By Dukes                                              H.B. No. 2776
         76R5607 BDH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to induction-year programs for teachers in public schools.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 21.044, Education Code, is amended to
 1-5     read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 21.044.  EDUCATOR PREPARATION.  The board shall propose
 1-7     rules establishing the training requirements a person must
 1-8     accomplish to obtain a certificate or [,] enter an internship[, or
 1-9     enter an induction-year program].   The board shall specify the
1-10     minimum academic qualifications required for a certificate.
1-11           SECTION 2.  Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
1-12     amended by adding Section 21.0501 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 21.0501.  INDUCTION-YEAR MENTOR PROGRAM.  (a)  The board
1-14     shall propose rules establishing guidelines for induction-year
1-15     mentor programs for beginning teachers.  The guidelines must
1-16     include:
1-17                 (1)  minimum qualifications for selection of mentor
1-18     teachers, including requirements that:
1-19                       (A)  a committee of certified educators in a
1-20     school district select teachers to serve as mentors in the
1-21     district;
1-22                       (B)  the mentor teacher teach at the same grade
1-23     level as the beginning teacher;
1-24                       (C)  the mentor teacher teach an academic subject
 2-1     similar to a subject that the beginning teacher teaches;
 2-2                       (D)  the mentor possess exceptional teaching
 2-3     skills; and
 2-4                       (E)  the mentor have at least four years of
 2-5     teaching experience;
 2-6                 (2)  training for mentor teachers, including training
 2-7     related to the demonstration of effective strategies, observation
 2-8     of beginning teachers, and guidance of beginning teachers;
 2-9                 (3)  a requirement that a beginning teacher and the
2-10     beginning teacher's mentor meet a minimum of 20 hours in the
2-11     classroom and 50 hours outside of the classroom each school year;
2-12                 (4)  recommended support structures; and
2-13                 (5)  a method for including information from mentor
2-14     teachers about the performance of beginning teachers in the
2-15     evaluation of educator preparation programs under Section 21.045.
2-16           (b)  A mentor teacher under this section is entitled to a
2-17     stipend in an amount, not to exceed 10 percent of the teacher's
2-18     salary, determined by the board of trustees of the school district.
2-19           (c)  Each school year, a school district is entitled to
2-20     receive, subject to the availability of funds appropriated to the
2-21     board for that purpose, assistance from the state in an amount
2-22     equal to the stipends received by all mentor teachers in the
2-23     district under this section.  If the amount appropriated is not
2-24     sufficient to pay the full amounts to which districts are entitled,
2-25     the board shall reduce each district's entitlement proportionately.
2-26           SECTION 3.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
2-27     school year.
 3-1           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-6     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-7     passage, and it is so enacted.