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Office of College, Career and Technical Education

Perkins Funding

The federal Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century, also known as Perkins V, provides federal funding to recipients to ensure students enrolled in career and technical education programs are able to fully develop the academic knowledge, technical skills, and employability skills needed to enter the workforce and pursue continued education in their chosen field.

This site covers these commonly asked questions about Perkins funding:

Additional resources on this page include:

How Is Perkins Allocated?

Secondary

Secondary funds are based on a federally determined formula that allocates funds based on census population and census population at federally defined poverty level. To determine allocations:

  • DESE first determines the census population and percent poverty.
  • Then distributes the federal funds to school districts in MA towns and cities according that distribution.
  • Funds are further distributed based the districts that provide Perkins-eligible programs to students of those towns/cities.

Per the federal Perkins law, any allocations of under $15,000 are reallocated unless the recipient chooses to allocate their portion to a consortium that provides programming to their students, or qualifies as a rural school, or charter school. For information about forming a consortium, please email ccte@mass.gov

Postsecondary

Postsecondary funds are distributed based on the percentage of Pell eligible students at institutions offering postsecondary Career technical programs. To allocate funds DESE collects Pell eligible enrollments and then proportionally distributes postsecondary funds based on the number of Pell eligible students served.

State and County Correctional Agencies

State and County Correctional Agencies funds are offered on a competitive basis every three years.

What Can I Fund with Perkins Funding?

In Massachusetts, programs eligible for funding are: State-designated Career Technical Education (CTE/C74) programs, state-approved Innovation Career Pathways programs, Secondary Career Connections Programs (N74), Postsecondary CTE Programs, and CTE Programs at State Incarceration Institutions.

All Perkins Funded programs must:

  1. Align to MA definition of Size, Scope and Quality.
    • New Program Approval for Career Technical Education and Innovation Career Pathways are designed to assess a program’s adherence to these requirements. Districts must maintain alignment with program approval requirements to continue to enroll students.
    • District, college, and institutional processes for developing locally approved Career Connections programs, postsecondary CTE programs, and programs as state corrections must document alignment through their development process and maintain alignment to continue to be eligible for funding.
  2. Ensure Equitable Access to programs.

For current grant recipients, questions regarding allowable expenses would be addressed by your RASP Liaison, Alex Chiu .

How Do I Apply?

First, confirm your district has been allocated funds. Perkins funding is administered through the Resource Allocation Strategy and Planning (RASP) /Federal Grant Programs team. Perkins funds are typically determined in late spring and available to apply for through summer with a Fall deadline.

What is the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment?

Secondary

To further align the systems and expectations of Massachusetts Career and Technical Education, DESE has integrated the Secondary-level Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) into a user-friendly CLNA self-assessment tool that looks holistically at students' high school experience. While schools do not submit the CLNA to DESE, they must maintain their CLNA, renewing it at least every two years, to respond to annual grant questions. Districts may also be asked to share their CLNA as part of continuous improvement processes.

Postsecondary

During the 2024-25 school year, DESE facilitated a Postsecondary Working Group of CTE professionals across the Commonwealth. Charged with reviewing, revising, and proposing postsecondary systems and supports, the working group proposed updates aligned to the needs of our institutions, programs, students, and communities. The following proposed resources are available below and are pending approval.

  • Size, Scope, and Quality — This document has been updated as part of the 2025 Postsecondary CTE Working Group. Updates are being piloted in the 2025-2026 grant cycle.
  • Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment — Use the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment to assess current program offerings at least every two years. This document has been updated as part of the 2025 Postsecondary CTE working group. Updates are being piloted in the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 grant cycles.

What Measures Are Used to Evaluate Programs and Support Continuous Improvement?

In addition to measures used to evaluate state approved programs such as state-designated Career Technical Education and Innovation Career Pathways, Perkins Core Indicators are used to measure programs quality and opportunities for improvement for programs using Perkins funding. In limited cases, Districts, institutions & consortiums may propose Locally Determined Performance Levels (LDPLs). For questions regarding LDPLs, please contact CCTE@mass.gov .

Secondary

These are the measures for Secondary Program Performance:

  • 1S1 Four Year Graduation Rate
  • 2S1 Academic Attainment in ELA
  • 2S2 Academic Attainment in Mathematics
  • 2S3 Academic Attainment in Science
  • 3S1 Postsecondary Placement
  • 4S1 Nontraditional Program Enrollment
  • 5S3 Program Quality: Participated in Work-Based Learning

Postsecondary

These are the measures for PS Program Performance:

  • 1P1 Postsecondary Retention & Placement
  • 2P1 Postsecondary Credential, Certificate or Diploma
  • 3S1 Nontraditional Program Enrollment

State and County Correctional Agencies

As established by the Program coordinator through the grant process. Please contact Please contact Yvonne Gittelson with questions.

