Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: SECTION 1. (A)(1) Effective beginning with the 20152016 school year, the State Department of Education shall establish a twoyear pilot program to be known as the General Educational Development (GED) Camp Pilot Program, which must emulate existing volunteer programs in the State to develop, implement, support, and monitor GED Camps that provide a volunteerbased system to assist people who do not have a high school diploma earn their GED certificates and advance to higher education, the military, an occupation, and so forth. (2) To ensure that the program concentrates on areas served by technical colleges, the GED Camp program must be implemented in each of the service markets of the technical college system. (B) The GED Camp program should focus on the use of volunteers to provide tutorial assistance for community members without a high school diploma who seek to obtain a GED certificate using a concentrated “boot camp” model lasting approximately six to eight consecutive weeks during which students must: (1) undergo direct instruction by teacher volunteers and test for vocational interests; (2) participate in college and career readiness workshops related to interviewing skills, resume building, enrollment, and education financing; and (3) receive direct and indirect mentoring. (C) Based on the outcomes achieved by the GED Camp program, the State Department of Education shall make recommendations regarding statewide expansion of the program to the General Assembly before July 1, 2017. In keeping with federal and state requirements for tracking adult education, GED Camp programs shall report outcomes to the State Department of Education. For the duration of the twoyear pilot, programs using the GED Camp program model shall report these outcomes annually to the State Department of Education by June fifteenth for the previously completed school year. The State Department of Education may prescribe additional outcome measures to be tracked by the GED Camp programs. The State Department of Education shall in turn report the program outcomes annually to the Senate Education Committee and the House Education and Public Works Committee by December first for the previously completed school year.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: SECTION 1. (A)(1) Effective beginning with the 20152016 school year, the State Department of Education shall establish a twoyear pilot program to be known as the General Educational Development (GED) Camp Pilot Program, which must emulate existing volunteer programs in the State to develop, implement, support, and monitor GED Camps that provide a volunteerbased system to assist people who do not have a high school diploma earn their GED certificates and advance to higher education, the military, an occupation, and so forth. (2) To ensure that the program concentrates on areas served by technical colleges, the GED Camp program must be implemented in each of the service markets of the technical college system. (B) The GED Camp program should focus on the use of volunteers to provide tutorial assistance for community members without a high school diploma who seek to obtain a GED certificate using a concentrated “boot camp” model lasting approximately six to eight consecutive weeks during which students must: (1) undergo direct instruction by teacher volunteers and test for vocational interests; (2) participate in college and career readiness workshops related to interviewing skills, resume building, enrollment, and education financing; and (3) receive direct and indirect mentoring. (C) Based on the outcomes achieved by the GED Camp program, the State Department of Education shall make recommendations regarding statewide expansion of the program to the General Assembly before July 1, 2017. In keeping with federal and state requirements for tracking adult education, GED Camp programs shall report outcomes to the State Department of Education. For the duration of the twoyear pilot, programs using the GED Camp program model shall report these outcomes annually to the State Department of Education by June fifteenth for the previously completed school year. The State Department of Education may prescribe additional outcome measures to be tracked by the GED Camp programs. The State Department of Education shall in turn report the program outcomes annually to the Senate Education Committee and the House Education and Public Works Committee by December first for the previously completed school year.
3353_20150423.docx