S704 - COVID-19 Recovery Act. (SL 2020-3)

Overview: Section 2.2. of S.L. 2020-3 makes the following changes for Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs):

• Waiver of Minimum EPP Admission Requirements. – The following minimum requirements for EPP admissions are waived for the 2020-2021 academic year:
• The admissions testing requirement.
• The individual grade performance average (GPA) requirement of at least a 2.7, provided the student has at least a 2.7 before beginning a clinical internship.
• The cohort GPA requirement of at least a 3.0.
• Waiver of EPP Student Clinical Internship Requirement. – The EPP required clinical internship for Spring 2020 is deemed completed under certain conditions, including that the student meets the requirements on the certificate of teacher capacity and continues to work with a school to engage in remote learning as practicable.
• Pedagogy Assessments for Certain Teacher Candidates. – Students whose clinical internships are deemed completed for Spring 2020 cannot be required by the State Board of Education (SBE) to complete a pedagogy assessment as a requirement for completion of the EPP program for the 2019-2020 academic year. Those students will be required to attempt the pedagogy assessment by the end of their first year of licensure and must pass the assessment by the end of their third year of licensure.
• Waiver of the Report of Certain EPP Performance Data. – In submitting data to the SBE for the purposes of performance standards in 2020, EPPs are only required to report data that is practicably available from the 2019-2020 academic year, due to the lack of student assessment data and the closure of schools for in-person instruction.
• Use of Certain EPP Data Prohibited in Assigning Sanctions. – The SBE is prohibited from considering data that was not practicably available related to the 2019-2020 school year when assigning sanctions to an EPP.
• Suspension of EPP Report Card Publication. – Publication of EPP report cards on the SBE Web site for the 2019-2020 academic year is suspended. The SBE must, however, report the information to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee.

This section became effective May 4, 2020.