Iowa law requires each school district to work with every student in grade eight to develop an Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP), and a parent or guardian signs the plan. The Iowa Department of Education describes the ICAP as a plan for each student in grades 8 through 12. Its essential components include self-understanding, career information, career exploration and postsecondary exploration.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

The ICAP is designed as a sequence: students learn about themselves, research careers, then explore careers and postsecondary options. Each step needs something real to work with. When exploration is thin, updating the plan can turn into re-entering earlier answers in the district's career information system.

What students tell us

Across the 13th Year™ network, students are most open early, and their options narrow as graduation gets closer:

  • 32%of 9th graders are weighing more than one path after high school. By 12th grade, 16% are.
  • 53%of 9th graders are interested in more than one career field, compared with 33% of seniors.
  • 11%of 9th graders say they are not sure yet what comes next. Only 2% of seniors say so.
  • 23%of students planning on college are also considering another path, such as the skilled trades, the military, work or a business of their own.

For planning, that means the most valuable exploration happens in the first years of high school, while students are still open to what they find.

Figures come from more than 3,800 responses students submitted at 13th Year™ kiosks and school links across the 13th Year™ network in 2026, not only Iowa schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in Iowa

Iowa's Senior Year Plus program, established in Iowa Code Chapter 261E and overseen by the Iowa Department of Education, serves as an umbrella for Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO), concurrent enrollment, Advanced Placement, career academies, regional academies and Project Lead The Way. Concurrent enrollment courses are offered by Iowa community colleges through contracts with school districts. Under state rules, a district will not charge tuition to any of its students who participate in a concurrent enrollment course.

Students who explore careers and interests early, for example through daily exploration on a 13th Year™ kiosk, can choose dual enrollment courses that build toward a specific goal instead of collecting unrelated credits.

Official program information: Iowa Department of Education →

What students need before the planning meeting

The most productive planning conversations happen when a student walks in with something to talk about: a career they read about, a program that surprised them, a question about the military or an apprenticeship. That kind of curiosity comes from exposure, and exposure works best when it is frequent, self-directed and part of the school day.

Practical ways to build exploration into the year

  • Follow self-understanding with real options. After students complete inventories for the ICAP, point them to colleges, trades, military service and careers that match their results so the research step has substance.
  • Make each year of the ICAP count. The ICAP follows students from grade 8 through grade 12. Ask students to explore at least one new option each year before they update their plan.
  • Strengthen the district plan. Iowa districts maintain a district plan for carrying out the ICAP. Add self-directed exploration that students can do outside class time to round out those activities.
  • Make exploration self-serve. Let students explore on their own time, so counselor time goes to the conversations that need it.

Where the Student Pathway System™ goes

13th Year™ places an interactive college and career kiosk in a school's hallway, a modern guidance resource students use before, during and after school. Exploring colleges, skilled trades, military service, scholarships and careers on their own time gives students more to bring to the career exploration and postsecondary exploration parts of the ICAP. It supports, and does not replace, the ICAP, the district's approved career information system and school counselors.

For administrators, the questions are usually privacy and workload. The 13th Year™ platform is FERPA aligned and designed with student privacy considerations in mind. It does not access the high school's student information system, and no student data is sold. Kiosks come at no cost to the school, and 13th Year™ delivers, installs and supports every kiosk, so it is built to support your counselors, not burden them.

See how 13th Year™ supports Iowa high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.