New Jersey's Standards and Assessment rules were readopted with amendments in late 2025. They now place career education and academic counseling in a subchapter called Preparation for Postsecondary and Career Success, at N.J.A.C. 6A:8-6.1. District boards of education develop and implement a comprehensive system that delivers guidance and academic counseling to all students to facilitate career awareness, exploration and preparation. Done well, that system gives every student a direction. Done in a hurry, it becomes a checklist.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

Career awareness, exploration and preparation are easy to name and hard to schedule. Without time to look at real colleges, trades, service branches and careers, counseling conversations fall back on course selection and the 120 credits. A district's counseling system is only as strong as the exploration behind it.

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

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in New Jersey

New Jersey law provides for dual enrollment agreements between school districts with a high school and public institutions of higher education. Each agreement must describe student eligibility requirements for initial and continuing participation, including a provision meant to ensure that an eligible student is not excluded from participation, and a public institution of higher education must accept the course credit of a student who successfully completes a course under the dual enrollment program. Tuition terms are set in the local agreements. The Office of the Secretary of Higher Education and the Department of Education have also run state funded Innovation Dual Enrollment grants that help school districts serving a high share of economically disadvantaged students start or expand dual enrollment partnerships with New Jersey colleges.

Students who explore careers early, for example through daily exploration on a 13th Year™ kiosk, are better prepared to choose dual enrollment courses that transfer toward a major or credential they plan to pursue.

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

  • Put exploration ahead of course selection. Give students time to explore colleges, skilled trades, military service and careers before scheduling meetings, so choices reflect a direction and not only credits.
  • Pair exploration with the financial aid step. State law ties a financial aid application to the diploma through the graduating class of 2027. Exploring options first gives that step a purpose.
  • Use exploration to shape individualized student learning opportunities. New Jersey lets the 120 credit requirement be met in part through ISLOs. 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 awareness, exploration and preparation a place to happen every day. It supports, and does not replace, a district's career education and academic counseling 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 New Jersey high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.