SS/SCS/SB 265 - This act directs the State Board of Education to offer the following levels of professional certificates of license to teach: an initial professional certificate, a renewable professional certificate, and a career continuous professional certificate.

Possessors of the four year, initial professional certificate shall:

- Participate in a mentoring program approved and provided by the district for a minimum of two years;

- Complete thirty contact hours of professional development, which may include hours spent in class in an appropriate college curriculum; and

- Participate in a beginning teacher assistance program provided by the school district which shall include annual, performance-based teacher evaluations and participation in a teacher professional development plan.

Possessors of the renewable professional certificate shall:

- Complete at least sixty contact hours of professional development during the renewal period, which may include hours spent in class in an appropriate college curriculum;

- Participate in a teacher professional development plan administered by the district; and

- Complete four years of teaching under the renewable certificate.

The career continuous professional certificate shall:

- Be issued upon verification of completion of criteria, which shall not exceed a master's degree or national board (or other equivalent) certification; and

- Be continuous based upon verification of actual employment in an educational position.

In order to reactivate the career continuous professional certificate, the possessor must complete twenty-four contact hours of professional development within the six months prior to or after reactivating the certificate.

Anyone who holds, as of August 28, 2003, a valid PC-I, PC-II, or continuous professional certificate shall be issued the appropriate level of certification based upon the aforementioned classification system.

The State Board may assess a fee (not to exceed the combined costs of issuance and any required criminal background check) for the issuance of the career continuous professional certificate.

The act allows a teacher who has not been employed in an educational position for three years or more to reactivate their last level of certification by completing twenty-four contact hours of professional development six months prior to or after reactivating their certificate.

The act mandates that the state board grant, upon an appropriate background check, a teaching certificate aligned with an applicant's current area of certification, commensurate with the years of teaching experience, to any person who is hired to teach in a public school in this state and who possesses a valid teaching certificate from another state. Further, this act removes a provision from Section 161.092, RSMo, which articulates a similar, yet conflicting, policy in this regard.

Also, this act adds "enticement of a child" and "attempting to entice a child" to the list of sexual offences for which a certificate of license to teach may be either revoked or not issued.
DONALD THALHUBER