§ 10-156ee — Duties re recruitment of diverse educators.

Not later than January 1, 2019, the Department of Education, in consultation with the Increasing Educator Diversity Policy Oversight Council, established pursuant to section 10-156bb, shall (1) identify relevant research and successful practices to enhance recruitment of diverse educators throughout the state, (2) identify and establish public, private and philanthropic partnerships to increase recruitment of diverse educators, (3) utilize, monitor and evaluate innovative methods to attract diverse educator candidates to the teaching profession, particularly in subject areas in which a teacher shortage exists, as determined by the Commissioner of Education pursuant to section 10-8b, (4) modernize the process for educators to obtain educator certification under this chapter by eliminating obstacles to certification to increase competitiveness with other states, (5) identify and utilize high-quality, affordable and bias-free educator assessments, (6) adopt cut scores for educator assessments, that do not exceed the multistate cut scores, to increase competitiveness with surrounding states, (7) support new and existing educator preparation programs that commit to enrolling greater numbers of diverse educator candidates in a manner that supports interstate reciprocity, (8) monitor, advise and support, and intervene in when necessary, local and regional boards of education's efforts to prioritize recruitment of diverse educators and develop innovative strategies to attract and retain diverse educators within their districts, (9) (A) on and after July 1, 2019, include a question regarding the demographic data of applicants for positions requiring educator certification in the department's annual hiring survey distributed to local and regional boards of education, and (B) not later than July 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, submit a report, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, on the applicant demographic data collected pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this subdivision to the Task Force to Diversify the Educator Workforce, established pursuant to section 10-156aa, and to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to education, and (10) not later than July 1, 2022, develop and make available, in consultation with the State Education Resource Center, a video training module for school district personnel involved in or responsible for hiring educators relating to implicit bias and anti-bias in the hiring process. For purposes of this section, “diverse” has the same meaning as provided in section 10-156bb.

Legislative History

(P.A. 18-34, S. 1; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 21-2, S. 381; P.A. 22-80, S. 20; P.A. 23-167, S. 13.) History: P.A. 18-34 effective July 1, 2018; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 21-2 added Subdiv. (10) re video training module relating to implicit bias and anti-bias in hiring process, effective July 1, 2021; P.A. 22-80 amended Subdiv. (9)(B) by replacing “minority teacher recruitment task force” with “Task Force to Diversify the Educator Workforce”, effective May 24, 2022; P.A. 23-167 replaced “Minority Teacher Recruitment Policy Oversight Council” with “Increasing Educator Diversity Policy Oversight Council, established pursuant to section 10-156bb”, replaced references to minority teachers with diverse educators and replaced definition of “minority” with “diverse”, effective July 1, 2023.