00 SENATE BILL NO. 86 01 "An Act relating to employment of teachers who have subject-matter expertise; and 02 providing for an effective date." 03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04  * Section 1. AS 14.20.010 is amended to read: 05 Sec. 14.20.010. Teacher certificate required. Except as provided in  06 AS 14.20.015, a [A] person may not be employed as a teacher in the public schools of 07 the state unless that person possesses a valid teacher certificate. However, [EXCEPT 08 THAT] a person who has made application to the department for a teacher certificate 09 or renewal of a teacher certificate that has not been acted upon by the department may 10 be employed as a teacher in the public schools of the state until the department has 11 taken action on the application, but in no case may employment without a certificate 12 last longer than three months. 13 * Sec. 2.  AS 14.20 is amended by adding a new section to read: 14 Sec. 14.20.015. Exception from certification requirement for subject- 01 matter expert teachers. (a) A school district or regional educational attendance area 02 in the state may employ a person as a subject-matter expert teacher if the person 03 (1) has received at least a baccalaureate degree from an institution of 04 higher education accredited by a recognized regional accrediting association or 05 approved by the commissioner and 06 (A) majored in the subject that the person will be teaching; or 07 (B) has at least five years' work experience in the subject 08 matter that the person will be teaching; 09 (2) has submitted fingerprints to the department to be used for a 10 criminal history background check and has been found by the department to be 11 suitable for employment as a teacher under AS 14.20.020(f); and 12 (3) pays the fee required by the department under AS 14.20.020(c) to 13 defray the cost of the criminal history background check; the amount may not exceed 14 the fee required for application for an initial regular certificate. 15 (b) Before a school district or regional educational attendance area determines 16 whether to hire a person as a subject-matter expert teacher under this section, the 17 school district or regional educational attendance area may administer a competency 18 examination. 19 (c) A person who is employed as a subject-matter expert teacher under this 20 section may only be employed to teach subjects in which the person has satisfied the 21 education or experience requirements set out in (a)(1) of this section. A teacher 22 employed under this section is subject to nonretention for the following school year 23 even if the teacher has tenure if the school district or regional educational attendance 24 area removes from its curriculum the subject that the subject-matter expert teacher is 25 employed to teach or significantly reduces the number of classes offered in the 26 subject. 27 (d) A person who is employed by a school district or regional educational 28 attendance area under this section is considered to be a certificated teacher or a 29 certificated employee for all purposes. 30 (e) In this section, a "subject-matter expert teacher" is a teacher qualified to 31 teach under (a) of this section. 01 * Sec. 3. AS 14.20.177(d) is amended to read: 02 (d) For purposes of this section, a tenured teacher is considered qualified for a 03 position if [THE POSITION IS IN] 04 (1) the position is in grades K - 8 and the teacher has an elementary 05 endorsement; 06 (2) the position is in an established middle school and the teacher has 07 (A) an elementary endorsement; 08 (B) a middle school endorsement; or 09 (C) a secondary certificate with a subject area endorsement in 10 the area of assignment in which the teacher filling the position will spend at 11 least 40 percent of the teacher's time or the teacher has, within the five years 12 immediately preceding the last date on which the teacher performed teaching 13 services in the district before being laid off, received an evaluation stating that 14 the teacher's performance in the subject or subjects meets the district 15 performance standards; [OR] 16 (3) the position is in grades 9 - 12 and the teacher has an endorsement 17 for each subject area in which the teacher filling the position will spend at least 40 18 percent of the teacher's time or the teacher has, within the five years immediately 19 preceding the last date on which the teacher performed teaching services in the district 20 before being laid off, received an evaluation stating that the teacher's performance in 21 the subject or subjects meets the district performance standards; or  22 (4) the teacher is a subject-matter expert teacher employed under  23 AS 14.20.015 and is employed to teach in a position in which the teacher has  24 subject-matter expertise. 25  * Sec. 4. This Act takes effect July 1, 2001.