Existing law creates the Commission on Professional Standards in Education and requires the Commission to adopt regulations prescribing the qualifications for licensing teachers and other educational personnel. (NRS 391.011, 391.019) Under existing law, such regulations must include a requirement that to be eligible to teach in a field of specialization, a teacher is required to obtain from the Department of Education an endorsement in that field of specialization, unless the Superintendent of Public Instruction approves a request submitted by the board of trustees of a school district to employ licensed teachers who do not hold an endorsement to teach in a subject area for which there is a shortage of teachers at a public school within the district. (NRS 391.019, 391.125) Existing regulations: (1) require that to teach pupils enrolled in a program of bilingual education, a person must hold an endorsement issued by the Department to teach pupils in a program of bilingual education and pass an examination or assessment to demonstrate language proficiency; and (2) establish the requirements for a person to obtain such an endorsement. (NAC 391.059, 391.242) Section 4 of this bill specifically requires the regulations adopted by the Commission to include a requirement that to teach pupils enrolled in a program of bilingual education, a person must hold an endorsement issued by the Department to teach pupils in a program of bilingual education. Section 3 of this bill requires the board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of a charter school to provide a stipend of $2,500 each school year to each teacher who is assigned to teach pupils enrolled in a program of bilingual education and who holds an endorsement to teach pupils enrolled in a program of bilingual education. For the purposes of sections 3 and 4, a “program of bilingual education” is defined as a program of instruction for English learners in which pupils are taught the English language and the content of other courses of study is taught in the pupil's primary language. Existing law requires the board of trustees of each school district and the governing body of each charter school to submit an annual report to certain entities that includes certain information on budgets and expenditures. (NRS 387.303, 388A.345) Sections 1 and 2 of this bill require such a report to additionally include information on the number of employees who received the stipend described in section 3 in the preceding and then-current fiscal years.

Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 387.303, 388A.345, 391.019