The Career Education Options and Learning Center North programs will move to Shoreline Community College this fall from the WorkFirst office on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle.
The free programs serve nearly 650 youth ages 16 to 21 who left high school before graduating but are now seeking more education.
Students get GED and basic skills instruction, professional-technical training, a computer lab, employment services, case management and career planning. Any student aged 16 to 21 can attend.
The program is moving because Shoreline School District officials withdrew participation and their role as a funding sponsor. Moving the program will reduce expenses and let the program continue for the coming year, officials say.
School district officials withdrew because they couldn’t meet the extensive state requirements around the program in the future, said Marcia Harris, deputy superintendent.
“It was a lot of things we would have had to add that we weren’t doing in the past: gathering student files, reviewing them,” she said. “The requirements by the state were more extensive than what we understood when the program started.”
The program will continue with new sponsorship from Monroe Public Schools.
In addition to the Monroe school district, other program partners are Shoreline Community College, King County Work Training Program and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
State funding for the students is funneled through public school districts, though the districts usually don’t provide program services.
There will be no disruption for students, college president Lee Lambert said in a press release. However, the move comes at a time when the college is juggling space needs for a major expansion of the automotive technology program and several building maintenance projects, he said.
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