The Secretary of Education is authorized, on a competitive basis, to enter into contracts and make grants to State and local educational agencies, to institutions of higher education, and to private nonprofit organizations to assist them in conducting institutes, work shops, and seminars designed to improve the professional guidance qualifications of teachers and counselors in State and local educational agencies and nonpublic elementary and secondary school systems, including opportunities for teachers and guidance counselors in such agencies and systems to obtain experience in business and industry, the professions, and other occupational pursuits, and including, for the purpose of such improvement, such programs, services, or activities which bring individuals with experience in such pursuits into schools as counselors or advisors for students, and which bring students into the workplaces of such pursuits to acquaint students with the nature of the work and to provide training for supervisory and technical personnel in such agencies and systems having responsibilities for guidance and counseling, and to improve supervisory services in the field of guidance and counseling.

The Secretary of Education is authorized to make grants to States to assist them in carrying out programs to coordinate new and existing programs of guidance and counseling in the States.

(Pub. L. 94–482, title III, § 344, Oct. 12, 1976, 90 Stat. 2225; Pub. L. 96–88, title III, § 301(a)(1), title V, § 507, Oct. 17, 1979, 93 Stat. 677, 692.)