Educational apprenticeships: Educational Apprenticeship Innovation Act: EdPrize.

Existing law establishes the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and specifies that the Superintendent is the ex officio Director of the State Department of Education. Under existing law, the State Department of Education administers numerous programs relating to elementary and secondary education. This bill would enact the Educational Apprenticeship Innovation Act, pursuant to which a competitive grant, known as the Educational Apprenticeship Innovation Prize (EdPrize) , would be distributed to applicant school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and community college campuses for purposes of promoting apprenticeships, preapprenticeships, and career pathways between local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and businesses of importance to local economies. The bill would specify certain minimum criteria to determine the competitive value of an application for the grant. Existing law establishes the California Career Pathways Trust, administered by the department as a competitive grant program for kindergarten and grades 1 to 14, inclusive. This bill would require applicants of the EdPrize to use the California Career Pathways Trust application and would give EdPrize applicants special consideration for a California Career Pathways Trust grant. The bill would provide that it is the Legislature's intent that educational apprenticeships, as defined, be considered as an option to provide career technical education for high school pupils in school districts beyond those that are participating in the EdPrize program.