Announcements

Montana CTE is Revolutionizing Career Education! 

The future of career and technical education in Montana is officially set, following a landmark presentation at the Montana ACTE Fall Institute!

Early Adopter Cohort

Montana has been selected as one of just eight states in the Early Adopter Cohort for the new Advanced CTE Career Clusters initiative. This designation solidifies Montana's position as a national leader in modernizing career pathways.

Updated Pathways: Launching 2026-2027

Our team, in a collaboration with the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education (OCHE), has successfully established and developed the updated Montana Career Pathways, which will be formally implemented in the 2026-2027 school year.

These pathways were strategically designed to be a trifecta of excellence:

  • Student-Centric: Meeting the evolving needs of Montana students.
  • Industry-Driven: Directly addressing current and future industry demands across the state.
  • Opportunity-Rich: Maximizing the impact of CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization) engagement.
Comprehensive Institute Presentation

The Fall Institute served as the official unveiling, providing attendees with a comprehensive resource on: Visit the Resource here!

  • The foundational ACTE Career Cluster Framework.
  • The specifics of the new Montana Career Pathways.
  • The critical Implementation Timeline leading up to the 2026-2027 launch.

Regional breakouts provided a valuable opportunity for attendees to engage directly with the new pathways and prepare for this transformative change.

Next Steps for Stakeholders

For any detailed inquiries regarding the specific new pathways, we encourage you to contact the specialists tied to that pathway area. Your engagement is key to ensuring a seamless and successful transition!

Career, Technical, and Adult Education (CTAE) Content Pages

CTE Licensure Information

Financial Literacy

 

CTE Funding & Data Reporting

Data Collection 

Montana Career Pathways

CTAE Standards, Guidelines & Resources

Professional Development

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

CLNA Resources

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

The meeting was required for those schools receiving Perkins in 2025-2026 or want to receive in 2026-2027 but all districts with CTE programs were invited. It was great to work with schools across the state in the process of starting their CLNA. Below are the resources provided for the regional meetings. 

A few notes to help in this completing the CLNA process:

  • Please review past CLNA information to help inform this year's process. You can access your previous CLNAs in EGrants.
  • 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. 

Montana Regional CLNA Guide

Resource Document - Helpful Links - Regional Meetings

Upcoming CTE Webinars

Designing Safe and Engaging Lab Spaces

Date: November 18, 2025 Time: 4:30–5:30 p.m. (MT)  Credit: 1 OPI Renewal Unit

Join Dr. Amanda Bastoni, former CTE teacher and CTE Director, and Abraham Ewing CTE High School and Middle School teacher in MT, for an interactive one-hour session focused on creating safe, accessible, and engaging lab environments for all learners. Participants will explore strategies for developing effective lab safety contracts, designing inclusive and universally accessible lab spaces, and fostering student engagement through thoughtful space design. The webinar will include discussion time so that participants can learn from and with each other as well.All Industrial Arts, Career and Technical Education instructors, and any other educators designing hands-on learning/real world learning spaces are invited to join. This webinar is hosted by the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI), with support from Salish Kootenai College (SKC) and the Headwaters Tech Hub.

Register Here!

Coming this Spring: Virtual Photonics Training Series

Keep an eye out for two upcoming virtual training sessions focused on the exciting and fast-growing field of photonics—the science of light and its applications in technologies like lasers, fiber optics, imaging, and communications.Photonics is an emerging industry in Montana, creating new opportunities for students to connect science, technology, and industry innovation. Each 1.5-hour webinar will feature ready-to-use lesson plans to help educators introduce photonics concepts in their classrooms and will include guest speakers from the photonics industry.Educators who attend both sessions will earn 5 OPI renewal units.

Dates: TBD — stay tuned for registration details!

 

High School District Liaisons for CTE

The CTE Specialists have been assigned regionally to schools. The regions are Eastern, Northcentral, Northwest, Southcentral, and Southwest. These assignments will be used to review the 2025- 2026 Perkins Grant application and any remaining 2024-2025 amendments.

 

If you have any questions or need assistance, our team of specialists is available to support you.


Montana has been selected as one of eight states in the early adopter cohort for the new Career Clusters initiative. Our team is collaborating with the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education (OCHE) to establish and develop updated pathways that align with the new Career Clusters created by Advanced CTE.

We aim to utilize these clusters to provide meaningful opportunities and resources for schools to engage in Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways.

All learners deserve to participate in meaningful career exploration and preparation experiences through Career Technical Education (CTE) that prepare them for the changing and interconnected world of work.

This requires systems and structures that are accessible, responsive to evolving industry needs, and flexible for the needs of each state and community. Since 2002, The National Career Clusters® Framework has provided a shared structure and language for CTE program design across the United States. Advance CTE serves as the steward of the Framework.

Check out the new Career Clusters here! 

 

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.

 

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Career and Technical Student Organization State Directors

Lisa Parker, BPA State Director (406) 579-3697

John Stiles, DECA State Director (406) 209-4490

Tracey Eatherton, FCCLA State Director (406) 229-2017

Jim Rose, FFA State Director (406) 994-7050

Katie Meier, HOSA State Director (406) 868-9445

Roberta Tilleman, SkillsUSA State Director (406) 868-3489

Jesse Gray, TSA State Directors (406) 676-3390 ext. 7553