Announcements

Along with our partners at the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, we will plan regional meetings to prepare for the FY 27 Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment for the 2026-2027 Perkins Grant cycle.

Dates and locations:

• September 10, 2025- Great Falls College Heritage Hall 10 am- 3 pm
• September 15, 2025- Salish Kootenai College 11 am- 4pm
• September 18, 2025- Highlands College 11:30 am- 4:30 pm
• September 22, 2025- City College 11:30 am- 4:30 pm
• September 23, 2025- Dawson Community College 10 am- 3 pm

The meeting is required for those schools receiving Perkins in 2025-2026 or want to receive in 2026-2027 but all districts with CTE programs are invited. We would like to see at least one representative per high school district but encourage one decision maker and one CTE expert or teacher to attend. We are excited to see and work with all our secondary and post-secondary partners.

A few notes to help in this process:

• Please review past CLNA information to help inform this year's process. You can access your previous CLNAs in EGrants.
• We know this is a short turnaround before the regional meetings - Use advisory committee meeting notes from the past year, use information you can easily find online (like the MT Labor Market Information site), use emails, conversations, and other meetings you have been to over the past year. This work does not have to be completed in the next month to be valid. 
• Complete the pre-meeting worksheets the best you can. This CLNA will not be turned in until the 26-27 application are due - you have time to dig deeper and ask more questions. This is an exercise to help forward thinking, make connections and collaborate with other practitioners in your region, and inform innovative work moving forward. 

Montana Regional CLNA Worksheets

Montana Regional CLNA Guide

Perkins Reserve Grant FY26 Application Now Open!

LEAs who have been in good standing with their local application funds for two years prior to the current application year. This includes adhering to grant application and reporting deadlines, submitting accurate data reports, appropriate fiscal supporting documents, adherence to all Perkins V and Civil Rights monitoring. 

Districts are only eligible for a total of $5,000 in awards, must have completed the Perkins Grant Application for Fiscal year 26 and receive an allocation of less than $15,000. 

Vision for Perkins Reserve Funding:

• Foster innovation through the identification and promotion of promising and proven career and technical education programs, practices, and strategies, which may include programs, practices, and strategies that prepare individuals for nontraditional fields; or 
• To create career awareness, recruit students to a CTE Secondary Program of Study or promote the development, implementation, and adoption of programs of study or career pathways aligned with state-identified high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand occupations or industries in the middle grades. 

Schools could use the funds to help:

• establish foundational elements for work-based learning
• improve transitions from middle grades into secondary CTE programs of study. 
• establish innovative delivery methods for career exploration
• expose students to employability skills earlier 

Resources

• Reserve Grant Application Link
  • Reserve Grant Guidance Document
  • Budget Pages
  • Scoring Rubric
  • Reserve Grant Cash Request Form

Montana ACTE Fall Institute Scholarship Application: Sponsored by OPI

Event Timing: October 15-17   

Event Address: GranTree Bozeman, MT

This scholarship will cover your early bird registrations but not your Montana ACTE Membership. By applying for this scholarship, you are ensuring that you are also registered and attending the OPI New Professionals Workshop Series (all four sessions).  

Scholarship application must be submitted by the end of the day (11:59 pm MST) on September 8, 2025.  Verification of your OPI New Professionals Registration has been completed.   Montana ACTE membership is not required; however, it is strongly recommended.  

Please note that Perkins funding as well as State CTE funding can be used to support Professional memberships, conference registrations and travel expenses. 

Apply Here!

High School District Liaisons for CTE

Montana Career and Technical Education

Guidance Documents 

Below you can find information related to CTE Funding, Montana Career Pathways, Carl Perkins Grant and Data, State CTE Data, Work Based Learning and related topics. If you would like all of this information in one document you can reference that here. The below documents are broken into three different categories; CTE Funding Guidance, CTE Montana Career Pathways, Montana Work Based Learning.

Meet the Carrer & Technical Adult Education Team