The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education State Board voted to adopt proposed permanent rule changes in Title 780, Chapters 10, 15 and 20 of the Oklahoma Administrative Code after a staff presentation and brief discussion.

Why it matters: The adopted changes clarify existing CareerTech policy language, align program names with national terminology, and incorporate statutory changes enacted during the 2024 legislative session. The board’s approval advances administrative alignment ahead of the 2025 funding and program cycles.

What the board approved: Agency staff described the main changes as follows:
- Chapter 10: Updated references to the GI Bill to align with cited state statute and revised payment and return language for curriculum, instructional materials and CareerTech testing center payments, clarifying student eligibility for free assessments under agency policy.
- Chapter 15: Corrected reporting-system references to reflect that technology centers use the instructional framework rather than SESI (the K–12 reporting system).
- Chapter 20: Added a new rule for dropout recovery competitive grants and constructed rules to reflect new graduation requirements based on House Bill 2672. The agency also revised division-specific language (for example, renaming "health careers" to "health science" to align with national usage) and consolidated student organization (CTSO) requirements into a single subsection for consistency.

Agency process and public input: Staff said the rules underwent the required public hearing; attendance at the hearing was limited to agency and committee participants and no public comments were submitted. The board’s roll-call vote recorded unanimous approval.

Vote and next steps: The board directed the agency to submit the adopted rules to the governor’s office and the Oklahoma Register as required by the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act. Staff also noted non-substantive cleanup edits and said a separate emergency rulemaking process would follow for a certification item that failed to publish in the administrative rule system (see separate item).