AN ACT Relating to the shortage of public school teachers and substitute teachers; amending RCW 28A.410.250 and 28A.660.050; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 41.32 RCW; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

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

The legislature further finds that having effective teachers is essential to student success in school and life and that the teacher and substitute shortage must be addressed through a comprehensive initiative that includes, but is not limited to, increasing beginning teacher salaries, providing hiring incentives, the implementation of a teacher recruitment campaign, the creation of a statewide depository for applications, providing assistance for smaller school districts in recruiting and hiring teachers, reducing barriers for out-of-state teachers, and providing school districts more flexibility in hiring retired teachers as substitute teachers.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3.  A new section is added to chapter 28A.300 RCW to read as follows:

The superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with school district and educational service district personnel, shall develop and implement a comprehensive, statewide initiative to increase the number of qualified individuals who apply for teaching positions in Washington. In developing and implementing the initiative, the superintendent shall:

(1) Create a system for providing hiring bonuses to new teachers from out-of-state and to new in-state teachers who are hired in rural school districts, in high-poverty schools, and in schools with identified equity gaps. The purpose of the hiring bonuses is to provide an incentive for out-of-state teachers to teach in Washington and for in-state teachers to teach in harder-to-staff schools. The funds may be used for moving expenses, initial rental and housing costs, and other expenses incurred by the new teacher in relocating to a new community and establishing his or her classroom;

(2) Include a teacher recruitment component that targets individuals with teaching certificates who are not employed as teachers, undergraduate college students who have not chosen a major, out-of-state teachers, military personnel and their spouses, and other groups of individuals who may be interested in teaching in Washington public schools;

(3) Contract for a statewide central depository for applications of individuals interested in applying for certificated positions that can be accessed by school districts in the state for purposes of hiring teachers and other certificated positions;

(4) Enter into an agreement with the association of educational service districts to develop a statewide system to provide recruitment and hiring services to school districts. Small school districts must be the primary focus of the hiring and recruitment services provided by the educational service districts;

(5) Train high school teachers on the curriculum for the careers in education course, which is a course designed to be taught to high school students who are interested in becoming teachers;

(6) Create or enhance an existing web site that provides useful information to individuals who are interested in teaching in Washington; and

(7) Take other actions to increase the number of qualified individuals who apply for teaching positions in Washington.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4.  A new section is added to chapter 41.32 RCW under the subchapter heading "provisions applicable to plan 2 and plan 3" to be codified between RCW 41.32.067 and 41.32.215 to read as follows:

In addition to the postretirement employment options available in RCW 41.32.802 or 41.32.862, a teacher in plan 2 or plan 3 who has retired under the alternate early retirement provisions of RCW 41.32.765(3)(b) or 41.32.875(3)(b) may be employed with an employer that has documented a shortage of certificated substitute teachers without a suspension of the retiree's benefit if: (1) The retired teacher reenters employment more than one calendar month after his or her accrual date and after the effective date of this section, and (2) the retired teacher is employed exclusively as a substitute teacher as defined in RCW 41.32.010(48)(a) in an instructional capacity, as opposed to other capacities identified in RCW 41.32.010(49).

Sec. 5.  RCW 28A.410.250 and 2005 c 498 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

The agency responsible for educator certification shall adopt rules for professional certification that:

(1) Provide maximum program choice for applicants, promote portability among programs, and promote maximum efficiency for applicants in attaining professional certification;

(2) Require professional certification no earlier than the fifth year following the year that the teacher first completes provisional status, with an automatic two-year extension upon enrollment;

(3) Grant professional certification to any teacher who attains certification from the national board for professional teaching standards;

(4) Permit any teacher currently enrolled in or participating in a program leading to professional certification to continue the program under administrative rules in place when the teacher began the program;

(5) Provide criteria for the approval of educational service districts, beginning no later than August 31, 2007, to offer programs leading to professional certification. The rules shall be written to encourage institutions of higher education and educational service districts to partner with local school districts or consortia of school districts, as appropriate, to provide instruction for teachers seeking professional certification;

(6) Encourage institutions of higher education to offer professional certificate coursework as continuing education credit hours. This shall not prevent an institution of higher education from providing the option of including the professional certification requirements as part of a master's degree program;

(7) Provide criteria for a liaison relationship between approved programs and school districts in which applicants are employed;

(8) Identify an expedited professional certification process for out-of-state teachers who have five years or more of successful teaching experience ((to demonstrate skills and impact on student learning commensurate with Washington requirements for professional certification. The rules may require these teachers, within one year of the time they begin to teach in the state's public schools, take a course in or show evidence that they can teach to the state's essential academic learning requirements)). A professional certificate shall be issued to these experienced out-of-state teachers if:

(b) The teacher has a second-level teacher certificate from another state; and

(9) Identify an evaluation process of approved programs that includes a review of the program coursework and applicant coursework load requirements, linkages of programs to individual teacher professional growth plans, linkages to school district and school improvement plans, and, to the extent possible, linkages to school district professional enrichment and growth programs for teachers, where such programs are in place in school districts. The agency shall provide a preliminary report on the evaluation process to the senate and house of representatives committees on education policy by November 1, 2005. The board shall identify:

(a) A process for awarding conditional approval of a program that shall include annual evaluations of the program until the program is awarded full approval;

(b) A less intensive evaluation cycle every three years once a program receives full approval unless the responsible agency has reason to intensify the evaluation;

(c) A method for investigating programs that have received numerous complaints from students enrolled in the program and from those recently completing the program;

(d) A method for investigating programs at the reasonable discretion of the agency; and

(e) A method for using, in the evaluation, both program completer satisfaction responses and data on the impact of educators who have obtained professional certification on student work and achievement.

