| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to educator certification requirements; |
| 3 | amending s. 1012.56, F.S.; revising provisions relating to |
| 4 | the means for demonstrating mastery of subject area |
| 5 | knowledge; specifying world languages for which subject |
| 6 | area examinations may be required by State Board of |
| 7 | Education rule; authorizing degree completion and |
| 8 | attainment of foreign language proficiency on specified |
| 9 | national tests; revising requirements relating to the |
| 10 | issuance of temporary certificates; providing an effective |
| 11 | date. |
| 12 |
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| 13 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 14 |
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| 15 | Section 1. Subsections (4) and (6) of section 1012.56, |
| 16 | Florida Statutes, are amended to read: |
| 17 | 1012.56 Educator certification requirements.-- |
| 18 | (4) MASTERY OF SUBJECT AREA KNOWLEDGE.--Acceptable means |
| 19 | of demonstrating mastery of subject area knowledge are: |
| 20 | (a) Achievement of passing scores on subject area |
| 21 | examinations required by state board rule, which may include, |
| 22 | but need not be limited to, world languages in Arabic, Chinese, |
| 23 | Farsi, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, |
| 24 | Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish; |
| 25 | (b) Completion of a bachelor's degree or higher and |
| 26 | verification of the attainment of an oral proficiency interview |
| 27 | score above the intermediate level and a written proficiency |
| 28 | score above the intermediate level on a test administered by the |
| 29 | American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages for which |
| 30 | there is no Florida-developed examination; |
| 31 | (c)(b) Completion of the subject area specialization |
| 32 | requirements specified in state board rule and verification of |
| 33 | the attainment of the essential subject matter competencies by |
| 34 | the district school superintendent of the employing school |
| 35 | district or chief administrative officer of the employing state- |
| 36 | supported or private school for a subject area for which a |
| 37 | subject area examination has not been developed and required by |
| 38 | state board rule; |
| 39 | (d)(c) Completion of the subject area specialization |
| 40 | requirements specified in state board rule for a subject |
| 41 | coverage requiring a master's or higher degree and achievement |
| 42 | of a passing score on the subject area examination specified in |
| 43 | state board rule; |
| 44 | (e)(d) A valid professional standard teaching certificate |
| 45 | issued by another state; or |
| 46 | (f)(e) A valid certificate issued by the National Board |
| 47 | for Professional Teaching Standards or a national educator |
| 48 | credentialing board approved by the State Board of Education. |
| 49 |
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| 50 | School districts are encouraged to provide mechanisms for those |
| 51 | middle school teachers holding only a K-6 teaching certificate |
| 52 | to obtain a subject area coverage for middle grades through |
| 53 | postsecondary coursework or district add-on certification. |
| 54 | (6) TYPES AND TERMS OF CERTIFICATION.-- |
| 55 | (a) The Department of Education shall issue a professional |
| 56 | certificate for a period not to exceed 5 years to any applicant |
| 57 | who meets all the requirements outlined in subsection (2). |
| 58 | (b) The department shall issue a temporary certificate to |
| 59 | any applicant who completes the requirements outlined in |
| 60 | paragraphs (2)(a)-(f) and completes the subject area content |
| 61 | requirements specified in state board rule or demonstrates |
| 62 | mastery of subject area knowledge pursuant to subsection (4) and |
| 63 | holds an accredited degree or a degree approved by the |
| 64 | Department of Education at the level required for the subject |
| 65 | area specialization in state board rule. |
| 66 | (c) The department shall issue one nonrenewable 2-year |
| 67 | temporary certificate and one nonrenewable 5-year professional |
| 68 | certificate to a qualified applicant who holds a bachelor's |
| 69 | degree in the area of speech-language impairment to allow for |
| 70 | completion of a master's degree program in speech-language |
| 71 | impairment. |
| 72 |
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| 73 | Each temporary certificate is valid for 3 school fiscal years |
| 74 | and is nonrenewable. However, the requirement in paragraph |
| 75 | (2)(g) must be met within 1 calendar year of the date of |
| 76 | employment under the temporary certificate. Individuals who are |
| 77 | employed under contract at the end of the 1 calendar year time |
| 78 | period may continue to be employed through the end of the school |
| 79 | year in which they have been contracted. A school district shall |
| 80 | not employ, or continue the employment of, an individual in a |
| 81 | position for which a temporary certificate is required beyond |
| 82 | this time period if the individual has not met the requirement |
| 83 | of paragraph (2)(g). The State Board of Education shall adopt |
| 84 | rules to allow the department to extend the validity period of a |
| 85 | temporary certificate for 2 years when the requirements for the |
| 86 | professional certificate, not including the requirement in |
| 87 | paragraph (2)(g), were not completed due to the serious illness |
| 88 | or injury of the applicant or other extraordinary extenuating |
| 89 | circumstances. The department shall reissue the temporary |
| 90 | certificate for 2 additional years upon approval by the |
| 91 | Commissioner of Education. A written request for reissuance of |
| 92 | the certificate shall be submitted by the district school |
| 93 | superintendent, the governing authority of a university lab |
| 94 | school, the governing authority of a state-supported school, or |
| 95 | the governing authority of a private school. |
| 96 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2008. |