Louisiana’s 2026 college-outcomes law requires the Board of Regents to provide a public dashboard, or a series of dashboards, connecting degree programs with workforce outcomes. The details matter: the duty to create and maintain a public resource is mandatory, while the statute’s list of possible measures uses different language.
Families can already consult public education and graduate-earnings tools. Those resources should be evaluated on their coverage, definitions and usefulness—not assumed to satisfy every purpose of the new law simply because they are called dashboards.
What Act 99 requires—and where it leaves discretion
Senate Bill 305 became Act 99 of 2026, effective August 1, 2026. It enacted R.S. 17:3138.2 and added subsection C to R.S. 17:3138.13. The enacted text is the starting point for interpreting those duties.
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| Provision | Legal requirement or authority | Practical significance |
|---|---|---|
| R.S. 17:3138.2(A)–(B) | Regents must develop, maintain and make public a statewide dashboard or series of dashboards, working with management boards, Louisiana Works and other relevant agencies. It must be designed to assist students, families, policymakers and institutions. | The statute requires a usable public resource about degree-program and workforce alignment; an internal database alone does not fulfill the public-access duty. |
| R.S. 17:3138.2(C) | The dashboards “may include” completion data, employment outcomes, wages at defined intervals, alignment with priority occupations and other relevant indicators, subject to applicable law. | The list identifies possible measures. It should not be described as an unconditional command to publish every listed field for every program. |
| R.S. 17:3138.2(D) | Regents must update the dashboards regularly, use consistent and clearly defined metrics, and make the information accessible and understandable. | A useful review asks when data were refreshed, what each measure means, and whether a family can interpret it. |
| R.S. 17:3138.2(E)–(F) | The section does not require disclosure of personally identifiable information, create performance-funding mandates or limit curricular autonomy. Rules and data-sharing agreements remain subject to privacy law. | Transparency is compatible with protecting individual records. The dashboard provision is not, by itself, a program-closing or funding-penalty law. |
| R.S. 17:3138.13(C) | Regents and Louisiana Works must develop procedures to collect and analyze work-based-learning data and address how relevant learning credits may be recognized. | Internships, apprenticeships and similar experiences are a separate part of the legislation; counting graduates alone does not describe that work. |
There is a consequential difference between the enacted wording and the legislative digest. The digest describes the dashboard as including the listed measures; the act says it may include them. The law still imposes the broader dashboard and quality duties in subsections A, B and D. But a legal analysis should not convert the illustrative list in subsection C into a requirement the Legislature did not write.
Act 99 does not specify a calendar launch deadline or a fixed monthly or annual refresh interval for the dashboard. August 1 is its effective date. Whether particular implementation steps satisfy the statutory duties is a separate question that requires the agency’s records and the actual public product.
What families can access now
As of November 3, 2026, the Regents Data & Publications page directs readers to a Master Plan dashboard, a Fact Book and the Census Bureau’s Postsecondary Employment Outcomes tool. The following comparison identifies what those sources offer without labeling any one of them the completed Act 99 implementation.
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| Public resource | What it offers | What to check before relying on it |
|---|---|---|
| Regents Master Plan Data Dashboard | Public pages for enrollment, financial-aid enrollment, retention, math/English pass rates, completers, time to degree and instructional faculty. The completer page distinguishes total awards from unduplicated completers. | These are useful education measures. Its published navigation does not list a separate earnings or employment page. Ask how this product and other linked dashboards collectively address workforce alignment. |
| Census PSEO Explorer—Louisiana | Graduate earnings and employment-flow information for participating institutions. Users can select Louisiana, an institution, degree level, cohort and available program category. | Confirm participation, graduation cohort, program detail, time after graduation and suppressed cells. A participating-institution sample is not every Louisiana graduate. |
| Regents legislative reports | An official repository that includes the January 2026 Career Alignment Task Force interim report. | The interim report predates Act 99. Background recommendations do not, by themselves, establish what has been implemented under the later law. |
The availability of these tools is meaningful. It does not answer every implementation question, and the absence of an “Act 99” label is not proof of noncompliance. A sound comparison should identify which existing or new resources Regents intends to use, the duties each serves, and the evidence supporting that explanation.
