2026 K-ACTE Career Tech Summit

The OSHA 10-Hour Credential of Value provides Kansas students with a strong foundation in workplace safety across multiple CTE pathways. This interactive session explores how schools can pair OSHA 10-Hour training with employability skills to strengthen workforce readiness and align instruction with employer expectations.


Participants will see brief classroom examples, engage in discussion, and reflect on an essential question: What are you currently using to teach safety in your classroom or lab? Attendees will leave with practical ideas they can apply immediately.

Learn about HOSA as an international and state level organization, how to start a chapter, learn how HOSA can impact and benefit your health science classroom, and more! 

Artificial intelligence is already here, woven into the tools teachers and students use every day, from search engines to classroom platforms. In this interactive, hands on session, educators will explore what AI actually is, where it's already showing up, and what AI literacy looks like in practice for both teachers and students. Through guided exploration (bring a device!), participants will leave with a clear foundation, practical strategies, and the confidence to navigate AI conversations in their school communities, all while keeping human thinking front and center.

Key Takeaways
A clear, grounded understanding of what AI is (and what it is not)
Awareness of where AI is already embedded in common tools
A framework for building AI literacy with students
Strategies for keeping critical thinking at the center of learning
Confidence to lead AI conversations in your building

This high-energy presentation delves into the synergy between Career and Technical Education (CTE) and the ADHD brain. While neurodivergent individuals often face underemployment due to a lack of engagement in traditional academic settings, CTE offers a game-changing alternative. By prioritizing hands-on learning and industry-recognized credentials, CTE paves the way to high-wage, high-demand careers that align with neurodiverse strengths.
Attendees will explore recent research on access and supports, learn strategies for guiding students through career clusters and pathways, and discover effective methods for student leadership and work-based learning. This session is highly interactive, featuring an Executive Function Match-Up activity, collaborative sharing of educational methods, and a competitive quiz game with prizes!

Session Overview
 
 This interactive presentation will introduce participants to the University of Kansas School of Health Professions and the U-CHaMP program. The session is designed to increase awareness of health professions degree programs, highlight career pathways in healthcare, and actively engage participants through a hands-on career exploration activity.
 
 Participants will gain a better understanding of the variety of health professions careers available, the educational pathways required, and how U-CHaMP supports students pursuing careers in healthcare.
 

 Learning Objectives
 
 By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
 1. Describe the mission and goals of U-CHaMP and its role in supporting students interested in health professions.
 2. Identify degree programs offered through the KU School of Health Professions.
 3. Connect healthcare careers to real-world patient cases, job responsibilities, and required education.
 4. Actively explore health professions careers through an interactive matching activity.
 

 Presentation Format & Time Breakdown
 
 1. Welcome & Introduction (5 minutes)
 • Presenter introduction
 • Overview of session objectives

 
 2. Overview of U-CHaMP (10 minutes)
 • Mission and purpose of U-CHaMP
• How U-CHaMP prepares students for professional health programs
 
 3. KU School of Health Professions Overview (10 minutes)
 • Overview of the School of Health Professions
 • Introduction to select degree programs and career outcomes
 

 4. Interactive Career Exploration Activity (10–12 minutes)
 Participants will work individually or in small groups using a set of five cards:
 • Card 1: Healthcare career
 • Card 2: Job description
 • Card 3: Patient case
 • Card 4: Diagnosis
 • Card 5: Interesting fact about the career
• Card 6: Degree required
 
 Participants will match the cards correctly, encouraging critical thinking and discussion around how healthcare professionals work with patients and within care teams.
 
 5. Wrap-Up & Q&A (3–5 minutes)
 • Group discussion and reflections
 • Questions and next steps for students interested in health professions

Developing strong community and industry partnerships is essential to expanding meaningful work-based learning opportunities for students. In this interactive session, Dr. Ceresa Schaffer from De Soto USD 232 will share practical strategies for building and sustaining partnerships with local businesses while increasing student participation in internship programs. Participants will learn how to effectively recruit business partners, market internship opportunities to students, and create systems that support successful placements. Attendees will engage in collaborative discussion and leave with ready-to-use ideas, outreach strategies, and tools they can implement immediately to strengthen business partnerships and expand student access to real-world career experiences.

