09 LC 28
4801S
The
House Committee on Higher Education offers the following substitute to SB
231:
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to education,
so as to provide for preparatory tests for college entrance exams; to provide
for enrollment counts for students in certain dual enrollment programs; to
provide for requirements for weighting of students in certain dual enrollment
courses under the Quality Basic Education Formula; to remove the sunset
provision from the Georgia Master Teacher Program; to provide for placement on
the state salary schedule for an educator who has a leadership degree but is not
in a leadership position; to establish the PROMISE III teacher's scholarship; to
provide for eligibility requirements; to provide for service cancelable
requirements; to provide for the maximum amount; to provide for related matters;
to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Title
20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to education, is amended
in Part 2 of Article 6 of Chapter 2, relating to competencies and core
curriculum under the "Quality Basic Education Act," by adding a new Code section
to read as follows:
"20-2-146.1.
(a)
In the event that state funding is provided to local school systems to offer the
PSAT to its students, such state funding shall also be made available for
purposes of offering the ACT PLAN assessment to such students.
(b)
It shall be the choice of each student as to which preparatory assessment he or
she elects to take."
SECTION
2.
Said
title is further amended by revising subsection (a) of Code Section 20-2-160,
relating to determination of enrollment by institutional program, as
follows:
"(a)
The State Board of Education shall designate the specific dates upon which two
counts of students enrolled in each instructional program authorized under this
article shall be made each school year and by which the counts shall be reported
to the Department of Education. The initial enrollment count shall be made
after October 1 but prior to November 17 and the final enrollment count after
March 1 but prior to May 1. The report shall indicate the student's specific
assigned program for each one-sixth segment of the school day on the designated
reporting date. No program shall be indicated for a student for any one-sixth
segment of the school day that the student is assigned to a study hall; a
noncredit course; a course recognized under this article or by state board
policy as an enrichment course, except a driver education course; a course which
requires participation in an extracurricular activity for which enrollment is on
a competitive basis; a course in which the student serves as a student assistant
to a teacher, in a school office, or in the media center, except when such
placement is an approved work site of a recognized career or vocational program;
an individual study course for which no outline of course objectives is prepared
in writing prior to the beginning of the course; a course taken through the
Georgia Virtual School pursuant to Code Section 20-2-319.1; or any other course
or activity so designated by the state board. For the purpose of this Code
section, the term 'enrichment course' means a course which does not dedicate a
major portion of the class time toward the development and enhancement of one or
more student competencies as adopted by the state board under Code Section
20-2-140. A program shall not be indicated for a student for any one-sixth
segment of the school day for which the student is not enrolled in an
instructional program or has not attended a class or classes within the
preceding ten days; nor shall a program be indicated for a student for any
one-sixth segment of the school day for which the student is charged tuition or
fees or is required to provide materials or equipment beyond those authorized
pursuant to Code Section 20-2-133. A student who is enrolled in an eligible
institution under the program established in Code Section 20-2-161.1 may be
counted for the high school program for only that portion of the day that the
student is attending the high school for those segments that are eligible to be
counted under this subsection.
A student who
is enrolled in a dual enrollment program other than as established in Code
Section 20-2-161.1 shall be counted for the high school program or other
appropriate program for each segment in which the student is attending the high
school or attending a postsecondary course conducted at the high school, as long
as the dual enrollment program is provided (1) at a charter school or (2) at a
high school pursuant to an agreement between the local school system and a
postsecondary institution if such agreement has been approved by the State Board
of Education. The state board shall adopt
such regulations and criteria as necessary to ensure objective and true counts
of students in state approved instructional programs. The state board shall
also establish criteria by which students shall be counted as resident or
nonresident students, including specific circumstances which may include, but
not be limited to, students attending another local school system under court
order or under the terms of a contract between two local school systems. If a
local school system has a justifiable reason, it may seek authority from the
state board to shift full-time equivalent program counts from the designated
date to a requested alternate date."
SECTION
3.
Said
title is further amended in Code Section 20-2-161, relating to the Quality Basic
Education Formula, by adding a new subsection to read as follows:
"(c.1)
For purposes of calculating the annual allotment of funds to each local school
system, a student who is enrolled in a dual enrollment program other than as
established in Code Section 20-2-161.1 shall be counted for the high school
program or other appropriate program for each segment in which the student is
attending the high school or attending a postsecondary course conducted at the
high school, as long as the dual enrollment program is provided (1) at a charter
school or (2) at a high school pursuant to an agreement between the local school
system and a postsecondary institution if such agreement has been approved by
the State Board of
Education."
SECTION
4.
Said
title is further amended by revising Code Section 20-2-205, relating to the
Georgia Master Teacher Program, as follows:
"20-2-205.
(a)
The General Assembly finds that excellent public school teachers deserve
recognition for the extraordinary learning opportunity they provide to Georgia
students.
