22192938, 6AER19-1 - Florida Administrative Rules, Law, Code, Register

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Florida Department of State and Division of Library and Information Services

Notice: 22192938

Notice of Emergency Rule

Department:

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Division:

State Board of Education

Overview

RULE:

6AER19-1

Content Expert for Best and Brightest Recruitment Award

SPECIFIC REASONS FOR FINDING AN IMMEDIATE DANGER TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY OR WELFARE:

The mission of Florida’s educational system is to increase the proficiency of all students by allowing them to expand their knowledge and skills through learning opportunities.  This mission is dependent upon Florida’s public schools recruiting and retaining qualified teachers.  In Florida, there is a critical teacher shortage.  Certain areas of the state have been unable to recruit a sufficient number of classroom teachers by the beginning of this school year. This problem is especially pronounced for certain subject areas, such as mathematics, science and computer science.  
Effective July 1, 2019, the legislature provided school districts funding to recruit classroom teachers who are content experts in certain subjects.  The criteria to identify content experts must be established by the Department of Education.  However, most public schools in Florida are set to begin on August 12th and there is not sufficient time before school starts to establish this criteria by the normal rulemaking process.  Unless this criteria is established by emergency rule, school districts will be unable to utilize these funds to recruit teachers by the beginning of this school year.  Moreover, unless the criteria is set by emergency rule and recruitment awards provided by school districts, school districts will be unable to distribute recognition awards to their K-12 instructional personnel.  The legislature appropriated funds this year to school districts so that the districts can recognize K-12 instructional personnel who are rated as effective or highly effective based upon criteria and policies set by the school districts.  However, these funds cannot be distributed by the school districts until the recruitment awards have been made.  
Based upon the foregoing, the agency finds an immediate danger to public welfare requires an emergency rule in order to assist with recruiting teachers to Florida to mitigate the teacher shortages in critical areas.

REASON FOR CONCLUDING THAT THE PROCEDURE IS FAIR UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES:

There are multiple reasons for concluding that the procedure used is fair under these circumstances.  First, because school begins in August, there is not sufficient time to adopt a rule through non-emergency means before the start of the 2019-20 school year.  Second, the agency has received multiple requests from school districts to clarify and define the criteria for content area experts so that districts can use the funds for remaining recruitment efforts.  Additionally, the emergency rule allows districts to distribute not only recruitment awards to new teachers, but since recruitment awards must be made before recognition awards, this rule will allow school districts the opportunity to distribute recognition funding to K-12 instructional personnel.  Further, the agency is of the opinion that the procedure is fair because the rule itself relies in part upon criteria established in an existing rule that has already been adopted through the full rulemaking process.  Moreover, the emergency rule was published on the Department’s website in an effort to reach interested persons.  Finally, the agency intends to proceed with the normal rulemaking process as soon as possible in order to seek input from interested persons for any subsequent awards.

SUMMARY:

The emergency rule provides the criteria for identifying content experts in mathematics, science, computer science, reading, and civics in order to allow school districts to provide recruitment awards on this basis for newly hired classroom teachers.

THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED REGARDING THE EMERGENCY RULE IS:

Dr. Paul Burns, Deputy Chancellor for Educator Quality, Paul.Burns@fldoe.org, 850-245-0509.

PRINT PUBLISH DATE:

7/30/2019 Vol. 45/147

OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:

Joint Administrative Procedures Committee
Florida Administrative Law Central Online Network (F.A.L.C.O.N.)

RELATED COURT CASES:

Division of Administrative Hearings

FEDERAL eRULEMAKING
WEB PORTAL:

Regulations.gov

HOW TO LINK TO
THIS NOTICE:

http://flrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?id=6AER19-1&PDate=7/30/2019&Section=4

REFERENCE MATERIALS:

No reference(s).

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