Literacy is already happening in your CTE classroom—this session helps you make it intentional and impactful. Explore how key ELA standards naturally align with CTE tasks and learn simple, high-leverage strategies to support students in reading technical texts, writing with purpose, and communicating their thinking.
Through real examples and quick application, you’ll walk away with practical tools and a ready-to-use plan you can implement tomorrow—no extra prep required.

This session provides an overview of recent updates to STEM and Health Science pathways, including alignment to industry needs and emerging occupations. Participants will learn about key revisions, rationale, and general pathway information.

Youth Registered Apprenticeship is a recognized Career Preparation Work-Based Learning activity for CTE in Kansas, providing students with meaningful earn-while-you-learn opportunities that can lead directly to full-time employment across industries such as construction, healthcare, education, and manufacturing. Attend this session to learn how the Apprenticeship system works and explore how districts across Kansas are implementing this model, leaving with a clearer understanding of how Youth Apprenticeship can be structured, supported, and expanded within your local context.

Advisory boards are required for most CTE programs—but too often they function as compliance checkboxes rather than strategic workforce partners. This session will explore how secondary and postsecondary CTE leaders can transform advisory boards from routine meetings into meaningful collaborations that drive program innovation, strengthen workforce alignment, and create direct student opportunities.
 
Drawing from practical experience in rural community college CTE leadership and high school level CTE programs, participants will learn how to recruit the right members, structure high-impact meetings, leverage labor market data, and turn advisory conversations into actionable outcomes. The session will provide ready-to-use strategies, templates, and implementation ideas that can be adapted to both high school and community college programs.
 
If your advisory board feels stagnant—or if you're ready to elevate it to the next level—this session will provide practical, replicable tools to make it happen.
 

This session will review the administrative requirements found in the Kansas Secondary MOA Program Guide.  This session will target those districts selected for audit in the coming school year.

Is your high school accessible? We will review specific requirements for your school and will connect you with common issues in Kansas schools. This will be an interactive session during which we will look at building elements at Johnson County Community College to get a better idea about how to review your own schools.

Students are asked to walk into locations they are not familiar with, work with people they don't know, and learn from those experiences.  At the end of this session, participants will get a gift from the KHSIA, as well as:


1.  Examine issues that students could encounter on the way to and from a work-based learning experience and how to mitigate those risks to them and your program.
2.  Examine issues within the work-based learning experience that a student may need to deal with and how to mitigate those risks.
3.  Explore how to improve a student's work-based learning experiences by addressing how to get the most out of their learning.  

Discover how artificial intelligence can elevate learning in the CTE classroom using the IAVES framework—Instruction, Assessment, Visibility, Engagement, and Support. This session showcases practical applications of AI in CTE classrooms, adaptive teaching tools, and AI‑powered project work to strengthen technical and academic skills. Participants will explore how AI enhances instructional planning, provides real‑time assessment insights, increases visibility into student progress, and boosts engagement through personalized learning. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies aligned to the IAVES model that can be implemented across any CTE pathway to better prepare students for an AI‑driven workforce. 

Please note: No food or drink can be taken into this meeting space.

Discover how Kansas districts are transforming CTE through the Modernization Reserve Grant! From state‑of‑the‑art health science labs to portable welding stations and drone‑piloting programs, this panel showcases real projects that are closing equity gaps, expanding career exploration in middle school, and strengthening high‑demand pathways statewide. Get a preview of what’s possible—and what may be coming for 26–27.

Industry-recognized credentials are becoming increasingly important in Career and Technical Education programs as schools work to better prepare students for employment after graduation. This session will explore the value of the OSHA 10-Hour safety credential as a foundational certification for students entering a wide range of career pathways.


Participants will learn how OSHA 10 helps students develop a strong understanding of workplace safety while also reinforcing professional habits that employers expect. The session will highlight how safety training supports workforce readiness, increases student confidence, and provides students with a credential that is recognized across multiple industries including construction, manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.


Attendees will leave with practical ideas for implementing OSHA 10 within their programs and strategies for connecting safety training to broader workforce preparation goals.