General Rules & Eligibility

Students and schools may participate in Nebraska CDE competitions at the state level, providing:

Individual Student Eligibility

• Students must be enrolled in at least one semester of an agricultural education course during the current school year in order to participate in a Nebraska Career Development Event. The course must appear on the student's high school transcript and be taught by a Nebraska certified/endorsed agricultural education teacher or be approved by NDE state staff.
  • Students do not need to be FFA members to compete, though the local Agricultural Education instructor may require them to be so.
  • Students who take an agricultural education course during the fall semester and graduate in December may participate in a spring semester district and/or state CDE during the academic year prior to FFA national convention, so long as the local school does not have policies that prohibit this practice. A graduating senior is considered eligible to compete in state CDEs up to and including their first national convention following graduation. (2019)
• Students may participate in a CDE for up to four years, provided that they have not been a member of a state-winning team in that CDE and/or participated in that National FFA CDE. (2012)
  • Welding CDE exception: Students may participate in the event if their team wins the state championship by participating in a different welding area. (2018)
  • Other exceptions: See the CDE Eligibility Exception Policy (below) for additional exceptions via an application process.
• Teachers should contact Dr. Matt Kreifels, coordinator of the Nebraska Career Development Events, to discuss individual student needs and how they can be met in partnership with your school prior to the CDE registration deadline. Dr. Kreifels may be contacted at 402.472.2815 or by email at matt.kreifels@unl.edu.

School and Team Eligibility

• Only schools with an FFA Chapter in Good Standing and who have paid NAEA district dues by the specified district deadline may participate in District and State CDEs. (2022)
• Only one (1) team per school may enter in any state Career Development Event, for both district-qualifying events and open-enrollment (non-qualifying) state events, unless specifically stated in the individual CDE rules (particularly those not held in Lincoln alongside the FFA State Convention).
• District Qualifying CDEs: For those events that utilize a percentage to determine the number of teams that qualify for state-level competition for each district, the number of teams allowed per district will always round up to the next whole number.
  • Example: If there are 17 schools in a district and an event allows 25% of the district to qualify for state, then that district may send five teams to the CDE.
• Schools receiving a form of distance or digital learning from a complete agricultural education program and certified instructor will participate as a part of that base program unless the distance program is recognized as an FFA Chapter in "Good Standing" and is instructed by a certified or provisionally certified Agricultural Education instructor.
  • If a distance school is receiving classes from more than one school, it may choose only one certified agricultural education program to compete under for that year. All students in that school will participate with only one school. This will not add schools to a district nor affect the number of teams that qualify for state. (2012)

Infractions of these rules will result in that team forfeiting any awards and honors associated with the CDE.