In the Senate of the United States,
February 8 (legislative day, January 25), 1994.
Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representa-
tives (H.R. 2884) entitled ‘‘An Act to establish a national
framework for the development of School-to-Work Opportuni-
ties systems in all States, and for other purposes’’, do pass
with the following
AMENDMENT:
Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994’’.
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(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Purposes and congressional intent.
Sec. 4. Definitions.
Sec. 5. Federal administration.
TITLE I—SCHOOL-TO-WORK OPPORTUNITIES BASIC PROGRAM
COMPONENTS
Sec. 101. General program requirements.
Sec. 102. Work-based learning component.
Sec. 103. School-based learning component.
Sec. 104. Connecting activities component.
TITLE II—SCHOOL-TO-WORK OPPORTUNITIES SYSTEM
DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION GRANTS TO STATES
Subtitle A—State Development Grants
Sec. 201. Purpose.
Sec. 202. State development grants.
Subtitle B—State Implementation Grants
Sec. 211. Purpose.
Sec. 212. State implementation grants.
Sec. 213. Limitation on administrative costs.
TITLE III—FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION GRANTS TO PARTNERSHIPS
Sec. 301. Purposes.
Sec. 302. Federal implementation grants to partnerships.
Sec. 303. School-to-work opportunities program grants in high poverty areas and
in congressional districts with low population densities.
TITLE IV—NATIONAL PROGRAMS
Sec. 401. Research, demonstration, and other projects.
Sec. 402. Performance outcomes and evaluation.
Sec. 403. Training and technical assistance.
TITLE V—GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 501. State request and responsibilities for a waiver of statutory and regu-
latory requirements.
Sec. 502. Waivers of statutory and regulatory requirements by the Secretary of
Education.
Sec. 503. Waivers of statutory and regulatory requirements by the Secretary of
Labor.
Sec. 504. Combination of Federal funds for high poverty schools.
Sec. 505. Combination of Federal funds by States.
Sec. 506. Requirements.
Sec. 507. Sanctions.
Sec. 508. Authorization of appropriations.
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Sec. 509. Acceptance of gifts, and other matters.
Sec. 510. State authority.
Sec. 511. Construction.
Sec. 512. Additional Federal requirements.
Sec. 513. Sense of the Senate.
TITLE VI—OTHER PROGRAMS
Sec. 601. Tech-prep education.
TITLE VII—TECHNICAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 701. Effective date.
Sec. 702. Sunset.
TITLE VIII—ALASKA NATIVE ART AND CULTURE
Sec. 801. Short title.
Sec. 802. Alaska Native art and culture.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that—
(1) three-fourths of America’s high school stu-
dents enter the work force without baccalaureate de-
grees, and many do not possess the academic and
entry-level occupational skills necessary to succeed in
the changing American workplace;
(2) a substantial number of American youth, es-
pecially disadvantaged students, students of diverse
racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, and students
with disabilities, do not complete school;
(3) unemployment among American youth is in-
tolerably high, and earnings of high school graduates
have been falling relative to earnings of persons with
more education;
(4) the American workplace is changing in re-
sponse to heightened international competition and
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new technologies, and such forces, which are ulti-
mately beneficial to the Nation, are shrinking the de-
mand for and undermining the earning power of un-
skilled labor;
(5) the United States lacks a comprehensive and
coherent system to help its youth acquire the knowl-
edge, skills, abilities, and information about and ac-
cess to the labor market necessary to make an effective
transition from school to career-oriented work or to
further education and training;
(6) American students can achieve to high stand-
ards, and many learn better and retain more when
the students learn in context, rather than in the ab-
stract;
(7) while many American students have part-
time jobs, there is infrequent linkage between—
(A) such jobs; and
(B) the career planning or exploration, or
the school-based learning, of such students;
(8) the work-based learning approach, which is
modeled after the time-honored apprenticeship con-
cept, integrates theoretical instruction with structured
on-the-job training, and this approach, combined with
school-based learning, can be very effective in engag-
ing student interest, enhancing skill acquisition, de-
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veloping positive work attitudes, and preparing youth
for high-skill, high-wage careers; and
(9) Federal resources currently fund a series of
categorical, work-related education and training pro-
grams, many of which serve disadvantaged youth,
that are not administered as a coherent whole.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES AND CONGRESSIONAL INTENT.
