CAREER EDUCATION AND CONSUMER, FAMILY AND LIFE SKILLS

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What courses count toward the Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills five-credit graduation requirement?

A. For students entering the ninth grade in the fall of 2004, look at the following to identify courses that count toward this graduation requirement.

1. Make a list of all courses offered. Identify those courses that include career information, vocational content, occupational content, and skills related to technological literacy.

2. Identify the certification of the teacher assigned to the course under consideration for meeting the credit requirement.

3. Identify the department in which the course is taught (e.g., English, vocational).

4. If the teacher is certified for vocational education, career guidance, family and consumer sciences, business education, technology education, or approved occupational programs, the course counts towards the five-credit graduation requirement. The courses must be offered as part of the vocational-technical/occupational, business, family and consumer sciences, career guidance, technology education, and/or practical arts departments. (Any courses related to visual and performing arts are not counted towards graduation here but under the visual and performing arts graduation requirement.)

• To verify if you have an approved occupational sequence of courses for the district, go to http://www.nj.gov/njded/voc/pubvoc.htm and search by school/ district name.

  • Any courses in the sequence for the approved occupational program sequence count towards the five credits for graduation for the freshman class beginning in the fall of 2004.

• Any career orientation courses that have a vocational orientation such as:

• Home economics/family and consumer sciences courses offered at the high school level count towards the five-credit graduation requirement. This includes any consumer and personal finance courses taught through this department. Other examples include, but are not limited to, foods and nutrition, world cuisine, independent living, child development, fashion and design, interior design, resource management, etc.

• Business education courses, including but not limited to, keyboarding, accounting, or computer applications, count towards the five-credit graduation requirement. This includes any consumer and personal finance courses taught through the business education department.

• Careers that include any semester or year-long courses taught by the school that introduces students to the Sixteen States’ Career Clusters, career awareness and preparation, and employability skills as they relate to career planning/vocational planning and employment count towards the requirement.

• Technology education courses that explore career options related to design and engineering processes related to medical, agricultural, information and communications, energy and power, manufacturing, construction, and transportation systems count towards the requirement. Any industrial arts programs remaining in districts also count toward this graduation requirement.

Q. How are structured learning experiences included in the graduation requirement?

A. Structured learning experiences (includes parent, business, student, and school approved student training plans) within a district related to a chosen career cluster and with documented supervision of the student by school certified personnel that includes assessments related to the individual student training plan can count toward this graduation requirement. All structured learning experiences must comply with state and federal child labor laws. There must be written board of education approval of credits awarded for structured learning experiences. For further information, see documents at http://www.nj.gov/njded/voc/sle/.

Q. Can credits be counted towards multiple graduation requirements?

A. There cannot be any duplication of credits under this graduation requirement with any other content area graduation requirement. In other words, a student taking a journalism course taught in the English department could not count the course under Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills as a graduation requirement. Journalism taught through the English department would meet the language arts literacy requirement not the Career Education and Consumer, Family and Life Skills graduation requirement.

Interdisciplinary instruction designed to fulfill the requirements of multiple subject areas falls under "Option Two" of the graduation requirements (N.J.A.C. 6A-8:5.1-lii).

Q. How can integrated instruction be counted towards the Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills graduation requirement?

A. Although the narrative on the Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills standards indicates integration of indicators, only courses related to career, vocational and occupational areas at the high school level that last at least one semester can be counted towards this graduation requirement. Integrated use of computers and career information into a math, science, language arts literacy, social studies, comprehensive health and physical education, or world language course cannot count towards this high school graduation requirement. This does not mean that integration is discouraged within the school. Integrated projects are highly encouraged as an effective teaching and learning strategy to develop real-world skills.

Q. Can ROTC be counted as part of the five credit graduation requirement for Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills?

Yes, if students are enrolled in coursework for a full year that consists of a sequence of courses of instruction that includes standards and indicators for 9.1 and 9.2, and students receive credit for the course/s. The curriculum needs to emphasize military fields under the government and public administration career cluster and include teamwork and leadership skills as well as employability skills.