(b)
The Professional Standards Commission is authorized and directed to establish
the 'Georgia Master Teacher Program' to provide recognition to certificated
public school teachers who exhibit excellence in the classroom.
(c)
The Professional Standards Commission shall establish criteria for a Master
Teacher Certification. Such criteria shall include, at a minimum, evidence of
student achievement, which must include student progress. A public school
teacher with three or more years of teaching experience in Georgia may submit an
application to the Professional Standards Commission for a Master Teacher
Certification. The Professional Standards Commission shall review each
application and determine whether a teacher meets the criteria for a Master
Teacher Certification. If the Professional Standards Commission finds that a
teacher's application meets the criteria, the teacher will be given a Master
Teacher Certification, and that teacher will be known as and may be called a
Master Teacher for a term to be determined pursuant to rules and regulations of
the Professional Standards Commission, but in no event longer than seven years.
The Professional Standards Commission is authorized to develop rules and
regulations governing the Master Teacher Certification.
(d)
This Code section shall be repealed on June 30,
2009."
SECTION
5.
Said
title is further amended in Code Section 20-2-212, relating to salary schedules
for certificated personnel under the "Quality Basic Education Act," by revising
subsection (a) as follows:
"(a)
The State Board of Education shall establish a schedule of minimum salaries for
services rendered which shall be on a ten-month basis and which shall be paid by
local units of administration to the various classifications of professional
personnel required to be certificated by the Professional Standards Commission.
The minimum salary schedule shall provide a minimum salary base for each
classification of professional personnel required to be certificated; shall
provide for increment increases above the minimum salary base of each
classification based upon individual experience and length of satisfactory
service; and shall include such other uniformly applicable factors as the state
board may find relevant to the establishment of such a schedule. The minimum
salary base for certificated professional personnel with bachelor's degrees and
no experience, when annualized from a ten-month basis to a 12 month basis, shall
be comparable to the beginning salaries of the recent graduates of the
University System of Georgia holding bachelor's degrees and entering positions,
excluding professional educator teaching positions, in Georgia having
educational entry requirements comparable to the requirements for entry into
Georgia public school teaching. The placement of teachers on the salary
schedule shall be based on certificate level and years of creditable experience,
except that a teacher shall not receive credit for any year of experience in
which the teacher received an unsatisfactory performance evaluation.
For purposes
of this subsection, an educator's placement on the salary schedule shall not be
based on a leadership degree, which shall mean a degree earned in conjunction
with completion of an educator leadership preparation program approved by the
Professional Standards Commission, if the degree was earned on or after July 1,
2010, unless the educator is employed in a leadership position as defined by the
State Board of Education but shall be placed on the salary schedule attributable
to the educator but for the leadership certification; provided, however, that
this shall not apply to an educator who possessed a leadership certificate prior
to July 1, 2010, regardless of whether or not he or she is in a leadership
position. The General Assembly shall
annually appropriate funds to implement a salary schedule for certificated
professional personnel. For each state fiscal year, the state board shall adopt
the salary schedule for which funding has been appropriated by the General
Assembly. A local unit of administration shall not pay to any full-time
certificated professional employee a salary less than that prescribed by the
schedule of minimum salaries, except as required by this Code section; nor shall
a local unit of administration pay to any part-time certificated professional
employee less than a pro rata portion of the respective salary prescribed by the
schedule of minimum salaries, except as required by this Code
section."
SECTION
6.
Said
title is further amended by adding a new Code section to read as
follows:
"20-3-519.15.
(a)
To be eligible for a PROMISE III teacher's scholarship, a student seeking
alternative certification as a teacher shall:
(1)
Meet residency requirements by meeting the requirements to be classified as a
legal resident of Georgia for purposes of the tuition equalization
grant;
(2)
Possess a bachelor's degree or higher;
(3)
Be accepted for enrollment into an approved alternative teacher certification
program in Georgia leading to initial certification. Such alternative program
shall be a teacher certification program not offered by a public or private
postsecondary institution as approved by the Professional Standards Commission;
and
(4)
Agree to teach in a public school in Georgia at the elementary, middle, or
secondary level for one academic year for each $1,500.00 in PROMISE III teacher
scholarship funds awarded and sign a promissory note that stipulates the cash
repayment obligation incurred if the teaching service is not
fulfilled.
(b)
Subject to the amounts appropriated by the General Assembly and provisions
relating to the scholarship shortfall reserve subaccount in Code Section
50-27-13, a PROMISE III teacher's scholarship shall not exceed a total of
$3,000.00 per recipient.
(c)
A student who terminates participation in the approved alternative teacher
certification program or who is otherwise dropped from participation by the
program shall not be eligible to continue receiving a PROMISE III teacher's
scholarship. Such student shall also not be eligible to receive a PROMISE
teacher's scholarship or a PROMISE II teacher's scholarship.
(d)
A student shall not be eligible to receive a PROMISE III teacher's scholarship
if such student is ineligible for certification by action of the Georgia
Professional Standards
Commission."
SECTION
7.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.