Legislation aimed at having school guidance counselors lead career planning efforts for Massachusetts students in grades 6 through 12 could be advanced by the House on Monday after being in committee for a year.
House Ways and Means Committee members were voting over the weekend on the legislation, which creates a nine-person advisory committee that would be charged with making recommendations by the end of 2015 regarding career planning that would be coordinated by guidance counselors. The panel would also be charged with determining whether counselors need special training to effectively deliver career planning.
The advisory panel would include three state education officials and the state labor secretary, or their appointees, as well as representatives from the New England Association for College Admission Counseling; the New England Regional Office of the College Board; the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators; and the Massachusetts School Counselors Association.
The legislation includes two sections amending the expanded background-check law to clarify that employees working for the same employer shall only be subject to one background check if they perform work in both the departments of early education and care and elementary and secondary education. The bill is a redrafted version of legislation endorsed more than a year ago by the Education Committee and sponsored by the chairwoman of that committee, Wellesley Democrat Rep. Alice Peisch.