How to read a graduate-earnings figure
Start with the Louisiana view of PSEO Explorer. Select the institution and credential being considered, then choose a graduation cohort and the available program detail. Save those selections with any figure you use. A statewide figure for all partner institutions should not be presented as the result for one campus or one named degree.
The Census methodology explains that PSEO earnings tabulations concern graduates and apply earnings and labor-force-attachment restrictions. Some forms of employment are outside the underlying administrative coverage. The published figures therefore are not the income of every person who enrolled, and a missing earnings observation does not establish that a graduate is unemployed.
- Identify the group. Graduates, entering students and all enrolled students are different populations. Completion outcomes and earnings outcomes need different denominators.
- Keep the dates consistent. One year after graduation and ten years after enrollment are different measures. State the graduation cohort and the period over which earnings were observed.
- Check the level of detail. A broad instructional category can combine several programs. An employer’s industry is not necessarily the graduate’s occupation.
- Read the wage definition. Median earnings are different from an average, a starting salary or a job offer. Annual earnings also reflect how much someone worked.
- Treat suppression as missing information. PSEO withholds some small or low-quality cells to protect confidentiality and reliability. A blank cell is not a zero-dollar result.
- Keep price and purpose in view. Earnings alone do not establish the value of a degree for a particular student. Tuition, aid, borrowing, completion prospects and the intended career also matter.
The Census Bureau’s comparability discussion also distinguishes PSEO from College Scorecard and state-only wage matching. Before using one source to confirm another, check the population and employment coverage. Federal financial-aid accountability is a separate legal question; a Louisiana dashboard result does not itself determine a program’s federal-aid eligibility.
The records that can establish implementation progress
A useful public-records inquiry asks for existing plans and definitions rather than private student files. The following documents would help establish how Regents and Louisiana Works are carrying out Act 99:
- An implementation plan, approved timetable, project scope or board materials identifying the dashboard or dashboards used for the law.
- Data dictionaries describing completion, employment, wages, program categories, cohorts, update intervals and exclusions.
- Nonconfidential data-sharing agreements, vendor scopes and published rules relevant to the project, subject to lawful redactions.
- Existing aggregate reports, release notes and update logs showing what has been made public and when.
- Procedures adopted under R.S. 17:3138.13(C) for internships, apprenticeships and other work-based learning.
The January 2026 task-force interim report provides background on career guidance and work-based learning. It can help identify the questions agencies considered, but should be kept separate from evidence of later implementation.
A focused public-records request
The following language can be adapted for the appropriate records custodian at Regents or Louisiana Works. Identify a reasonable date range and seek documents held by that agency.
Under the Louisiana Public Records Law, please provide existing records from [start date] through [end date] concerning implementation of Act 99 of 2026, including the implementation plan or timetable; records identifying the public dashboard URLs used for R.S. 17:3138.2; data dictionaries and metric definitions; update schedules and release notes; nonconfidential data-sharing agreements; and procedures adopted under R.S. 17:3138.13(C).
Please include existing aggregate implementation reports and public board or committee materials addressing the project. I do not request student-level records, Social Security numbers, individual wage records or other personally identifiable information.
Electronic copies or links to existing public documents are preferred. Please provide an estimate before fees are incurred. If a record is withheld in whole or part, please identify the applicable legal basis and provide the nonexempt portions. This request does not ask the agency to create a new analysis.
R.S. 44:31 places responsibility for public access with the custodian and recognizes applicable exceptions. Act 99 expressly preserves privacy protections; it does not make confidential student or employment records public. Our Louisiana public-records and confidentiality guide addresses the separate question of evaluating a claimed basis for withholding government records.
Research reviewed November 3, 2026. This guide relies on the enacted Act 99 text and the public resources identified above. It does not certify agency compliance, guarantee an individual employment outcome or determine eligibility for financial aid. More source-based analysis is available in Louisiana Legal Research.