Gov. Kim Reynolds announced today the 19 recipient school districts of the Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Pilot Grant Program, which was proposed in Reynolds’ Condition of the State address in January. The grants, which total $45.6 million, will serve 134 schools across Iowa, and 110 of the recipients will be creating the first registered apprenticeship program in their schools, according to a news release. The grant program will offer an opportunity for current high school students and adults to earn a paraeducator certificate and associate degree and current paraeducators to earn their bachelor’s degree while working in a classroom. The program begins this fall during the 2022-2023 school year. “Registered apprenticeships have long been a crucial tool in developing our workforce. It is incredibly exciting to see this model embraced by educators to create a pipeline for teachers and paraeducators and demonstrates that apprenticeships can be created for almost any occupation in any industry,” said Beth Townsend, director of Iowa Workforce Development. The funding for the grant program is made available through the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The full list of grant recipients is available at this link.