Continuing Education Requirements for Administrators and Teachers.
The Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) adopts rules and creates policies for the preparation and certification of educators.  The PESB's statutory duties include specifying the types and kinds of educator certificates to be issued and the conditions for certification.
 
Every five years, teachers and administrators must renew their certificate by meeting one of the following continuing education requirements:  (1) complete 100 clock hours or the equivalent in college credit; (2) complete four professional growth plans (PGPs); or (3) complete a combination of PGPs and clock hours.

For administrators renewing a certificate on or after July 1, 2023, the continuing education must meet the following requirements:  10 percent must focus on equity-based school practices, 10 percent must focus on the National Professional Standards for Education Leaders (PSEL), and 5 percent must focus on government-to-government relationships with federally recognized tribes.
 
For teachers renewing a certificate on or after July 1, 2023, 15 percent of continuing education must focus on equity-based school practices.  

Continuing education focused on equity-based school practices must be aligned with cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion standards of the PESB.

Required continuing education for administrators and teachers related to equity-based school practice and the PSEL must be provided by one or more of the following entities, if they are an approved clock hour provider:  the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), school districts, Educational Service Districts, PESB-approved administrator or teacher preparation programs, the Association of Washington School Principals, or the Washington Education Association.
 
Required continuing education for administrators and teachers related to government-to-government relationships with federally recognized tribes must be provided by one or more subject matter experts approved by the Governor's Office on Indian Affairs in collaboration with the Tribal Leaders Congress on Education and the Office of Native Education in the OSPI.

Requirements for Providers of Continuing Education.
The PESB has adopted rules for the approval of providers of continuing education for administrators and teachers.  In general, providers must meet a dozen specified program standards, for example:  the content of the program and the intended outcomes or objectives of the program must be set forth in a program agenda, along with the instructor's qualifications to conduct the program; the provider must provide program evaluations to the participants; and the provider must permit a representative from the OSPI to attend the program and receive program materials at no charge.  Providers must also comply with specified recordkeeping requirements, including making summaries of program evaluations available to the OSPI for seven years.

Providers must annually submit to the OSPI an assurance that continuing education programs comply with the program standards and recordkeeping requirements.  In addition, continuing education providers must be audited by the OSPI on a selective basis, which may include responses to complaints or other evidence of possible noncompliance.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) must maintain on their websites a list of approved subject matter experts on government-to-government relationships with federally recognized tribes.

A provider of an administrator or teacher continuing education program focused on equity-based school practices or the National Professional Standards for Education Leaders (NPSEL) must publicly post the learning objectives of the program on its website.  If the provider does not have a website, it must post the learning objectives of the program in a conspicuous place in the entity's main office and submit a copy of the learning objectives to the PESB.

To determine whether providers of administrator and teacher continuing education programs focused on equity-based school practices and on NPSEL are in substantial compliance with requirements related to posting learning objectives and the continuing education program approval standards, the OSPI must audit providers as follows:

• an organization or entity that is not a PESB-approved continuing education provider prior to the effective date of the bill must be audited within two years of initial PESB-approval; and
• a representative sample of each of the following categories of approved providers must be audited each year:  (1) PESB-approved educator preparation programs and other college and university programs; (2) school districts, public schools, educational service districts, and any other local, state, or federal agencies; (3) private schools approved by the State Board of Education; and (4) any other organizations or entities.

(In support) This bill is intended to correct an unintended consequence of legislation passed last year.  The legislation specified the number of hours that the administrators and teachers need to spend on mandatory continuing education.  Because the provisions were new, care was taken about who could provide the continuing education content.  However, private schools were not listed as an authorized provider, and this is a problem for private school administrators and teachers. 
 
Private schools want to be able to provide this content to their educators.  More teachers need to have access to this content.  Those who want to provide the content should be able to do so.
 
This bill clarifies that the Professional Educator Standard Board (PESB) must approve providers and programs the providers are offering for credit hours.  Under the bill, clock hour providers will not be able to be approved by July 2023 because the bill proposes a significant change to how clock hour providers are currently approved.  In general, there needs to be more regulation of clock hour providers. 
 
(Opposed) None.
 
(Other) The trainings educators engage in should be high-quality and meaningful.  Shifting from an approved provider list to an approved course list could have implementation challenges.  There could be educators that are unable to meet the requirements by the deadline in the bill.
 
Since the passage of the legislation in 2021 that requires teachers to renew their certificate with 15 percent equity-based practices, some clock hour providers have been working to develop continuing education.  This bill would require the development of a new process for approval of this content.  The PESB works as efficiently as possible, but it will take time for them to approve the courses.  Educators may be unable to renew their certificates if they cannot find approved courses in time.  The requirement in the bill could be extended so that the PESB process is up and running before the new continuing education requirement is effective.