NOTICE OF PROPOSED CHANGES ON TEACHER CERTIFICATION IN THE REGULATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & EARLY DEVELOPMENT

The Department of Education & Early Development proposes to amend regulations regarding a variety of matters related to teacher certification. The regulations implement legislation enacted in 2015 that requires additional teacher training. The regulations also revise certain endorsement requirements, modify certain content area examination requirements, reduce the number of required fingerprint cards, modify certain requirements for a highly qualified teacher designation, and make other technical and organizational changes and clarifications.

The Department of Education & Early Development proposes to adopt regulation changes in Title 4 of the Alaska Administrative Code dealing with teacher certification, which may address the following:

• Incorporating the training required by sec. 10, ch. 2, SSSLA 2015 (a new state law) into the certification requirements for initial applications and renewals, effective June 30, 2017. Training must address

o alcohol and drug-related disabilities;

o sexual abuse and sexual assault awareness and prevention;

o dating violence and abuse awareness and prevention; and

o suicide prevention;

• Providing additional options for content area examinations, including required scores, for the purposes of designating a teacher as highly qualified, obtaining a certificate and initial endorsements, and adding endorsements to a teacher certificate;

• Consolidating all content area examination requirements in a new section 4 AAC 12.407;

• Expanding the list of competency examinations to include the National Evaluation Series Essential Academic Skills, the SAT, and the ACT;

• Reducing the number of required fingerprint cards to be submitted with an application from two to one;

• Removing obsolete provisions such as the Alaska Teacher Performance Review and the  transition to the current tiered licensure program from the previous teacher certification structure;

• Allowing for accreditation of educator preparation programs by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation standards;

• Modifying the requirements for a highly qualified designation for an elementary subject matter specialist and for seventh and eighth grade teachers

• Specifying the fee for removal of a special education endorsement; and

• Additional technical and organizational changes related to teacher certification.

You may comment on the proposed regulation changes, including the potential costs to private persons of complying with the proposed changes, by submitting written comments to the Commissioner’s Office, Department of Education & Early Development, Attn: Regulations Review, 801 West Tenth Street, Suite 200, PO Box 110500, Juneau, Alaska 99811-0500. Additionally, the Department of Education & Early Development will accept comments by facsimile at (907) 465-4156; by electronic mail at shawn.sypeck@alaska.gov; and at https://education.alaska.gov/regs/comment.cfm. Comments also may be submitted through the Alaska Online Public Notice System by accessing this notice on the system and using the comment link. The comments must be received not later than 4:30 p.m. on October 30, 2015.

Oral comments may be submitted at a hearing to be held on December 10, 2015, at the Anchorage School District’s board room at 5530 E. Northern Lights Blvd., Anchorage, Alaska. The hearing will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and might be extended to accommodate those present before 7:55 a.m. who did not have an opportunity to comment.

You also may comment at this hearing, during this time only, via the Legislative Information Office streaming by calling 1-844-586-9085 if you are outside of Juneau. For participation from Juneau, call 586-9085. This meeting will be streamed through the Legislative Information Office over http://www.alaskalegislature.tv/  beginning at 8:00 a.m. December 10, 2015, and 8:30 a.m. December 11, 2015 (audio only). 

Persons also may comment at the oral hearing via the following Legislative Information Offices:

Anchorage, 716 W 4th Ave., Suite 100; Barrow, 119 Bank Building.; Bethel, 301 Willow Street; Fairbanks, 1292 Sadler Way, Suite 308; Juneau, Suite 111, Terry Miller Building, State Capitol; Kenai, 145 Main Street Loop, Suite 217; Ketchikan, 1900 First Avenue, Suite 310; Kodiak, 305 Center Ave., Suite 1; Kotzebue, 373 2nd Street, Pillautuq Centre; Mat-Su, 600 East Railroad Ave.; Nome 103 Front Street; Seward, 302 Railway, Suite 107; Sitka, 201 Katlian Street, Suite 103; Unalaska, 029 Airport Beach Road., No. 03-01.

You may submit written questions relevant to the proposed action to Shawn Sypeck at shawn.sypeck@alaska.gov or Department of Education & Early Development, Attn: Shawn Sypeck, 801 West Tenth Street, Suite 200, PO Box 110500, Juneau, Alaska 99811-0500. The questions must be received at least 10 days before the end of the public comment period. The Department of Education & Early Development will aggregate its response to substantially similar questions and make the questions and responses available on the Alaska Online Public Notice System and https://education.alaska.gov/regs/comment.cfm.

If you are a person with a disability who needs a special accommodation in order to participate in this process, please contact Ms. Shawn Sypeck at (907) 465-2802 or shawn.sypeck@alaska.gov not later than December 4, 2015, to ensure that any necessary accommodation can be provided.

A copy of material proposed for adoption by reference is available on the Alaska Online Public Notice System or https://education.alaska.gov/regs/comment.cfm. A copy of the proposed regulation changes is available on the Alaska Online Public Notice System, at https://education.alaska.gov/regs/comment.cfm, and by contacting Shawn Sypeck at shawn.sypeck@alaska.gov or 907-465-2851.

After the public comment period ends, the Department of Education & Early Development will either adopt the proposed regulation changes or other provisions dealing with the same subject, without further notice, or decide to take no action. The language of the final regulation may be different from that of the proposed regulation. You should comment during the time allowed if your interests could be affected.

Statutory Authority: AS 14.07.060, AS 14.20.020

Statutes Being Implemented, Interpreted, or Made Specific: AS 14.20.010, AS 14.20.015, AS 14.20.017, AS 14.20.020, AS 14.20.022, AS 14.20.025, AS 14.20.620, AS 14.20.630, AS 14.20.680, AS 14.30.255, AS 14.30.355, AS 14.30.356, AS 14.30.362, AS 14.50.080

Fiscal information: The proposed regulation changes are not expected to require an increased appropriation.