CT SB01034

Establishes a minority candidate certification, retention, or residency year program administered by the Department of Education beginning FY 2022, designed to help minority paraprofessionals and associate instructors become full-time certified teachers through State Board of Education-approved residency programs requiring 10 months of full-time supervised service.

Requires alliance districts to partner with residency program operators and funds the program by withholding 10% of any increase in alliance district funding above the FY 2020 level; non-alliance districts may voluntarily participate and apply for grants within available appropriations.

Directs the Commissioner of Education, the president of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, and the dean of UConn's Neag School of Education to jointly develop a plan promoting teaching careers to high school students, and requires the Department of Education to distribute teaching profession promotional materials to school districts by September 1, 2021.

Requires the Department of Education, in consultation with the State Education Resource Center, to develop and make available by July 1, 2022, a video training module on implicit bias and anti-bias in the educator hiring process.

Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, mandates that any school district employee involved in hiring educators must complete the implicit bias training module before participating in the hiring process, and adds culturally responsive pedagogy and practice to required in-service training topics for certified educators.