Removing Barriers To Educator Preparation

The act creates the student educator stipend program. The purpose of the student educator stipend program is to award stipend money to an eligible student to reduce financial barriers to participating in an academic residency as a student educator. An eligible student placed as a student educator in a 16-week academic residency may receive a stipend of $11,000, and an eligible student placed as a student educator in a 32-week academic residency may receive a stipend of $22,000.

The act also creates the educator test stipend program. The purpose of the educator test stipend program is to award stipend money to approved programs of preparation to reduce financial barriers for eligible students preparing for the assessment of professional competencies for licensure and each required endorsement area. An eligible student may receive a stipend to pay the fees and costs associated with the assessment of professional competencies, which may include travel and lodging costs.

The act creates the temporary educator loan forgiveness program. The purpose of the program is to pay the qualified loans of an educator who is hired for a hard-to-staff educator position. To qualify for the program, an educator must meet licensure requirements, enter the educator workforce on or after the 2019-20 state fiscal year and contract for a qualified position no later than the end of the 2021-22 state fiscal year, and be liable for an outstanding balance on a qualified loan. An educator who qualifies is eligible for up to $5,000 in loan forgiveness.

Beginning in the 2023-24 academic year, the act allows applicants for initial and professional teacher licenses who did not demonstrate professional competencies prior to obtaining an initial teacher license to demonstrate professional competencies through the multiple measures approach. The multiple measures approach allows applicants to demonstrate professional competencies by successfully completing an approved content-based or performance based assessment, successfully completing an examination by a review panel of an approved portfolio of course work, submitting evidence of achieving sufficiently high education course work grades on course work aligned with relevant standards, or a combination of the measures described. The review panel may examine a portfolio of course work for up to one thousand applicants for initial teacher licenses.

The act requires the department of education (department), in collaboration with the department of higher education, institutions of higher education, the state board for community colleges and occupational education, and school districts, to recommend to the state board of education (state board) the standards and procedures necessary to implement the multiple measures approach to measure the professional competencies of an applicant for an initial teacher license. The state board shall promulgate rules to establish the standards and procedures to measure professional competencies through the multiple measures approach.

The act allows the department to issue an interim authorization to a person who is seeking an alternative teacher license and meets the requirements for an alternative teacher license, except that the person has not yet successfully completed the assessment of professional competencies to obtain an alternative teacher license.

For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $52 million is appropriated to the department of higher education from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to be distributed to the following programs:

• $39 million for the student educator stipend program;
• $3 million for the educator test stipend program; and
• $10 million for the temporary educator loan forgiveness program.

For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $720,612 is appropriated to the department from the general fund to implement the purposes of the act.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)