SPONSOR:	Sen. Sokola & Sen. Townsend & Rep. Jaques
	Sens. Poore, Hall-Long, Lopez, Henry, Lavelle; Reps. M. Smith, Schwartzkopf, Briggs King, Bolden, Hudson, Barbieri, Kenton, Hensley, Heffernan, Ramone, Spiegelman

DELAWARE STATE SENATE

148th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE BILL NO. 31

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 214, VOLUME 78 OF THE LAWS OF DELAWARE RELATING TO EDUCATOR LICENSURE AND CERTIFICATION.

SYNOPSIS

This bill repeals the sunset provision included in Chapter 214, Volume 78 of the Laws of Delaware, which will continue to enable the Teach For America (TFA) program to recruit and train teachers from Delaware schools and from across the nation to teach in Delaware. This bill maintains the requirement that Teach For America corps members in Delaware complete Teach For America’s pre-service training of not less than 200 hours in order to be in compliance with the pre-service requirement to which other alternative route to teacher licensure candidates are held—which is 120 pre-service hours. Given the diversity of undergraduate programs across the nation from which TFA program participants in Delaware come, this bill maintains the provision of law which allows TFA program participants to demonstrate content mastery by passing a state-approved content exam and completing pre-service training or by meeting specific undergraduate content hours in field. The program is designed to increase the pool of potential teachers across grade levels and subject areas for Delaware’s highest needs schools and provide the necessary training for these new teachers to be successful.

For the 2014-2015 school year, there are 57 TFA teachers working in 22 Delaware schools in 6 districts and 5 charter schools. Those teachers contribute to the education of approximately 7,000 students. Since its inception in Delaware, TFA has recruited, selected, trained, placed and supported 150 teachers. This legislation will allow this important effort to continue.

Author: Senator Sokola