Effective 28 Aug 2012

160.420. Employment provisions — school district personnel may accept charter school position and remain district employees, effect — noncertificated instructional personnel, employment, supervision. — 1. Any school district in which charter schools may be established under sections 160.400 to 160.425 shall establish a uniform policy which provides that if a charter school offers to retain the services of an employee of a school district, and the employee accepts a position at the charter school, an employee at the employee's option may remain an employee of the district and the charter school shall pay to the district the district's full costs of salary and benefits provided to the employee. The district's policy shall provide that any teacher who accepts a position at a charter school and opts to remain an employee of the district retains such teacher's permanent teacher status and retains such teacher's seniority rights in the district for three years. The school district shall not be liable for any such employee's acts while an employee of the charter school.

2. A charter school may employ noncertificated instructional personnel; provided that no more than twenty percent of the full-time equivalent instructional staff positions at the school are filled by noncertificated personnel. All noncertificated instructional personnel shall be supervised by certificated instructional personnel. A charter school that has a foreign language immersion experience as its chief educational mission, as stated in its charter, shall not be subject to the twenty-percent requirement of this subsection but shall ensure that any teachers whose duties include instruction given in a foreign language have current valid credentials in the country in which such teacher received his or her training and shall remain subject to the remaining requirements of this subsection. The charter school shall ensure that all instructional employees of the charter school have experience, training and skills appropriate to the instructional duties of the employee, and the charter school shall ensure that a criminal background check and family care safety registry check are conducted for each employee of the charter school prior to the hiring of the employee under the requirements of section 168.133. The charter school may not employ instructional personnel whose certificate of license to teach has been revoked or is currently suspended by the state board of education. Appropriate experience, training and skills of noncertificated instructional personnel shall be determined considering:

(1) Teaching certificates issued by another state or states;

(2) Certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards;

(3) College degrees in the appropriate field;

(4) Evidence of technical training and competence when such is appropriate; and

(5) The level of supervision and coordination with certificated instructional staff.

3. Personnel employed by the charter school shall participate in the retirement system of the school district in which the charter school is located, subject to the same terms, conditions, requirements and other provisions applicable to personnel employed by the school district. For purposes of participating in the retirement system, the charter school shall be considered to be a public school within the school district, and personnel employed by the charter school shall be public school employees. In the event of a lapse of the school district's corporate organization as described in subsections 1 and 4 of section 162.081, personnel employed by the charter school shall continue to participate in the retirement system and shall do so on the same terms, conditions, requirements and other provisions as they participated prior to the lapse.

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(L. 1998 S.B. 781 § 8, A.L. 2001 H.B. 660, A.L. 2005 S.B. 287, A.L. 2012 S.B. 576)