Senate Bill 4 Passed the House Affairs Committee on Wednesday. The bill calls for an act to require the South Dakota Department of Labor to work with the Department of Education and the Board of Regents in collecting and reporting data on job placement outcomes of all graduates of both the State’s general and technical post-secondary education systems.
Jack Warner is the Executive Director of the South Dakota Board of Regents. He says his office reports graduate data to the Department of Labor and Regulation and in turn they match that with wage records to definitively determine employment status in the State.
“It’s the most fool proof method that I’m aware of for actually determining the placement rates of graduates and their presence in the State,” says Warner.
Both wage records and graduate information are privacy protected so the results are only published in the aggregate. Job placement statistics and data on those that head to graduate school instead of seeking immediate employment are tracked over time and included in the findings. The data is made public and reported annually. The bill heads next to the House floor.