New Skills For Youth Frequently Asked Question and Answer
1. What assistance will KDE provide as part of this initiative, especially around the funding of students attending another district’s school for all day career academies?
a.Schools districts can create interlocal agreements that will detail the contributions from participating districts. A sample interlocal agreement will be placed on the KDE NSFY webpage to assist schools with this.
2. What is the definition of a Career Academy and where can we locate the working definitions associated with NSFY?
a. All definitions can be found in the NSFY Glossary located at:
3. As part of this initiative will districts take over the operations of state run Area Technology Centers?
a. During the application phase of this initiative, the applicants must include a plan to transition an Area Technology Center or Locally Operated Technical Center to become an all-day regional career academy. During the first year of the planning phase, applicants will also work with the Kentucky Department of Education in determining a future plan of funding for Career and Technical Education.
4. For rural districts with transportation limits, will online opportunities be available for use? Can KDE provide information/resources focused on online learning options for career and technical education? Can KDE assist in determining what online options are appropriate for CTE?
a. Blended and online opportunities can be a part of the plan for creating and operating the regional career academy. Also, please note that vocational transportation funds can be used for some of the transportation expenses associated with this.
b. OCTE can work with districts to provide guidance during the planning phase of the grant to determine which courses would be most appropriate for online learning opportunities, however we would not provide guidance on which individual vendors could be used for those opportunities.
c. Schools should also review the Digital Learning Guidelines at:
5. What is the benefit of a locally operated technical center transforming into a regional career academy?
a. A regional academy approach is an all-day environment where rigorous technical and academic education are tied to a student’s chosen career interest and career pathway.
6. The term High-Wage is used for Industry Sectors, what makes an Industry Sector High-Wage?
a. The entire sector must have an average annual salary of at least $35,000.
7. What does it mean to be a full day school?
a. Creating an environment focused on a career pathway that your academy is focused on with academics supporting the pathway. The academic courses, WBL, and dual credit are all focused towards that career pathway.
8. Does the academy have to offer all instruction at the same location?
a. Best practice would be in one location so that transportation time does not become a factor, but it does not have to be. Part of the time could be spent in one location, while
students could travel to another location for additional parts of instruction. However, an academy does not mean that students would go there for their technical courses and return to their high schools for academics as in the traditional method for CTE centers.
9. Does the location have to be in a school or separate space designated for instruction?
a. When we say one location, it could be in a work environment, like a hospital, in partnership with Business and Industry and other creative locations. Think outside the box to find the best learning environment for your students and the best schedule for this regional academy.
10. Are there any time requirements for the school day to be open?
a. The school districts and industry partners can set what is going to work best for students in this path and the best setting for this path. A facilitator will also be provided to assist with planning during this first year to assist with making these decisions.
11. How are sports and lunch dealt with?
a. Students will be set up as a primary enrollment at their A1 feeder school which will allow them to be eligible for sports and extracurricular activities at their home district. Students would be set up as a partial/secondary enrollment at the regional academy.
b. Districts can work together to determine the best setting for student lunches. These logistical activities will be part of the decisions that will occur during the planning phase of this grant.
12. Are there any rules on which organization can be the fiscal agent? For example, can an educational co-op be the fiscal agent as is the case with the ILead Academy in Carrolton?
a. The expectation is that one of the collaborating districts would serve as the fiscal agent and interlocal agreements would be established to guide how this will work. Examples of interlocal agreements will be provided during the planning year. Coops could apply with partnering districts to help provide guidance and support, but could not serve as the primary fiscal agent. The districts could contract with a coop to provide this additional support.
13. Can they go back to their home county for the last two periods a day? How would students get PE?
a. During the planning process, items like PE, will need to be addressed to allow students to receive these opportunities, but primarily focus on the business and industry needs of the academy. We challenge partnering districts to think about how students could receive these opportunities in new ways that will open the door for them to be involved in these new career academies. The foundation of this grant is not just to create a regional career academy, but to transform our thinking about how high schools can provide education for careers and how that changes how we have operated in the past.
14. Does KDE plan to appoint the grant planning Lead or is that the responsibility of the districts?
a. With the funds that we received, KDE will provide a KDE statewide facilitator who will work with the groups to help lead conversations, however with the grant we designated funds for the districts to hire, for the one year planning phase, a team lead at the local level who will lead and guide the work. This needs to be an individual that the districts decide on at the local level who the districts are comfortable with and that knows the area and its needs.
