Bill HB20-1007 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill HB20-1032 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill HB20-1128 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill SB20-001 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill SB20-014 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill SB20-059 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill SB20-066 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill SB20-074 - NOT ON CALENDAR
Bill SB20-089 - NOT ON CALENDAR
| General News Concerning Your Bills |
The bill directs the department of higher education and the department of education to convene a workgroup on diversity in the educator workforce (workgroup).
The department of higher education and the department of education shall select the members of the workgroup, which shall include but are not limited to those agencies, persons, and organizations specified in the bill. The department may seek recommendations or nominations from interested stakeholders.
The workgroup shall investigate barriers to the preparation, retention, and recruitment of a diverse educator workforce and shall consider strategies to increase diversity in the educator workforce. The bill includes specific issues for the workgroup to consider.
The workgroup shall submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the education committees of the general assembly no later than September 30, 2021. The workgroup may submit interim findings and recommendations during the 2021 legislative session.
Under current law, the department of higher education reports annually concerning educator preparation programs, including enrollment, graduation rates, outcomes of graduates, and performance on assessments administered for licensure. The bill requires the department to include the required information disaggregated by the candidates' or graduates' gender, race, and ethnicity. Further, the information contained in the annual report must be posted on the department of higher education's and the department of education's websites.
(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The act requires the state board of education (state board) to stagger the review and revision of the preschool through elementary and secondary education standards as follows:
The state board shall ensure that all preschool through elementary and secondary education standards are reviewed one time every 6 years.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
For renewal of an educator license, the act requires teachers, special services providers, principals, and administrators to complete 10 clock hours of the professional development required during the term of the license relating to increasing awareness of laws and practices relating to the education of students with disabilities in the classroom, including educating students with behavioral concerns or behavioral disabilities. The laws and practices include but are not limited to child find and inclusive learning environments. A licensee who has less than 3 years left in the license renewal period on June 30, 2020, has until the end of the next license renewal period to complete the professional development content requirement and may use classes and activities completed during a 5-year look-back period to comply with the content requirement. Nothing in the act prevents the licensee from applying a single professional development course to one or more content or hour requirements established in law.
The act also requires each educator preparation program, alternative teacher program, and alternative principal preparation program to include course work that provides educator candidates or alternative teachers or principals with an overview of federal laws relating to the education of students with disabilities, individualized education programs, and child find and that teaches educators effective special education classroom practices, including but not limited to inclusive learning environments.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
School Safety Committee. The bill requires the department of education (department) to offer a train the trainer program (program) designed to improve school culture, promote youth behavioral and mental health, and prepare attendees to teach a youth behavioral and mental health training course. The department must make the program available to employees of a school district, charter school, or board of cooperative services (local education provider). A local education provider and its employees are not required to participate in the program. The department may enter into an agreement with an organization to provide the program. The department is required to annually evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The general assembly is required to annually appropriate up to $1 million for the program. The program is repealed June 30, 2024.
The program must include evidence-based instruction on, and prepare an attendee to teach a youth behavioral and mental health training course that includes, any of the following subjects:
School Safety Committee. Current law requires school districts to adopt a written policy setting forth the school district's attendance requirements. The bill requires the policy to include excused absences for behavioral health concerns.
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Under current law, a secondary school teacher who has sexual contact with a student who is 18 years of age or older may not have committed a crime. The bill provides that a person who subjects a student at the secondary school at which the person is an educator to sexual contact commits the crime of sexual assault on a student by an educator.
(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill creates the highly effective teacher incentives program (program) to enable school districts, boards of cooperative services that operate public schools, and charter schools (local education providers) to offer salary bonuses to attract highly effective teachers to teach in elementary, middle, or junior high schools that are implementing priority improvement or turnaround plans (low-performing schools).
The department of education (department) and the state board of education (state board) will implement the program by distributing grants in 2-year cycles. The amount of a grant is based on the number of highly effective teachers who meet the requirements for receiving salary bonuses and are employed by local education providers in low-performing schools. Each local education provider that applies and meets the requirements for a grant will receive a grant, subject to available appropriations. A local education provider may use the grant only to pay nonbase-building salary bonuses to eligible highly effective teachers. A local education provider that receives a grant and is already paying incentives to highly effective teachers who teach in low-performing schools must pay the bonuses funded by the grant money in addition to the other incentives.
A highly effective teacher must meet specified criteria to receive the salary bonus. The amount of the salary bonus depends on whether the teacher was working in a high-performing local education provider and changed employment to work in a low-performing school or is continuing to work in a low-performing school and whether the highly effective teacher works in a low-performing elementary, middle, or junior high school.
The bill creates the highly effective teacher incentives fund (fund), which consists of a one-time appropriation of $4 million from the state education fund. The state board will disburse approximately one-half of the money in the fund in the first grant cycle and approximately one-half of the money in a second grant cycle.
By December 15, 2025, the department must submit to the education committees of the general assembly a report concerning the implementation and effectiveness of the program.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill creates the highly effective teacher bonus program to provide money to school districts, boards of cooperative services that operate public schools, and charter schools (local education providers) to pay bonuses to teachers who are rated as highly effective and to provide monetary incentives to recruit highly effective teachers. The department of education (department) will distribute the money to each local education provider based on a formula that takes into account the number of teachers employed by the local education provider. Each local education provider must submit to the department a report concerning its use of the money, and the department must provide a summary of the reports to the state board of education and the education committees of the general assembly.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill creates the educator pay raise program (program) to provide funding to school districts and charter schools to assist them in increasing their minimum teacher salaries to the district required minimum teacher salary amount specified in the bill and the minimum hourly wage paid to other employees to the district required minimum hourly wage amount specified in the bill. A school district or charter school that seeks to participate in the program must submit an application to the department of education (department) that meets the requirements specified in the bill. A school district or charter school may choose to participate to increase minimum teacher salaries or the minimum hourly wage, or both. The department shall review the applications and recommend to the state board of education (state board) those applicants that should be selected to participate in the program. In selecting program participants, the department and the state board must prioritize those applicants that demonstrate the greatest financial need. The bill specifies criteria to apply in determining the prioritization. As a condition of participating in the program, each participant seeking to increase teacher salaries must increase its minimum teacher salary to the district required minimum teacher salary amount and each participant seeking to increase the hourly wage must increase its minimum hourly wage to the district required minimum hourly wage amount. In the first year in which a school district or charter school participates, the amount required for the increases is paid through the program. In the second and subsequent years of participation, each program participant is required to contribute an increasing amount of matching money while the amount that the program participant receives is decreased over time. The department determines the amount of matching money and the amount that a program participant receives based on schedules for increasing teacher salaries and schedules for increasing the hourly wage adopted by rule of the state board. A program participant may continue participating in the program so long as the participant meets the matching money requirement and continues to qualify for the program. A program participant no longer qualifies for the program when the department determines that the participant has sufficient resources to pay the district required minimum teacher salary amount or the district required minimum hourly wage amount or both, as applicable, without assistance.
The bill creates the educator pay raise fund (fund), which consists of the greater of 10% or $15 million of the gross income annually earned on the public school lands and any other money that the general assembly may appropriate or transfer to the fund.
Beginning in the 2022 regular legislative session, the department shall include in its annual report to the joint education committee information concerning implementation of the program.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)