§ 23-78-302 — Legislative declaration

Colorado § 23-78-302

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 23: Postsecondary Education
• Art.: Teacher Preparation Programs

Text

(1) The general assembly finds that:

(a) A shortage in the availability of teachers to fill teaching positions in rural
local education providers is causing a significant hardship for rural local education
providers;

(b) The shortage is due, in part, to the high rate of turnover of teachers
entering and leaving the profession. Following graduation and initial employment, a
high percentage of teachers leave the profession within five years.

(c) The shortage in some rural local education providers also arises because
teachers, after teaching in the rural local education provider for a few years, choose
to relocate to a more urban area or to an area with a lower cost of living;

(d) A program through which a rural local education provider and an
institution of higher education enter into an agreement to provide a teaching
fellowship in the rural local education provider for selected teacher candidates in
their final year of an approved educator preparation program, which leads to
employment by the rural local education provider upon graduation, will help to
ensure that teachers are well prepared to meet the rural local education provider's
needs and expectations, have met specific competencies the rural local education
provider identified as being necessary, and are acclimated into the rural local
education provider upon hiring. A teacher who receives this level of specific
preparation for employment with a specific employer is more likely to remain in the
profession and thereby help to reduce the teacher shortage.

(e) In selecting teacher candidates to participate in a teaching fellowship
program, a rural local education provider and an institution of higher education
should give preference to applicants who resided within the area surrounding the
rural local education provider before attending a higher education institution and
are seeking the opportunity to return to the local education provider as a teacher.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2019: Entire article added with relocations, (SB 19-190), ch. 153, p. 1813, � 1, effective May 10.