As Amended
SEC. 37-17-8. Comprehensive in-service staff development plans.
(1) The State Board of Education shall, through the Commission on School Accreditation, establish criteria for comprehensive in-service staff development plans. These criteria shall: (a) include, but not be limited to, formula and guidelines for allocating state funds for in-service training to local school districts which have an approved plan; (b) provide that such funds may not be allocated to local school districts which do not have approved plans; and (c) require that a certain portion of the funds allocated pursuant to an approved plan be used exclusively for the purpose of providing staff development training for beginning teachers within that local school district and for no other purpose. The board shall each year make recommendations to the Legislature concerning the amount of funds which shall be appropriated for this purpose.
(2) Beginning in school year 1984-1985, and each school year thereafter, every school district shall submit to the Commission on School Accreditation for its approval a comprehensive in-service training staff development plan to be used in that school district. Before the plan is submitted to the commission, the plan shall have been prepared by a district committee appointed by the district superintendent and consisting of teachers, administrators, school board members, and lay people, and it shall have been approved by the district superintendent.
(3) In the event any school district meets Level 4 or 5 accreditation standards, the State Board of Education may, in its discretion, exempt such school district from the provisions of this section.
SOURCES: Laws, 1982, Ex Sess, ch. 17, Sec. 13; 1992, ch. 519, Sec. 6, eff from and after July 1, 1992.