Biden-Harris Administration Announces $25M in Grant Awards to Advance Career Connected High Schools

The Biden-Harris Administration today is announcing 19 new grant awards totaling $25 million through the first-ever Perkins Innovation and Modernization, Career Connected High Schools (CCHS) grant program.

This investment, issued by the U.S. Department of Education (Department), builds the capacity of education and workforce systems to partner with business and industry, to develop new high-quality career-connected high school programs for more students. Grantees will leverage four evidence-based strategies, or “keys,” to help students in unlocking career success including: providing postsecondary education and career guidance; increasing access to dual or concurrent enrollment programs; increasing work-based learning opportunities; and providing industry-recognized credentials.

“President Biden understands that it’s time to invest in career-connected learning that will better prepare our young people for exciting careers and family-sustaining jobs in today’s most in-demand fields,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “We can transform the American high school experience and raise the bar for student engagement, achievement, and career-readiness in this country by providing all students with access to dual enrollment classes, work-based learning, industry credentials, and comprehensive career advising. The Biden-Harris Administration is going to keep on fighting to provide every student in every community with career-connected learning.”

The grant is part of the Department’s Raise the Bar: Unlocking Career Success initiative, aimed at helping young Americans access good-paying jobs created by President Biden’s Investing in America through seeding and scaling promising models of innovation. Secretary Cardona will highlight this announcement during a visit to the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s (OSSE’s) Advanced Technical Center in Washington, DC today. The CCHS grant program is the first in the Department’s history intended to build capacity and coordination among secondary and postsecondary education, workforce development systems, and other community partners to expand access to career-connected high school programs for more students, with a focus on increasing access to high-quality pathways for underserved students.

The Department received more than 160 eligible applications from 43 states and the District of Columbia, requesting more than $850 million to implement comprehensive career-connected learning projects.

The CCHS grantees are listed below:

State

Grantee

Award

AL Pike County Board of Education $879,801
AR Arkansas Department of Education $1,106,200
AZ Yuma/La Paz Counties Community College District $1,112,555
CA Blue Lake Rancheria  $1,520,950
DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education  $1,136,348
FL Miami Dade College $571,244
GA Clayton County Public Schools $1,288,596
IL Illinois Central College $1,288,021
IN South Bend Community School Corporation $1,747,826
KY Allen County Schools $1,475,000
KY Rockcastle County Board of Education $1,475,000
MO Mexico School District 59 $1,475,000
NC Montgomery County Schools $1,420,709
NJ Essex County Vocational Technical Schools $1,405,000
OR Chemeketa Community College $1,421,219
TX Region One Ed Service Center $1,424,289
TX San Antonio Independent School District $1,467,851
WA Educational School District 105 $613,140
WI Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction $1,475,000