HOUSE BILL REPORT
SHB 1120
As Amended by the Senate
Title: An act relating to the conditional employment of teachers with lapsed certifications.
Brief Description: Establishing requirements for employing holders of lapsed teaching certificates.
Sponsors: By House Committee on Education (originally sponsored by Representatives Rockefeller, Cox, Talcott, Quall, Santos, Haigh, Anderson, McDermott, Schindler, D. Schmidt, Pearson, Keiser and Jackley).
Brief History:
Committee Activity:
Education: 2/1/01, 2/14/01 [DPS].
Floor Activity:
Passed House: 3/9/01, 97-1.
Senate Amended.
Passed Senate: 4/12/01, 45-0.
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Brief Summary of Substitute Bill
$Authorizing the conditional employment of teachers with lapsed certificates under certain conditions
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. Signed by 11 members: Representatives Quall, Democratic Co‑Chair; Talcott, Republican Co‑Chair; Anderson, Republican Vice Chair; Haigh, Democratic Vice Chair; Cox, Ericksen, McDermott, Pearson, Rockefeller, Schindler and D. Schmidt.
Minority Report: Do not pass. Signed by 1 member: Representative Schual‑Berke.
Staff: Susan Morrissey (786‑7111).
Background:
Teachers must be certified by the state in order to teach in Washington=s public or approved private schools. The State Board of Education establishes the rules that govern teacher certification. Currently, teachers who received their continuing or professional teaching certificates after August 30, 1987, are required to obtain 150 clock hours of classes every five years in order to maintain that certificate. If a teacher does not fulfill the requirement, the teacher's certificate lapses. Teachers with lapsed certificates may be eligible to teach as substitutes, but they may not be employed as regular teachers without obtaining additional credit hours.
Summary of Bill:
For a maximum of two years, under certain conditions, qualified individuals with lapsed Washington teaching certificates may be employed on a conditional basis by school districts and approved private schools. In order to qualify for conditional employment, the individuals must complete state background checks and have letters of recommendation from the school district or private school where the teachers were last employed. Individuals who meet these requirements must complete certificate renewal requirements within two years of reemployment, and must file with their employers a mutually agreed upon written plan for achieving the requirements within the allotted time. Individuals that are hired by a school district will be employed on a one year provisional contract. These individuals must make satisfactory progress toward achievement of the renewal requirements in order to have their provisional contracts renewed for one additional year.
Teachers with certificates that were revoked or suspended are not eligible for conditional employment.
EFFECT OF SENATE AMENDMENT(S):
Limits the rehire authority to public schools and removes most of the conditions surrounding the re-employment. The removed language includes requirements that the applicant complete a background check, have a letter of recommendation, have a written and filed plan for achieving the certification requirements, and make satisfactory progress on the plan before the second year of re-employment. The amendment also removes the stipulation that the teacher will be on provisional status until the requirements are met.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Not Requested.
Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.
Testimony For: Many good teachers have left the profession to raise children or pursue other careers. Some of those teachers have not kept up with the continuing education credits required to keep their teaching certificates current, so the certificates have lapsed. This legislation will help those good teachers reenter the profession and continue teaching while they get those additional credits. It will also help to alleviate the state=s shortage of teachers and substitutes. This bill includes many protections. It ensures that returning teachers have a letter of recommendation from the school in which they last taught. It also requires them to get the required credits within two years, and makes their employment status conditional until those credits are completed.
(Concerns with original bill) The requirement that the certificate lapsed no more than eight years before reemployment is unnecessary given the other protections in the bill. The plan for achieving the required credits should be mutually agreed upon by the district and the teacher.
Testimony Against: None
Testified: (In support) Rep. Rockefeller, prime sponsor; Karen Davis, Washington Employees Association; Larry Davis, State Board of Education; Barbara Mertens, Washington Association of School Administrators; and Dan Steele, Washington State School Directors= Association.
(Support with Concerns) Greg Williamson, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction; and Lin Douglas, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.