Bill Text: IL HB1981 | 2013-2014 | 98th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the School Code. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning teacher tenure.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2014-12-03 - Session Sine Die [HB1981 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2013-HB1981-Introduced.html

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98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2013 and 2014 HB1981 Introduced , by Rep. Tom Cross SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
105 ILCS 5/24-11 from Ch. 122, par. 24-11
Amends the School Code. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning teacher tenure.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning education.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section
24-11 as follows:
(105 ILCS 5/24-11) (from Ch. 122, par. 24-11)
Sec. 24-11. Boards of Education - Boards of School
Inspectors - Contractual continued service.
(a) As used in this and and the succeeding Sections of this
Article:
"Teacher" means any or all school district employees
regularly required to be certified under laws relating to the
certification of teachers.
"Board" means board of directors, board of education, or
board of school inspectors, as the case may be.
"School term" means that portion of the school year, July 1
to the following June 30, when school is in actual session.
"Program" means a program of a special education joint
agreement.
"Program of a special education joint agreement" means
instructional, consultative, supervisory, administrative,
diagnostic, and related services that are managed by a special
educational joint agreement designed to service 2 or more

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school districts that are members of the joint agreement.
"PERA implementation date" means the implementation date
of an evaluation system for teachers as specified by Section
24A-2.5 of this Code for all schools within a school district
or all programs of a special education joint agreement.
(b) This Section and Sections 24-12 through 24-16 of this
Article apply only to school districts having less than 500,000
inhabitants.
(c) Any teacher who is first employed as a full-time
teacher in a school district or program prior to the PERA
implementation date and who is employed in that district or
program for a probationary period of 4 consecutive school terms
shall enter upon contractual continued service in the district
or in all of the programs that the teacher is legally qualified
to hold, unless the teacher is given written notice of
dismissal by certified mail, return receipt requested, by the
employing board at least 45 days before the end of any school
term within such period.
(d) For any teacher who is first employed as a full-time
teacher in a school district or program on or after the PERA
implementation date, the probationary period shall be one of
the following periods, based upon the teacher's school terms of
service and performance, before the teacher shall enter upon
contractual continued service in the district or in all of the
programs that the teacher is legally qualified to hold, unless
the teacher is given written notice of dismissal by certified

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mail, return receipt requested, by the employing board at least
45 days before the end of any school term within such period:
(1) 4 consecutive school terms of service in which the
teacher receives overall annual evaluation ratings of at
least "Proficient" in the last school term and at least
"Proficient" in either the second or third school term;
(2) 3 consecutive school terms of service in which the
teacher receives 3 overall annual evaluations of
"Excellent"; or
(3) 2 consecutive school terms of service in which the
teacher receives 2 overall annual evaluations of
"Excellent" service, but only if the teacher (i) previously
attained contractual continued service in a different
school district or program in this State, (ii) voluntarily
departed or was honorably dismissed from that school
district or program in the school term immediately prior to
the teacher's first school term of service applicable to
the attainment of contractual continued service under this
subdivision (3), and (iii) received, in his or her 2 most
recent overall annual or biannual evaluations from the
prior school district or program, ratings of "Proficient",
with both such ratings occurring after the school
district's or program's PERA implementation date.
If the teacher does not receive overall annual evaluations
of "Excellent" in the school terms necessary for eligibility to
achieve accelerated contractual continued service in

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subdivisions (2) and (3) of this subsection (d), the teacher
shall be eligible for contractual continued service pursuant to
subdivision (1) of this subsection (d). If, at the conclusion
of 4 consecutive school terms of service that count toward
attainment of contractual continued service, the teacher's
performance does not qualify the teacher for contractual
continued service under subdivision (1) of this subsection (d),
then the teacher shall not enter upon contractual continued
service and shall be dismissed. If a performance evaluation is
not conducted for any school term when such evaluation is
required to be conducted under Section 24A-5 of this Code, then
the teacher's performance evaluation rating for such school
term for purposes of determining the attainment of contractual
continued service shall be deemed "Proficient".
(e) For the purposes of determining contractual continued
service, a school term shall be counted only toward attainment
of contractual continued service if the teacher actually
teaches or is otherwise present and participating in the
district's or program's educational program for 120 days or
more, provided that the days of leave under the federal Family
Medical Leave Act that the teacher is required to take until
the end of the school term shall be considered days of teaching
or participation in the district's or program's educational
program. A school term that is not counted toward attainment of
contractual continued service shall not be considered a break
in service for purposes of determining whether a teacher has

