Bill Summaries: H280 TEACHER LICENSURE/RETIRED EDUCATOR PROGRAM.

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  • Summary date: Mar 6 2023 - View Summary

    Identical to S 187, filed 3/1/23.

    Amends GS 115C-270.20 to make three-year limited licenses for teachers renewable. Requires for renewal that the local board of education evaluate the teacher's effectiveness every three years. Specifies that for teachers teaching subjects that use the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), the data must demonstrate that the teacher meets or exceeds expectations of growth. Applies to any teacher who holds a nonrenewable limited license as of the date this act becomes law and beginning with applications submitted on or after the date this act becomes law.

    Requires the State Board of Education (Board), in consultation with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC), to develop an alternative to the examination requirements for converting from an initial professional license (IPL) and a residency license (RL) to a continuing professional license (CPL). Requires the alternative to include a process to accommodate different circumstances in which the examination may not be required or be the most appropriate or efficient pathway of evaluating a teacher's readiness or effectiveness. Requires the Board, in consultation with DPI and PEPSC, to examine issues related to licensure classes and teacher salary. Requires the Board, in consultation with those same entities, to report to the specified NCGA committee by February 15, 2024, on (1) the development of the alternative to examination requirements, (2) any proposed salary incentives tied to classes of licensure, and (3) any legislative changes needed for implementation of the recommendations.

    Enacts new GS 115C-270.22 to grant a servicemember who (1) has a teaching license issued by an entity other than the Board and (2) relocates to NC because of military orders for military service, a teaching license for the duration of the military orders if: (a) the servicemember provides the Board with a copy of the military orders requiring the location to NC; (b) the servicemember remains in good standing with the licensing authority that issued the license and every other licensing authority that has issued a license to the servicemember that is similar in scope to the teaching license; and (c) the servicemember submits to the Board's authority for the purpose of standards of practice, discipline, and fulfillment of any continuing education requirements. Requires the Board to adopt rules to determine which class of teacher license is to be issued. Provides that if the servicemember is transferred out of NC on military orders during a school year, the license granted under this statute terminates at the end of the school year during which the member was transferred. Amends GS 115C-270.1 to define the term servicemember. Makes conforming changes to GS 93B-15.1. Requires the State Board to adopt temporary rules to comply with these provisions, which will remain in effect until permanent rules become effective.

    Part II.

    Reenacts GS 115C-302.4 (high-need retired teachers), as it existed immediately prior to its expiration, until June 30, 2027. Makes the following changes to the statute. Amends the definition of high-need retired teacher to no longer require that they provide classroom instruction, only that they be reemployed as a teacher. Adds and defines the term teacher as licensed personnel who are classified as teachers or instructional support personnel. Amends the salary requirement for high-need retired teachers by adding that a school psychologist, a school speech pathologist licensed as a speech pathologist at the master's degree level or higher, and a school audiologist who is licensed as an audiologist at the master's degree level or higher, must be paid on the sixth step of the teacher salary schedule.

    Amends GS 135-3, concerning membership in the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees, to provide the computation of postretirement earnings of a beneficiary who retired on or before February 1, 2019, and who has been retired at least six months, does not include earnings while the beneficiary is employed as a high-need retired teacher, and the beneficiary must not be restored to service as a teacher or employee. Requires a local board of education to annually inform the Retirement System, by September 15, if it will not employ high-need retired teachers for that school year. Specifies that the retirement allowance of a beneficiary who retired on an early or service retirement does not cease due to reemployment as a high-need retired teacher. Provides that a beneficiary reemployed as a high-need retired teacher is not entitled to any benefits otherwise provided under GS Chapter 135 as a result of this period of employment. Makes conforming changes. Makes conforming changes to GS 135-1. Amends GS 135-48.40 to include high-need retired teachers in those who are eligible for coverage under the State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees on a partially contributory basis. 

    Allows the State Treasurer to seek a private letter ruling from the IRS to determine if the provisions of this section relating to the computation of postretirement earnings of retired teachers jeopardize the status of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System.

    Allows the Retirement Systems Division of the Department of State Treasurer to increase receipts from the retirement assets of the System or pay costs associated with the administration directly from the retirement assets.

    Provides that any beneficiary that is employed by a local board of education as a high-need retired teacher, is not eligible to elect into a position that would lead him or her to be eligible to accrue any additional benefits. Requires any failure of a local board of education or a beneficiary to comply with the foregoing to be corrected by the Retirement System as it determines may be appropriate; costs of the correction are the sole responsibility of the local board of education and must be transferred to the Pension Accumulation Fund.

    Expires June 30, 2027.