Teachers; employment and licensure; locally awarded subject matter expert teaching credentials.

Teachers; employment and licensure; locally awarded subject matter expert teaching credentials. Establishes, enumerates criteria for, and permits a division superintendent or a comprehensive community college to issue a locally awarded subject matter expert teaching credential, valid for a period not to exceed three years, to any individual who demonstrates expertise in content or subject matter area in order for such individual to provide instruction or coursework in a corresponding non-core subject or course, as that term is defined in the bill, in grades six through 12 at any public school in the Commonwealth or at a comprehensive community college in the Commonwealth, including dual enrollment or concurrent enrollment courses. The bill delineates the criteria for issuance of such locally awarded subject matter expert teaching credential. The bill also contains several provisions relating to the employment of individuals under a locally awarded subject matter expert teaching credential, including (i) permitting any school division or institution of higher education to hire any such individual on a full-time or part-time basis to teach a non-core subject or course; (ii) requiring any such individual to be subject to a background clearance check and the fingerprinting and criminal history records check requirements required as a condition of employment of any applicant who is offered or accepts employment at a school division pursuant to applicable law; (iii) requiring each employing school board to assign an individual employed by such school board as a mentor to supervise any individual issued a subject matter expert teaching credential; and (iv) permitting any division superintendent to renew an individual's locally awarded subject matter expert teaching credential for a period not to exceed three additional years, provided that such individual receives satisfactory performance evaluations for each year of the original three-year locally awarded subject matter teaching credential. Finally, the bill requires each school division to annually report to the Department of Education the number of locally awarded subject matter expert teaching credentials issued for part-time and full-time teaching positions.