A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT directing the state board of education to establish a pilot program for lateral entry teachers.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The State Board of Education shall establish a pilot program for lateral entry teachers in up to eight local school administrative units, one of which shall be Guilford County Schools. The State Board shall ensure that, to the extent possible, the selected units are of different sizes and distributed geographically throughout the State. The program shall be implemented beginning with the 2008‑2009 school year. Under the pilot program, participating local school administrative units shall review the college transcripts of lateral entry teachers and determine a program of study that the teachers must complete.  The pilot unit shall then arrange to provide course offerings that meet the unit's and the teacher's needs. Under no circumstances shall a lateral entry teacher in the pilot units be permitted to take fewer than nine credit hours of community college, college, or university coursework. Lateral entry teachers employed by the pilot units shall meet all other State Board of Education lateral entry program requirements.
The State Board of Education shall certify these lateral entry teachers based upon the recommendation of the pilot units. If a lateral entry teacher leaves a pilot unit before completing the coursework prescribed by that unit and is hired to teach in another local school administrative unit in the State, that teacher shall receive credit for any completed coursework and shall be permitted to continue with the course of study prescribed by the pilot unit to satisfy the lateral entry program requirements.
SECTION 2.  Each of the pilot units shall report on the effectiveness of the unit's lateral entry program to the State Board of Education and the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by October 1, 2010. The reports shall include any recommendations regarding the continuation, expansion, or elimination of the pilot program.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007, and expires June 30, 2011.