Sec. 6.  RCW 28A.660.050 and 2015 3rd sp.s. c 9 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for these purposes, the conditional scholarship programs in this chapter are created under the following guidelines:

(1) The programs shall be administered by the student achievement council. In administering the programs, the council has the following powers and duties:

(a) To adopt necessary rules and develop guidelines to administer the programs;

(b) To collect and manage repayments from participants who do not meet their service obligations; and

(c) To accept grants and donations from public and private sources for the programs.

(2) Requirements for participation in the conditional scholarship programs are as provided in this subsection (2).

(a) The alternative route conditional scholarship program is limited to interns of professional educator standards board-approved alternative routes to teaching programs under RCW 28A.660.040. For fiscal year 2011, priority must be given to fiscal year 2010 participants in the alternative route partnership program. In order to receive conditional scholarship awards, recipients shall:

(i) Be accepted and maintain enrollment in alternative certification routes through a professional educator standards board-approved program;

(ii) Continue to make satisfactory progress toward completion of the alternative route certification program and receipt of a residency teaching certificate; and

(iii) Receive no more than the annual amount of the scholarship, not to exceed eight thousand dollars, for the cost of tuition, fees, and educational expenses, including books, supplies, and transportation for the alternative route certification program in which the recipient is enrolled. The council may adjust the annual award by the average rate of resident undergraduate tuition and fee increases at the state universities as defined in RCW 28B.10.016.

(b) The pipeline for paraeducators conditional scholarship program is limited to qualified paraeducators as provided by RCW 28A.660.042. In order to receive conditional scholarship awards, recipients shall:

(i) Be accepted and maintain enrollment at a community and technical college for no more than two years and attain an associate of arts degree;

(ii) Continue to make satisfactory progress toward completion of an associate of arts degree. This progress requirement is a condition for eligibility into a route one program of the alternative routes to teacher certification program for a mathematics, special education, elementary, early childhood, or English as a second language endorsement; and

(iii) Receive no more than the annual amount of the scholarship, not to exceed four thousand dollars, for the cost of tuition, fees, and educational expenses, including books, supplies, and transportation for the alternative route certification program in which the recipient is enrolled. The student achievement council may adjust the annual award by the average rate of tuition and fee increases at the state community and technical colleges.

(c) The educator retooling conditional scholarship program is limited to current K-12 teachers. In order to receive conditional scholarship awards:

(i) Individuals currently employed as teachers shall pursue an endorsement in a subject or geographic endorsement shortage area, as defined by the professional educator standards board, including but not limited to((,)) mathematics, science, special education, bilingual education, English language learner, computer science education, or environmental and sustainability education; or

(ii) Individuals who are certificated with an elementary education endorsement shall pursue an endorsement in a subject or geographic endorsement shortage area, as defined by the professional educator standards board, including but not limited to((,)) mathematics, science, special education, bilingual education, English language learner, computer science education, or environmental and sustainability education; and

(iii) Individuals shall use one of the pathways to endorsement processes to receive an endorsement in a subject or geographic endorsement shortage area, as defined by the professional educator standards board, including but not limited to((,)) mathematics, science, special education, bilingual education, English language learner, computer science education, or environmental and sustainability education, which shall include passing an endorsement test plus observation and completing applicable coursework to attain the proper endorsement; and

(iv) Individuals shall receive no more than the annual amount of the scholarship, not to exceed three thousand dollars, for the cost of tuition, test fees, and educational expenses, including books, supplies, and transportation for the endorsement pathway being pursued.

(3) The Washington professional educator standards board shall select individuals to receive conditional scholarships. In selecting recipients, preference shall be given to eligible veterans or national guard members. In awarding conditional scholarships to support additional bilingual education or English language learner endorsements, the board shall also give preference to teachers assigned to schools required under state or federal accountability measures to implement a plan for improvement, and to teachers assigned to schools whose enrollment of English language learner students has increased an average of more than five percent per year over the previous three years.

(4) For the purpose of this chapter, a conditional scholarship is a loan that is forgiven in whole or in part in exchange for service as a certificated teacher employed in a Washington state K-12 public school. The state shall forgive one year of loan obligation for every two years a recipient teaches in a public school. Recipients who fail to continue a course of study leading to residency teacher certification or cease to teach in a public school in the state of Washington in their endorsement area are required to repay the remaining loan principal with interest.

(5) Recipients who fail to fulfill the required teaching obligation are required to repay the remaining loan principal with interest and any other applicable fees. The student achievement council shall adopt rules to define the terms for repayment, including applicable interest rates, fees, and deferments.

(6) The student achievement council may deposit all appropriations, collections, and any other funds received for the program in this chapter in the future teachers conditional scholarship account authorized in RCW 28B.102.080.

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