§ 115C-296.7.  North Carolina Teacher Corps.

(a) There is established the North Carolina Teacher Corps (NC Teacher Corps) to recruit and place recent graduates of colleges and universities and mid-career professionals as teachers in high needs public schools.

(b) The State Board of Education, in consultation with the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, shall develop and administer the NC Teacher Corps. In the development of the NC Teacher Corps, the State Board of Education shall consider examples of other successful teacher recruitment models used nationally and in other states.

(c) Applications shall be received annually for admission to the NC Teacher Corps. The State Board of Education shall establish application criteria, including, at a minimum, an award of a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. The State Board of Education may establish a committee to annually evaluate and select candidates for admission to the NC Teacher Corps.

(d) The State Board of Education shall identify local school administrative units with unmet recruitment needs, especially for career and technical education teachers, and high needs schools and shall coordinate placement of NC Teacher Corps members in those schools.

(e) The State Board of Education, in coordination with the Board of Governors, shall develop an intensive summer training institute for NC Teacher Corps members to provide coursework and training on essential teaching frameworks, curricula, and lesson-planning skills, as well as identification and education of students with disabilities, positive management of student behavior, effective communication for defusing and deescalating disruptive and dangerous behavior, and safe and appropriate use of seclusion and restraint. The intensive summer training institute also shall address identification of difficulty with reading development and of reading deficiencies and the provision of reading instruction, intervention, and remediation strategies.

(f) The State Board of Education, in coordination with the Board of Governors, shall provide ongoing support to NC Teaching Corps members through coaching, mentoring, and continued professional development.

(g) NC Teaching Corps members shall be granted residency licenses pursuant to Article 17E of this Chapter.

(h) The State Board of Education is authorized to contract for the administration of the NC Teacher Corps. (2012-142, s. 7A.7(a); 2013-1, s. 2(a); 2013-360, s. 8.21(c); 2015-241, s. 8.41(i); 2017-189, s. 6(b).)