H.F. No. 3965 Summary

• Expands the definition of "shortage area" to include economic development regions where there is a shortage of licensed teachers who reflect the racial or ethnic diversity of students in the region, effective July 1, 2022.

• Requires the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board to survey school districts and teacher preparation programs, reporting biennially in odd-numbered years on teacher shortages, early retirement patterns, teacher diversity, and substitute teacher shortages by licensure field and economic development region.

• Mandates the February 1, 2023 report include the number of teacher openings by school district in six specific fields: English as a second language, early childhood, special education, career and technical education, science/technology/engineering/arts/math, and world languages.

• Requires reports to include aggregate teacher race and ethnicity data, hiring progress data broken down by license tier level, unfilled teacher assignments by school district, and five-year teacher demand projections by district.