(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to—
(1) establish a national framework within which
all States can create statewide School-to-Work Oppor-
tunities systems that—
(A) are a part of comprehensive education
reform;
(B) are integrated with the State education
systems reformed under the Goals 2000: Educate
America Act; and
(C) offer opportunities for all students to
participate in a performance-based education
and training program that will—
(i) enable the students to earn portable
credentials;
(ii) prepare the students for first jobs
in high-skill, high-wage careers; and
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(iii) increase their opportunities for
further education, including education in a
4-year college or university;
(2) create a universal, high-quality school-to-
work transition system that enables all young Ameri-
cans to identify and navigate paths to productive and
progressively more rewarding roles in the workplace;
(3) utilize workplaces as active learning environ-
ments in the educational process by making employ-
ers joint partners with educators in providing oppor-
tunities for all students to participate in high-qual-
ity, work-based learning experiences;
(4) use Federal funds under this Act as venture
capital, to underwrite the initial costs of planning
and establishing statewide School-to-Work Opportuni-
ties systems that will be maintained with other Fed-
eral, State, and local resources;
(5) promote the formation of partnerships that
are dedicated to linking the worlds of school and
work, among secondary schools and postsecondary
education institutions, private and public employers,
labor organizations, government, community-based
organizations, parents, students, State educational
agencies, local educational agencies, and training and
human service agencies;
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(6) help all students attain high academic and
occupational standards;
(7) build on and advance a range of promising
school-to-work transition programs, such as tech-prep
education programs, career academies, school-to-ap-
prenticeship programs, cooperative education pro-
grams, youth apprenticeship programs, school-spon-
sored enterprises, and business-education compacts,
that can be developed into programs funded under
this Act;
(8) improve the knowledge and skills of youth by
integrating academic and occupational learning, inte-
grating school-based and work-based learning, and
building effective linkages between secondary and
postsecondary education;
(9) encourage the development and implementa-
tion of programs that will provide paid high-quality,
work-based learning experiences;
(10) motivate all youth, including low-achieving
youth, youth who have dropped out of school, and
youth with disabilities, to stay in or return to school
or a classroom setting and strive to succeed, by pro-
viding enriched learning experiences and assistance
in obtaining good jobs and continuing their education
in postsecondary education institutions;
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(11) expose students to a vast array of career op-
portunities, and facilitate the selection of career ma-
jors, based on individual interests, goals, strengths,
and abilities; and
(12) further the National Education Goals set
forth in title I of the Goals 2000: Educate America
Act.