Continuous Improvement Resources

Perkin Core Indicators can be used for program improvement using these resources:

Additional information about Massachusetts’ continuous improvement processes for career technical education can be found here.

What Reporting is Required?

Failure to submit required reports on time may result in the school district/postsecondary institution/consortium not receiving Perkins V Allocation funds.

Secondary

  1. Districts & collaboratives with Secondary Programs are required to report CTE Enrollment SIMS.
  2. Graduate Follow Up. An important component of Perkins programs, including state-designated CTE programs, is the Career Technical Education Graduate Follow-up of graduates. This is used to calculate and report on a Perkins V Core Indicator: Postsecondary Placement (3S1) as part of the accountability system for federally funded Perkins programs. To submit graduate follow-up results, districts use the CTE Grad Follow-up Results application in the Security Portal . Access is managed locally: the district's Directory Administrator may assign to a district staff person the security role "CTE Grad Follow-up Results". This district staff person can then enter and submit (or 'certify') the data.

Postsecondary

Institutions with Postsecondary Programs are required to submit Pell Reports and Perkins V PS Reports each year. See more on Postsecondary Programs page.

State and County Correctional Agencies

Reporting is established by the Program coordinator through the grant process. Please contact Yvonne Gittelson with questions.

State Policy Resources for Perkins Implementation in Massachusetts

Perkins State Plan

DESE is implementing the US Department of Education approved Perkins State Plan for SY25 – SY28. Key themes and goals identified through the development of the state plan process included:

  • Update Statewide resources for industry alignment. Strategies include:
    • Update and align state designated programs to new CTE Frameworks
    • Establish the Career Connected Learning Hub as a central resource for all educators in integrating Massachusetts labor market research informed competencies, skills, and credentials into any coursework.
  • Update statewide data and processes for work-based learning. Strategies include:
    • Adopt updated statewide Work-based Learning Plan host for use in all federal and state funded programs (update: MEFA Pathway has since been identified and adopted for district use by SY28)
    • Align work-based learning performance indicator to completion of the Massachusetts Work-based Learning Plan completion
  • Expanding access to career technical education. Strategies include:
    • Adopt revised liaison model aligned to MassHire Workforce Board regions
    • Expand My Career and Academic Plan (MyCAP) throughout CTE programs and in middle and high schools across Massachusetts
    • Support districts in implementation of regulations related to equitable access to career technical education programs
    • Clarify and align data reporting processes for locally-designated Career Connections, Innovation Career Pathways, and Career Technical Education to support transparent distribution of Perkins formula funds.
  • Clarify and Expand Resources for Postsecondary CTE including allowable programs and accountability. Strategies include:
    • Establish Postsecondary CTE Working Group of all grant recipients to update Grant Application, Program Reporting, and Accountability measures.
    • Clarify and improve upon role of postsecondary linkages in programming, including statewide articulation agreements.

DESE reports regularly to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s CTE Advisory on aspects of Perkins State Plan Implementation in their quarterly, public meetings. Learn more about the CTE Advisory here.

US Department of Education Approval and Stakeholder Engagement Process

In May 2024, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) submitted an updated Perkins V Massachusetts State Plan to the federal government aligned to the Department's Educational Vision and the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). DESE sought input from stakeholders throughout 2023 and drafted the state plan to build on the Commonwealth's strong foundation in career-connected learning and make adjustments that will improve efforts to provide all students in Massachusetts with access to high quality career-connected learning opportunities.

As of July 2024, the Massachusetts Perkins State Plan has been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Massachusetts received praise for crafting "a new plan that raises the bar for education by creating high-quality systems of career and college pathways so that our students have more options for rewarding careers." Massachusetts' approval letter and approved Perkins V State Plan will be posted on the U.S. Department of Education's Perkins Collaborative Resource Network (PCRN) website .

Questions about the Massachusetts Perkins State Plan may be directed to ccte@mass.gov .

Additional Resources

Contacts

  • For programmatic questions, please contact the Office for College, Career, and Technical Education (CCTE) which oversees High Quality College and Career Pathways. Please contact the CCTE Office via email CCTE@mass.gov or contact your district’s CCTE liaisons.
  • For Perkins Fund Code 400 & 401 grant application questions, please contact the RASP/Federal Grant Programs Perkins Liaison, Alexandria.W.Chiu@mass.gov .
  • For programmatic and grant questions related to correctional agencies, please contact Yvonne Corrections Education Specialist in the Office for Adult & Community Learning Services (ACLS), at 781-338-3815 or Yvonne Gittelson .

Last Updated: October 1, 2026

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