(a) For the school year commencing July 1, 2022, and each school year thereafter, each paraeducator employed by a local or regional board of education shall participate in a program of professional development. Each local and regional board of education shall make available, annually, at no cost to its paraeducators, a program of professional development that is not fewer than eighteen hours in length, of which a preponderance is in a small group or individual instructional setting. Such program of professional development shall (1) be a comprehensive, sustained and intensive approach to improving paraeducators effectiveness in increasing student knowledge achievement, (2) focus on refining and improving various effective instruction methods that are shared between and among paraeducators, (3) foster collective responsibility for improved student performance, (4) be comprised of professional learning that (A) is aligned with rigorous state student academic achievement standards, (B) is conducted among paraeducators at the school and facilitated by principals, coaches, mentors, distinguished educators, as described in section 10-145s, or other appropriate teachers, (C) occurs frequently on an individual basis or among groups of paraeducators in a job-embedded process of continuous improvement, and (D) includes a repository of best practices for instruction methods developed by paraeducators within each school that is continuously available to such paraeducators for comment and updating, and (5) include training in culturally responsive pedagogy and practice. Each program of professional development shall include professional development activities in accordance with the provisions of subsection (b) of this section. The principles and practices of social-emotional learning and restorative practices shall be integrated throughout the components of such program of professional development described in subdivisions (1) to (5), inclusive, of this subsection.
(b) Local and regional boards of education shall offer professional development activities to paraeducators as part of the plan developed pursuant to subsection (b) of section 10-220a or for any individual paraeducator. Such professional development activities may be made available by a board of education directly, through a regional educational service center or cooperative arrangement with another board of education or through arrangements with any professional development provider approved by the Commissioner of Education and shall be consistent with any goals identified by the paraeducators and the local or regional board of education.
(P.A. 22-118, S. 257.)
History: P.A. 22-118 effective July 1, 2022.
Structure Connecticut General Statutes
Title 10 - Education and Culture
Chapter 166 - Teachers and Superintendents
Section 10-144o. - Definitions.
Section 10-145a. (Formerly Sec. 10-146). - Specific components of teacher preparation programs.
Section 10-145b. - Teaching certificates.
Section 10-145c. - Election of persons certified provisionally before July 1, 1974.
Section 10-145e. - Certification for occupational subjects.
Section 10-145f. - Testing for prospective teachers.
Section 10-145g. - Regulations.
Section 10-145h. - Requirements for certification as a bilingual education teacher.
Section 10-145j. - Employment of national corps of teachers' training program graduates.
Section 10-145k. - Issuance of international teacher permit.
Section 10-145l. - Waiver from subject area major requirements for certain teachers.
Section 10-145m. - Resident teacher certificate.
Section 10-145n. - Issuance of adjunct instructor permit.
Section 10-145q. - Issuance of charter school educator permit.
Section 10-145r. - Survey on reading instruction.
Section 10-145s. - Distinguished educator designation.
Section 10-145y. - Issuance of career and technical pathways instructor permit.
Section 10-146a. - Advisory board on state certification of teachers.
Section 10-146f. - Waiver of certification requirements for bilingual teachers.
Section 10-146g. - Teachers of specialized courses.
Section 10-146h. - Report re quality of teacher preparation programs.
Section 10-146i. - Military spouse teacher permit.
Section 10-147 and 10-148. - Kindergarten certificates. Teacher to have certificate.
Section 10-148a. - Professional development for certified employees.
Section 10-148d. - Professional development for paraeducators.
Section 10-149. - Qualifications for athletic coaches of intramural and interscholastic athletics.
Section 10-149d. - Athletic directors. Definitions. Qualifications and hiring. Duties.
Section 10-149f. - Sudden cardiac arrest awareness education program. Consent form.
Section 10-149h. - Exertional heat illness awareness education program.
Section 10-150 and 10-150a. - School registers.
Section 10-151a. - Access of teacher to supervisory records and reports in personnel file.
Section 10-151c. - Nondisclosure of records of teacher performance and evaluation. Exceptions.
Section 10-151d. - Performance Evaluation Advisory Council. Responsibilities.
Section 10-151f. - Teacher evaluation and support pilot program.
Section 10-151g. - Neag School of Education study of teacher evaluation and support pilot program.
Section 10-151i. - Audits of teacher evaluation and support programs.
Section 10-152. - Discrimination in salaries of teachers.
Section 10-153b. - Selection of teachers' representatives.
Section 10-153c. - Disputes as to elections.
Section 10-153f. - Mediation and arbitration of disagreements.
Section 10-153h. - Appropriation.
Section 10-153i. - Designation of statutory agent for service of process.
Section 10-153j. - The making of service of process, notice or demand.
Section 10-153o. - Review of performance of arbitration panel members.
Section 10-153t. - Turnaround plan referees.
Section 10-154. - Homes and transportation for teachers.
Section 10-155. - Emergency teacher training program.
Section 10-155cc. - Definitions.
Section 10-155f. - Residency requirement prohibited.
Section 10-155g. - Educational Excellence Trust Fund.
Section 10-155i. - Pilot program to assist paraprofessionals.
Section 10-155j. - Development of paraprofessionals.
Section 10-155k. - School Paraeducator Advisory Council.
Section 10-155l. - Minority teacher recruitment.
Section 10-155m. - Promotion of teaching profession as career option to high school students.
Section 10-156a. - Duty-free lunch period.
Section 10-156aa. - Task Force to Diversify the Educator Workforce.
Section 10-156bb. - Minority Teacher Recruitment Policy Oversight Council.
Section 10-156c. - Military leave.
Section 10-156cc. - Report re effectiveness of minority teacher recruitment programs.
Section 10-156d. - Reemployment after military leave.
Section 10-156dd. - Student survey re minority teacher recruitment programs.
Section 10-156ee. - Duties re minority teacher recruitment.
Section 10-156gg. - Minority candidate certification, retention or residency year program.
Section 10-156ii. - Minority teacher candidate scholarship program.
Section 10-157a. - Superintendent for more than one town.
Section 10-158. - Superintendent for more than one town. Supervision districts.