kentucky Career Center’s Office of Employer and Apprenticeship Services is the state’s agency for the Registered Apprenticeship Program. Through this program, nearly 1,500 occupations are recognized for apprenticeship programs, encompassing not only skilled trade and construction jobs but also the jobs of the future.
I’ve said it before, but I truly believe our schools do a great job at providing opportunities and resources like these for our students, so they have the skills and knowledge to have lifelong success. As we guide these students, we need to continue to show them the opportunities available to them in this state if we want the best and brightest to stay in Kentucky.
It is important for us to support the Commonwealth’s students through our resources and the work we do in each of your districts to give them the skills and incentives they need to return home and become leaders.
As always, thank you for being …
All In,
Robbie Fletcher
Commissioner of Education
School Report Card Reminders
Schools and districts should continue to review, raise flags and approve all open domains in the School Report Card (SRC) Suite Collection and Approval Portal. The Overview, Career and Technical Education (CTE), Education Opportunity, Transition to Adult Life and School Safety domains are all open in the Preview tool for review. The Collection tool remains open to allow schools to update Access to Technology, Career Studies, Health Education and Physical Education, Ineffective Teachers, Parental Involvement, Precautionary Measures, Visual and Performing Arts, and/or World Language data. Districts can also continue to update or add superintendent messages into the Collection tool.
As a reminder, the data display defaults to the suppressed view; however, the toggle can be used to see unsuppressed data. On the table view, hover over the right side of the table to see the bar to scroll down and the bottom of the table to see the bar to scroll right. To help ensure quality of data, districts should monitor collection data and school approvals. The Quality Assurance Worksheet includes links to reports that can help with verification. Once all data is reviewed and verified, the domain should be approved at the district level. KDE monitors district approvals to gauge readiness for public deployment.
Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) points of contact respond to flags within the tool. Responses can be seen in the Approval-Review Flags Report. Select Flag Status “Lowered” and “Raised” to see all responses. If there are additional questions regarding an item after a flag has been lowered, email the KDE responder directly.
KDE is continuing to test prior years (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) data and the assessment and accountability for district review. This data should be available soon. Prior year data should be consistent; however, there will be some variances due to the way small cell counts are suppressed. The current School Report Card Suite dashboard tool will sunset mid-December so there is limited time available to compare data previously reported in the dashboard view to the new School Report Card dashboard data.
Success Stories of Effective Partnerships with Families
During its 2023 term, Family Partnership Council (FPC) members conducted an in-depth analysis of the latest research on family partnerships and collaborated to create the Family Partnership Council’s recommendations to the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE).
These recommendations would:
- Support every school’s effort to form effective partnerships;
- Promote greater alignment of KDE’s and outside organizations’ family partnership initiatives; and
- Set the goals of the FPC for the next two years.
One of the four recommendations noted that KDE should encourage districts and schools to develop local web pages that include more robust relationship-building and communication metrics regarding meaningful family and community engagement. KDE is seeking to fulfill this recommendation by highlighting districts and schools that are doing family partnerships well and what they are doing with a special focus on innovative practices.
KDE is encouraging all Kentucky districts and schools to utilize the Success Stories of Effective Partnerships with Families form to share their stories of creating trusting relationships with families as partners that are making a positive impact for both students and families. Stories will be shared as a resource and inspiration to other schools across the Commonwealth as we seek innovative and successful ways to partner with our parents, families and our communities.
To learn more about the FPC, please visit the Family Partnership Council website.
2025-2026 Course Codes View Now Available in the Searchable State Course Codes Database within KECS
The Searchable State Course Codes Database (SSCCD) within the Kentucky Educator Certification System (KECS) is now available with an updated view for the 2025-2026 school year. The Course Codes Frequently Asked Questions document has been revised for 2025-2026 and remains an excellent resource to help new and returning course codes contacts familiarize themselves with proper course code usage.
There are several changes to both career and technical education (CTE) courses and academic courses. For CTE, the program areas of engineering, transportation, and business and marketing have had inactive courses removed due to their misalignment with current state-approved pathways. New courses in law and public safety, health science, and JROTC have been added to support active pathways and align with industry needs within their program areas. Two new AP courses were added: AP CK Cyber: Security and AP CK Cyber: Networking.
For academic courses, changes were made to courses for English learners based on district feedback, and changes were made to world languages courses based on feedback from the Kentucky World Languages Association. Additionally, clarifications around which courses can serve as required credits towards minimum high school graduation requirements were made. Several visual and performing arts courses were updated to better aligned to the revised Kentucky Academic Standards for Visual and Performing Arts. Several other minor changes were made across content areas to better align to intended course purposes.
Please note that 303091 Integrated Science I, 303092 Integrated Science II and 303093 Integrated Science III will be deprecated beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. Schools are advised to prepare for this change now.
The name and description of state course code 909995 was updated to reflect its appropriate usage for teaching planning periods.
For a detailed list of course code changes, please see the Course Code Changes spreadsheet. A Deprecated Course Codes and What to Use Instead spreadsheet is also available to help schools replace deprecated course codes. Both sheets include historical changes from the 2016-2017 school year to the present.
Please contact the Kentucky Department of Education Course Codes inbox with any questions.
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