1.The state board of education shall establish standards and annually inspect, as a basis for approval, all public prevocational, vocational schools, State Technical College of Missouri, departments and classes receiving state or federal moneys for giving training in agriculture, industrial, home economics and commercial subjects and all schools, departments and classes receiving state or federal moneys for the preparation of teachers and supervisors of such subjects. The public prevocational and vocational schools, State Technical College of Missouri, departments, and classes, and the training schools, departments and classes are entitled to the state or federal moneys so long as they are approved by the state board of education, as to site, plant, equipment, qualifications of teachers
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1. The state board of education shall establish standards and annually inspect, as a basis for approval, all public prevocational, vocational schools, State Technical College of Missouri, departments and classes receiving state or federal moneys for giving training in agriculture, industrial, home economics and commercial subjects and all schools, departments and classes receiving state or federal moneys for the preparation of teachers and supervisors of such subjects. The public prevocational and vocational schools, State Technical College of Missouri, departments, and classes, and the training schools, departments and classes are entitled to the state or federal moneys so long as they are approved by the state board of education, as to site, plant, equipment, qualifications of teachers, admission of pupils, courses of study and methods of instruction. All disbursements of state or federal moneys for the benefit of the approved prevocational and vocational schools, State Technical College of Missouri, departments and classes shall be made semiannually. The school board of each approved school or the governing body of State Technical College of Missouri shall file a report with the state board of education at the times and in the form that the state board requires. Upon receipt of a satisfactory report, the state board of education shall certify to the commissioner of administration for his approval the amount of the state and federal moneys due the school district or State Technical College of Missouri. The amount due the school district shall be certified by the commissioner of administration and proper warrant therefor shall be issued to the district treasurer or State Technical College of Missouri.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1 of this section, the state board of education shall establish standards for agricultural education that may be adopted by a private school accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Department of Education as an accreditor of private schools that wishes to provide quality vocational programming outside the requirements of, but consistent with, the federal Vocational Education Act. Such standards shall be sufficient to qualify a private school to apply to the state chapter for approval of a local chapter of a federally chartered national agricultural education association on a form developed for that purpose by the department of elementary and secondary education without eligibility to receive state or federal funding for agricultural vocational education. The provisions of this subsection shall not be construed to create eligibility for a private school to receive state or federal funding for agricultural vocational education, but shall not prohibit a private school from receiving state or federal funds for which such private school would otherwise be eligible for agricultural vocational education. Any such private school shall reimburse the department annually for the cost of oversight and maintenance of the program.
3. (1) The department of elementary and secondary education, through its agricultural education section, shall be authorized to establish a pilot program, beginning in the 2020-21 school year, to provide for agricultural education in elementary schools in the state. The purpose of the pilot program shall be to determine whether and how to implement an elementary agricultural education program statewide.
(2) The department, through its employees who work in the agricultural education section, is authorized to select from among applications submitted by the public elementary schools a minimum of sixteen public elementary schools for participation in the pilot program. The department shall develop an application process for public elementary schools to apply to participate in the pilot program. The local school board for each elementary school selected to be in the pilot program shall agree to implement and fully fund an elementary agricultural education program in such school and to continue to provide such elementary agricultural education program for a period no shorter than three years. The local school district may employ an agricultural education teacher to provide such program for the elementary school.
(3) The department, through its employees who work in the agricultural education section, and local school districts shall collaborate to establish the instructional model for each elementary agricultural education program. Such instructional model shall be grade-appropriate and include instruction in an organized classroom, collaborative learning experiences through investigation and inquiry, including laboratory and site-based learning activities, and personal, leadership, and career development opportunities.
(4) The department, through its agricultural education section, shall provide for a program evaluation regarding the success and impact of the pilot program upon completion of the third year of the pilot program and shall report the results of such evaluation to the relevant house and senate committees on agriculture and education.
4. The department shall maintain an adequate number of full-time employees, certified in agricultural education and distributed regionally throughout the state, to provide accountability for program delivery of agricultural education, to continue to develop and maintain pertinent agricultural education instructional models and standards, to assist local school districts on matters related to agricultural education, and to coordinate regional and statewide activities supporting K-12 agricultural education programming.
5. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require public elementary schools to participate in the pilot program.