NY S03408

Establishes the "Bilingual Teachers of Tomorrow" teacher recruitment and retention program to provide grants to school districts for recruiting and retaining bilingual, certified teachers in schools with teacher shortages.

Distributes grants competitively based on the magnitude of teacher shortages, district fiscal capacity, and number of new bilingual teachers intended to be hired, with no single district receiving more than 60% of available funds.

Provides initial annual recruitment incentive awards of $10,000 to newly hired bilingual, certified teachers, renewable for up to three additional years at $10,000 per year (maximum $40,000 total), conditioned on one year of service per award year in schools with bilingual teacher shortages.

Award funds may be used to reimburse educational costs and student loan expenses incurred by recipients for teacher certification; requires written service agreements with repayment provisions if recipients fail to meet service obligations, except where hardship waivers are granted.

Requires the commissioner to report annually by November 1st to the governor and legislature on program grants, uses of funds, number of awards granted, and analysis of program effectiveness in recruiting and retaining bilingual teachers.