FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 271

91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES FRASER, MERIDETH, BERKOWITZ, DAVIS,

HAGAN-HARRELL (Co-sponsors), BOUCHER, BARRY, FROELKER, KENNEDY AND WILLIAMS.

Read 1st time January 4, 2001, and 1000 copies ordered printed.

TED WEDEL, Chief Clerk

0296L.01I

AN ACT

To repeal section 161.098, RSMo 2000, relating to retention and recruitment of teachers, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.



Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Section 161.098, RSMo 2000, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 161.098, to read as follows:

161.098. 1. Beginning December 15, 1999, and annually by that date in each following year, the state board of education shall report to the general assembly on the retention and recruitment of teachers in the state's schools. The report shall include, but not be limited to, information on the numbers of teachers entering and leaving employment in the public schools of the state, analysis of the issues affecting teacher recruitment, including the need for identifying African-American and other minority students, including males, who show potential or interest in becoming a teacher, recruiting such students as prospective teachers, and methods for providing financial aid to such students, and suggestions for meeting predicted needs of numbers of teachers and in areas of certification.

2. Subject to appropriation, the department of elementary and secondary education shall provide grants to assist local public school districts to implement innovative programs designed to assist new teachers. Programs may include, but are not limited to, programs providing release time and additional pay to experienced teachers who will act as mentors to new teachers, programs providing new teachers with full pay but less than a full teaching load so that new teachers spend time in the classrooms of experienced teachers and programs providing resources collegial interaction among new teachers and experienced teachers. The department shall require school districts receiving grants pursuant to this section to demonstrate improved retention of new teachers.

3. The state board of education shall promulgate rules for the administration of the grant program created in this section. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated pursuant to this section shall take effect unless it has been promulgated pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo.


Missouri House of Representatives