New Hampshire builds career planning into the start of high school. Under RSA 193-E:3, school districts assess the career interests of entering high school freshmen, document school pathways to career readiness credentials, and advise entering students on how to achieve one by graduation. The state's Minimum Standards for Public School Approval, known as Ed 306, also ask local school board policy to address exploration of career pathways in a developmentally appropriate manner. Done well, these steps give each student a direction. Done in a hurry, they become a survey and a course request sheet.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

A career interest assessment is only as useful as what the student has had the chance to see. A local policy on career pathway exploration needs somewhere for that exploration to happen. Without it, advising conversations fall back on credits and schedules.

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 New Hampshire schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in New Hampshire

New Hampshire law establishes a Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Program in the Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH), which offers it as Early College, including Early College at Your High School. CCSNH describes dual enrollment as college courses taught by CCSNH faculty and concurrent enrollment as college level courses taught at the high school by high school teachers approved by CCSNH. Early College is open to eligible students in grades 10 through 12 and to homeschooled students age 15 or older, and the student's high school or district must have an approved school board dual and concurrent enrollment policy and an agreement with CCSNH. Through the Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Scholarship, up to two courses per year are tuition free, subject to available funding, and students may take additional courses at a discounted rate.

Because tuition free courses are limited, students who explore careers early, for example through daily exploration on a 13th Year™ kiosk, can pick Early College courses that count toward a program they plan to pursue.

Official program information: Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) →

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

  • Explore before the freshman assessment. Districts assess the career interests of entering high school freshmen. Students who have already looked at colleges, skilled trades, military service and careers give answers that mean more.
  • Give the local policy a daily home. Ed 306 asks local school board policy to address exploration of career pathways. Make exploration available in the building every day, not only at one event.
  • Connect exploration to extended learning opportunities. Ed 306 describes ELOs as a personalized learning process outside the classroom. Students who have explored careers know better which experiences to ask for.
  • 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. What students explore there gives career pathway exploration a place to happen every day and gives advising on career readiness credentials more to work with. It supports, and does not replace, a district's own career exploration policy, its advising process 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 New Hampshire high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.