(b) CONGRESSIONAL INTENT.—It is the intent of Con-
gress that the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Edu-
cation jointly administer this Act, in consultation with the
Secretary of Commerce, in a flexible manner that—
(1) promotes State and local discretion in estab-
lishing and implementing School-to-Work Opportuni-
ties systems and programs; and
(2) contributes to reinventing government by—
(A) building on State and local capacity;
(B) eliminating duplication in education
and training programs for youth by integrating
such programs into one comprehensive system;
(C) maximizing the effective use of re-
sources;
(D) supporting locally established initia-
tives;
(E) requiring measurable goals for perform-
ance; and
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(F) offering flexibility in meeting such
goals.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act—
(1) the term ‘‘all aspects of the industry’’ means
all aspects of the industry or industry sector a stu-
dent is preparing to enter, including planning, man-
agement, finances, technical and production skills,
underlying principles of technology, labor and com-
munity issues, health and safety issues, and environ-
mental issues, related to such industry or industry
sector;
(2) the term ‘‘all students’’ means students from
a broad range of backgrounds and circumstances, in-
cluding disadvantaged students, students with diverse
racial, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds, students with
disabilities, students with limited-English proficiency,
students who have dropped out of school, and aca-
demically talented students;
(3) the term ‘‘approved plan’’ means a School-
to-Work Opportunities system plan that is submitted
by a State under section 212(a), is determined by the
Secretaries to include the program components de-
scribed in sections 102 through 104 and otherwise
meet the requirements of this Act, and is consistent
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with the improvement plan of the State, if any, under
the Goals 2000: Educate America Act;
(4) the term ‘‘career major’’ means a coherent se-
quence of courses or field of study that prepares a stu-
dent for a first job and that—
(A) integrates academic and occupational
learning, integrates school-based and work-based
learning, establishes linkages between secondary
and postsecondary education, and prepares stu-
dents for admission to 2-year or 4-year post-
secondary education institutions;
(B) prepares the student for employment in
broad occupational clusters or industry sectors;
(C) typically includes at least 2 years of
secondary education and at least 1 or 2 years of
postsecondary education;
(D) provides the students, to the extent
practicable, with strong experience in and under-
standing of all aspects of the industry the stu-
dents are planning to enter;
(E) results in the award of—
(i) a high school diploma or its equiva-
lent, such as—
(I) a general equivalency diploma;
or
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(II) an alternative diploma or
certificate for students with disabilities
for whom such alternative diploma or
certificate is appropriate;
(ii) a certificate or diploma recogniz-
ing successful completion of 1 or 2 years of
postsecondary education (if appropriate);
and
(iii) a skill certificate; and
(F) may lead to further education and
training, such as entry into a registered appren-
ticeship program, or may lead to admission to a
4-year college or university;
(5) the term ‘‘employer’’ includes both public and
private employers;
(6) the term ‘‘Governor’’ means the chief execu-
tive of a State;
(7) the term ‘‘local educational agency’’ has the
meaning given the term in section 1471(12) of the El-
ementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 2891(12));
(8) the term ‘‘partnership’’ means a local entity
that—
(A) is responsible for carrying out local
School-to-Work Opportunities programs;
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(B) consists of employers or employer orga-
nizations, public secondary schools and post-
secondary educational institutions (or represent-
atives, such as teachers, counselors, and adminis-
trators), 
and 
labor 
organizations 
or
nonmanagerial employee representatives; and
(C) may include other entities, such as com-
munity-based organizations, national trade asso-
ciations working at local levels, rehabilitation
agencies and organizations, registered appren-
ticeship agencies, local vocational education enti-
ties, proprietary institutions of higher education
as defined in section 481(b) of the Higher Edu-
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1088(b)) (so long
as such institutions meet the requirements speci-
fied in section 498 of such Act), local government
agencies, parent organizations and teacher orga-
nizations, vocational student organizations, pri-
vate industry councils established under section
102 of the Job Training Partnership Act (29
U.S.C. 1512), and Indian tribes, as defined in
section 1 of the Tribally Controlled Community
College Assistance Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1801);
(9) the term ‘‘postsecondary education institu-
tion’’ means a public or private institution that is
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(A) GOVERNOR.—References to a Governor
shall be deemed to be references to an official des-
ignated by the consortium to carry out the duties
of a Governor under this subtitle.
(B) STATE.—References to a State shall be
deemed to be references to the consortium.
(C) OFFICIAL.—References to an official of
a State shall be deemed to be references to such
an official of any of the States in which the con-
sortium is located.
(4) WAIVERS.—In order for a consortium that
receives a grant under this section to receive a waiver
under title V with respect to an congressional district
located within a State, the State and officials of the
State shall comply with the applicable requirements
of title V for such a waiver.
(5) ABILITY
OF
STATE
TO
CARRY
OUT
PRO-
GRAM.—Nothing in this subsection shall limit the
ability of a State to carry out a statewide School-to-
Work Opportunities system in the State, even if a
congressional district located in the State participates
in a consortium under paragraph (1).
(6) DEFINITION.—As used in this subsection, the
term ‘‘consortia of congressional districts with low
population densities’’ means a consortia of congres-