15. Following the planning period what grant support will be available to implement the regional academy?
a. We know after the one year of planning you will be doing hard work to implement the regional academy. We will provide a KDE statewide facilitator over the three year grant period that provide support throughout the three years. We also have field staff that will be there to help in their areas throughout the three years. We will be very much involved in providing support and helping you succeed as we are looking to those that receive the grant funds to help us make long term decisions about how to sustain and grow the number of regional career academies in the state. You will be helping us shape what these academies look like, so we want to be there to help and support through the process and remove barriers as they come up during this process.
16. We are considering partnering with Larue Co and potentially others for the NSFY grant. My question is in regard to the requirement to partner with either a “locally operated tech center” or a “state operated tech center”. I was thinking that we may partner with the Elizabethtown Community and Technical Center thinking that is a “state operated tech center” but, am not sure that is what is meant by the definition of “state operated”. Can you clarify that for us?
a. State Operated means an Area Technology Center (ATC) operated by KDE. KCTCS facilities can serve as a postsecondary partner, but would not meet the requirement to partner with a center.
17. In the transition from a state operated area technical center to a regional academy, who will ultimately administrate/govern this academy? Will the academy be state operated, or operated by a local Board of Education? If local Board, how does this work with multiple Boards of Education from various school districts?
a. It would be operated by a local Board of Education at the end of the process. The process for this will be shared with grant recipients during the planning process. Partners will need to determine which Board of Education will serve as the operating Board.
18. When looking into applying for a New Skills for Youth Cohort I planning grant, we were curious if there will be funds in the future (after Cohort I) available to apply for and what the funds will be granted for then?
a. This grant is a one year planning grant and those receiving this grant would not be eligible to apply for additional planning grants under NSFY. Those selected in this round of the grant would be helping KDE determine future funding models for Regional Career Academies though.
19. Should we only have the 2 focus areas from the high demand sectors on our committee and in our development? Or do we need representation from each high demand sector even though we will be concentrating on only 2 of those??
a. Your committee should have the required representation from the industry sectors that you will have in your regional career academy. Those not represented in your academy would not be required to be on the committee.
20. The FAQs do not specifically address whether part of the student day may be spent at the home/sending high school. Is this allowable? It appears Dual Enrollment is allowed according to #11 in the FAQs; does this apply here?
a. The purpose of the regional career academy is to be an all-day environment for students where they receive both their academic and technical courses in one location. Dual enrollment is allowed for the purpose of extracurricular activities, but should not be misunderstood to mean that students would only spend part of their time in the regional career academy. A regional career academy is not a traditional CTE center where students go for their technical instruction only.
21. If the regional hub is to be an A1 school, will all A1 requirements be applied to the regional hub (attendance, state reporting, accountability, SBDM, etc.)
a. It will not be an A1 school. A new classification will most likely be applied to the regional career academy. An enrollment at a A1 is listed for the student so that they are able to maintain eligibility for extracurricular activies.
22. Does the regional hub status allow for a hybrid instructional model?
a. It could possibly include hybrid models of instruction. Some of the exact specifications of the hybrid model would be worked out during the planning process after receiving the NSFY grant.
23. What are the requirements/consequences to the school districts if all partners find themselves unable to develop a plan that will be implementable?
a. The goal of the planning phase should be to design and implement a regional career academy. KDE will be working with those receiving the funds to help with barriers that could affect the ability to implement.
24. Can you please clarify the difference between what questions 1.4 (Identify evidence that demonstrates the need of transitioning centers to regional career academies) and 5.1 (Describe the needs of your area and how a regional career academy could be utilized to address those needs) ask on the grant application? The answers and data we are outlining for each seem to overlap.
a. 1.4 is about how a current center does not meet the need, while 5.1 is about the needs of the area and how a regional academy will address those. These answers could be very similar, but in 1.4 it is asking specifically for evidence of how a regional center is going to better address the need than the current center.
25. On page 13 of the Request for Application there is a footnote for team planning lead salary/fringe. Does this footnote mean that only $30,000 from the grant can be used for the planning person’s salary and fringe combined?
a. Yes
26. On Part 4, when the application asks for the number and percentage of all students, is percentage referring to the percentage of total seniors at each school, or the percentage of the subgroup which took that opportunity? For example, if a senior class has 100 students and 20 completed dual credit courses, 5 being male and 15 being female, would the percentage of males be 5% or 25%?
a. It is asking for a percentage overall and then percentages by each subgroup. In the example below it would say 20% took dual credit and then would divide 5 by the total males to give the percentage of males. The male percent would depend on total males which is not in the example provided.
27. Where should references be listed, or if there is sufficient information in the narrative text to identify the references, do we need to submit a reference list?
When compiling data for part 4, how should we calculate percentages (based on whole school population or opportunity subgroup)?
a.References should be included in the narrative text so that the reader has sufficient information. Calculations should be for the whole group and for each subgroup. Please see question 26 for an example of this.