2413 Procedure – Equivalency Credit for Career and Technical Education

The following is an equivalency procedure for consideration and adoption of Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses for Bellingham Public Schools. This procedure is modeled after .

The Equivalency Committee

The Equivalency Committee will be responsible for evaluating and making decisions regarding adoption of OSPI statewide course equivalencies for CTE and core academic courses, and will be comprised of:

    • Director of teaching and learning, CTE
    • High school principal or assistant principal
    • High school counselor
    • Content specialists (based on subject)

Procedures and Timeline for Submitting an Initial Course Equivalency Request

A. Teacher(s) and department head will submit the completed New Course Proposal Form (2020F-1) along with their CTE course/framework, which may include sample assessments and other supporting documents, to their building principal for signature and comments.

B. Teachers should submit their requests and required materials to their department head and building principal at least one week prior to the specified deadlines to allow time for review prior to submission to the Equivalency Committee.

C. The principal will submit the requests and required materials to the Equivalency Committee by December 1.

Procedures and Timeline for Evaluating Requests and Determining Course Equivalencies

A. The Equivalency Committee will convene to review submitted equivalency requests.

B. The committee will consider student needs and district鈥檚 capacity to provide adequate funding, staffing, curriculum and instructional resources when making its determination.

C. The committee will determine whether:

      1. The course is adopted for the upcoming school year.
      2. More time is needed for curriculum development and implementation, or
      3. The course is not adopted.

D. The committee will make determinations on submissions and notify the principal no later than January 31.

Publishing District Approved Equivalencies

The Equivalency Committee will annually update course equivalencies information in the high school course catalog for the upcoming school year.

Adopted/Previous Revisions: 05/20/14
Updated: 04/22/25