Title: An act relating to the provision of teacher certification services.

Brief Description: Regarding the provision of teacher certification services.

Sponsors: Senators Regala, King, McAuliffe and Rasmussen.

Brief History:

Committee Activity: Early Learning & K-12 Education: 1/31/08, 2/06/08 [DP].

Passed Senate: 2/13/08, 48-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON EARLY LEARNING & K-12 EDUCATION

Majority Report: Do pass.Signed by Senators McAuliffe, Chair; Tom, Vice Chair; King, Ranking Minority Member; Brandland, Eide, Hobbs, Holmquist, Kauffman, McDermott, Oemig, Rasmussen and Weinstein.

Staff: Susan Mielke (786-7422)

Background: All nine of the Educational Service Districts (ESDs) currently provide technical assistance, applications, and application processing for teacher, administrator, and educational staff associate certification.

Under current law, the fees paid by individuals to obtain an educator certificate are used to support and evaluate educator preparation programs, and to support and evaluate professional development in-service programs. Under the rules of the Professional Educator Standards Board, the fees are divided so that half of the fee amount supports each of the two types of programs.

Summary of Bill: An additional use for fees collected for educator certification is added to permit a portion of the fees to be used for the provision of certification services provided by the ESDs.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Not requested.

Committee/Commission/Task Force Created: No.

Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony: PRO: We are not asking for more money or an increase in any fees, just a redirection of the current fees. We support this as a stop-gap measure. We are hopeful that the Legislature would provide sufficient funding to cover the costs of the ESDs.

Persons Testifying: PRO: Bill Keim, Association of ESDs; Nasue Nishida, Professional Educator Standards Board.