Dear Colleagues —

We hope that you had a joyful and restful holiday season and are geared up for a productive new year!  Over the holidays, we know that many State CTE directors and staff were working feverishly to submit their Perkins Consolidated Annual Report (CAR) for FY 2013-14.  We thank you for your thoughtful and thorough submissions, which DATE staff have already begun to review.  We  look forward to issuing  CAR outcome notification letters to States in mid March.

Also over the holidays, our office issued its Program Guidance for the Submission of State Plan Revisions, Budgets, and Performance Levels for Program Year Nine, beginning on July 1, 2015.  We will issue estimated FY 2015 State allocations as soon as they become available.

Thank you to those who were able to join Acting Assistant Secretary Johan Uvin for the December 11, 2014, Webinar on the intersections and opportunities between Perkins and the newly-authorized Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act.  As a next step, the Department, along with the Department of Labor, will be issuing a joint Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) involving jointly administered activities, including unified and combined state plans, performance, and aspects of the one-stop system. The Department of Labor also will issue another NPRM for WIOA Title I and Title III provisions that are administered by the Department of Labor.  Three additional NPRMs will involve Department of Education programs, including one implementing Title II, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, and two implementing the Title IV Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  These NPRMs will be published in the Federal Register and posted on www.regulations.gov, where public comments can be submitted following publication.  The Departments of Labor and Education will analyze these public comments and anticipate issuing Final Rules implementing WIOA in early 2016.

Best —
Sharon Lee Miller
Director, Division of Academic and Technical Education