Q1 2026-27 Careers

Mark your calendars for the 2026-2027 Careers Collaborative:

September 22, 2026, @Lenape Tech

November 3, 2026

January 12, 2027, @ICTC

March 9, 2027, @Marion Center Area Junior/Senior High School

May 4, 2027

(Visit ARIN's Course Registration site (opens in new window) to register for the trainings; links will be posted later this summer, so keep checking!)

KEYSTONE SCHOLARS jumpstarts educational savings by providing a $100 scholarship for every child born to a PA family in 2019 and later for future education. The scholarship can be used between the ages of 18-29 for post-high school technical, collegiate, apprenticeship, and credentialing educational expenses.

You can encourage parents to claim their child’s account (opens in new window). Only three pieces of information are needed:

o Child’s date of birth,

o Zip code on file when child was born, and

o State File Number from child’s PA birth certificate.

Once claimed, parents may open a companion PA 529 account to contribute their own savings! Families can start savings with as little as $1/month.

Act 47 of 2025 established a statewide FAFSA completion requirement. Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, all Pennsylvania high school seniors will be required to file the FAFSA unless a parent, guardian, or eligible student submits a completed opt-out form. This puts direct implementation responsibility on schools.

Schools should designate a district FAFSA lead, review guidance to develop local implementation plans, and ensure students and families receive FAFSA information no later than the start of senior year. PDE and PHEAA have been running counselor webinars to support this rollout.

Currently, 57.5% of PA high school seniors completed the FAFSA last year, so there's a meaningful gap to close before this becomes universal.

The Shapiro administration recently invested $2.7 million to expand and create 11 Schools-to-Work programs across Pennsylvania, with the program designed to bridge classroom learning with real-world opportunity and align training with in-demand industries. Over the past three years, the state increased funding for apprenticeship and CTE programs by nearly 50%, from $118 million to $183 million, and registered 249 new pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs.

The proposed 2026-27 budget includes an additional $18 million for CTE and apprenticeship programs and $7 million specifically for Schools-to-Work.

Read more here (opens in new window).

The goal is for each student to develop a career portfolio by the end of grade 11 reflecting evidence from all three grade bands (grades 5, 8, and 11). School entities are responsible for reporting individual student data into PIMS to verify the career readiness benchmark was met. With the first cohort who could fully complete all three grade bands now moving through, accuracy in PIMS reporting matters more than ever.

Read more here (opens in new window).

PDE revised its guidance in July 2025 on identifying and reporting industry-based learning credentials for non-CTE students. Anyone supporting the Evidence-Based or CTE graduation pathways should make sure they're working from the updated guidance document.

Read more here (opens in new window).