(1)(a) Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the Washington professional educator standards board shall distribute grants to an educational service district that volunteers to pilot an alternative route teacher certification program, under chapter
28A.660 RCW. The purpose of the grant is to provide financial assistance to teacher candidates enrolled in the educational service district's alternative route teacher certification program with the intent to pursue an initial teacher certificate. The Washington professional educator standards board must provide a grant sufficient to provide up to five thousand dollars of financial assistance for up to twenty teacher candidates in the 2019-20 school year and for up to thirty teacher candidates in the 2020-21 school year.
(b) In piloting the program, the educational service district must:
(i) Engage retired or practicing teachers and administrators who are knowledgeable and experienced classroom teachers to inform the development and curriculum of the program;
(ii) Provide extended support and mentoring through the first three years of a teacher's career, using the components of the beginning educator support team, under RCW
28A.415.265;
(iii) Support school districts in developing school staff and community members to become teachers, so that the district's teachers better reflect the region's demographics, values, and interests; and
(iv) Provide opportunities for classified staff to become teachers.
(2) By November 1, 2024, the volunteer educational service district must report to the Washington professional educator standards board with the outcomes of the pilot and any recommendations for implementing alternative route teacher certification programs in other educational service districts. The report must include the following data: (a) The number of teacher candidates applying for, and completing, the alternative route teacher certification program; (b) the number of program completers who are hired as teachers, both in the educational service district and elsewhere in the state; and (c) the retention of teachers in the educational service district before and after implementation of the pilot. The data must be disaggregated by race and ethnicity, gender, type of endorsement, and school. The report must also include feedback from school principals and teachers in the local school districts on the quality of the teacher candidates they worked with during the pilot.
(3) By December 1, 2024, and in compliance with RCW
43.01.036, the Washington professional educator standards board must submit the educational service district's report, required under subsection (2) of this section, to the appropriate committees of the legislature, with recommendations for whether the pilot program should be expanded, modified, or terminated.
(4) This section expires August 1, 2025.