S-1693

AN ACT Relating to K-12 education personnel training and recruitment; amending RCW 28A.415.010; adding new sections to chapter 28A.415 RCW; creating a new section; recodifying RCW 28A.305.260, 28A.305.270, and 28A.405.450; and making appropriations.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. It is the intent of RCW 28A.415.010 to foster and consolidate K-12 educational staff recruitment and training programs and to provide a continuum of coordinated, comprehensive, regionalized programs designed to enhance the quality of instruction, as well as to improve the ethnic and racial diversity reflected in Washington's K-12 education personnel.

Sec. 2. RCW 28A.415.010 and 1990 c 33 s 414 are each amended to read as follows:

It shall be the responsibility of each educational service district board to establish a center for the improvement of teaching. The center shall administer, coordinate, and act as fiscal agent for such programs related to the recruitment and training of certificated and classified K-12 education personnel as may be delegated to the center by the superintendent of public instruction under RCW 28A.310.470, or the state board of education under RCW 28A.310.480. To assist in these activities, each educational service district board shall establish an improvement of teaching coordinating council to include, at a minimum, representatives as specified in RCW 28A.415.040. An existing in-service training task force, established pursuant to RCW 28A.415.040, may serve as the improvement of teaching coordinating council. The educational service district board shall, to the extent possible, ensure coordination of programs established pursuant to in-service training under RCW 28A.415.030 and 28A.415.040, training programs under RCW 28A.410.060, the teacher assistance program under RCW 28A.405.450 as recodified by this 1991 act, the minority teacher recruitment program under RCW 28A.300.180, 28A.305.260, and 28A.305.270 as recodified by this 1991 act, paraprofessional training programs, student teaching centers under Senate Bill No. 5504, and special needs tuition assistance.

The educational service district board may arrange each year for the holding of one or more teachers' institutes and/or workshops for professional staff preparation and in‑service training in such manner and at such time as the board believes will be of benefit to the teachers and other professional staff of school districts within the educational service district and shall comply with rules ((~~and regulations~~)) of the state board of education ((~~pursuant to RCW 28A.410.060~~)) and the superintendent of public instruction. The board may provide such additional means of teacher and other professional staff preparation and in‑service training as it may deem necessary or appropriate and there shall be a proper charge against the educational service district general expense fund when approved by the educational service district board.

Educational service district boards of contiguous educational service districts, by mutual arrangements, may hold joint institutes and/or workshops, the expenses to be shared in proportion to the numbers of certificated personnel as shown by the last annual reports of the educational service districts holding such joint institutes or workshops.

In local school districts employing more than one hundred teachers and other professional staff, the school district superintendent may hold a teachers' institute of one or more days in such district, said institute when so held by the school district superintendent to be in all respects governed by the provisions of this title and state board of education rules and regulations relating to teachers' institutes held by educational service district superintendents.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The superintendent of public instruction shall collect data related to programs delegated to educational service district improvement of teaching centers. The data shall be analyzed to determine program effectiveness in improving teacher recruitment and performance and presented biennially to the legislature as an evaluation report beginning December 1, 1992. The superintendent of public instruction may contract with a third party to design and conduct the evaluation.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The state board of education and the superintendent of public instruction shall adopt rules as necessary under chapter 34.05 RCW to carry out the purposes of sections 1 and 3 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Sections 1, 3, and 4 of this act are each added to chapter 28A.415 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. RCW 28A.305.260, 28A.305.270, and 28A.405.450 are each recodified as sections in chapter 28A.415 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. The code reviser shall correct all references in the Revised Code of Washington to the sections of the code that are recodified by section 6 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. (1) The sum of eight hundred thirty-seven thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1993, from the general fund to the superintendent of public instruction for the purposes of section 2 of this act.

(2) The sum of thirty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1993, from the general fund to the superintendent of public instruction for the purposes of section 3 of this act.