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been employed for 4 consecutive school terms, provided that the
teacher actually teaches or is otherwise present and
participating in the district's or program's educational
program in the following school term.
(f) If the employing board determines to dismiss the
teacher in the last year of the probationary period as provided
in subsection (c) of this Section or subdivision (1) or (2) of
subsection (d) of this Section, but not subdivision (3) of
subsection (d) of this Section, the written notice of dismissal
provided by the employing board must contain specific reasons
for dismissal. Any full-time teacher who does not receive
written notice from the employing board at least 45 days before
the end of any school term as provided in this Section and
whose performance does not require dismissal after the fourth
probationary year pursuant to subsection (d) of this Section
shall be re-employed for the following school term.
(g) Contractual continued service shall continue in effect
the terms and provisions of the contract with the teacher
during the last school term of the probationary period, subject
to this Act and the lawful regulations of the employing board.
This Section and succeeding Sections do not modify any existing
power of the board except with respect to the procedure of the
discharge of a teacher and reductions in salary as hereinafter
provided. Contractual continued service status shall not
restrict the power of the board to transfer a teacher to a
position which the teacher is qualified to fill or to make such

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salary adjustments as it deems desirable, but unless reductions
in salary are uniform or based upon some reasonable
classification, any teacher whose salary is reduced shall be
entitled to a notice and a hearing as hereinafter provided in
the case of certain dismissals or removals.
(h) If, by reason of any change in the boundaries of school
districts or by reason of the creation of a new school
district, the position held by any teacher having a contractual
continued service status is transferred from one board to the
control of a new or different board, then the contractual
continued service status of the teacher is not thereby lost,
and such new or different board is subject to this Code with
respect to the teacher in the same manner as if the teacher
were its employee and had been its employee during the time the
teacher was actually employed by the board from whose control
the position was transferred.
(i) The employment of any teacher in a program of a special
education joint agreement established under Section 3-15.14,
10-22.31 or 10-22.31a shall be governed by this and succeeding
Sections of this Article. For purposes of attaining and
maintaining contractual continued service and computing length
of continuing service as referred to in this Section and
Section 24-12, employment in a special educational joint
program shall be deemed a continuation of all previous
certificated employment of such teacher for such joint
agreement whether the employer of the teacher was the joint

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agreement, the regional superintendent, or one of the
participating districts in the joint agreement.
(j) For any teacher employed after July 1, 1987 as a
full-time teacher in a program of a special education joint
agreement, whether the program is operated by the joint
agreement or a member district on behalf of the joint
agreement, in the event of a reduction in the number of
programs or positions in the joint agreement in which the
notice of dismissal is provided on or before the end of the
2010-2011 school term, the teacher in contractual continued
service is eligible for employment in the joint agreement
programs for which the teacher is legally qualified in order of
greater length of continuing service in the joint agreement,
unless an alternative method of determining the sequence of
dismissal is established in a collective bargaining agreement.
For any teacher employed after July 1, 1987 as a full-time
teacher in a program of a special education joint agreement,
whether the program is operated by the joint agreement or a
member district on behalf of the joint agreement, in the event
of a reduction in the number of programs or positions in the
joint agreement in which the notice of dismissal is provided
during the 2011-2012 school term or a subsequent school term,
the teacher shall be included on the honorable dismissal lists
of all joint agreement programs for positions for which the
teacher is qualified and is eligible for employment in such
programs in accordance with subsections (b) and (c) of Section

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24-12 of this Code and the applicable honorable dismissal
policies of the joint agreement.
(k) For any teacher employed after July 1, 1987 as a
full-time teacher in a program of a special education joint
agreement, whether the program is operated by the joint
agreement or a member district on behalf of the joint
agreement, in the event of the dissolution of a joint
agreement, in which the notice to teachers of the dissolution
is provided during the 2010-2011 school term, the teacher in
contractual continued service who is legally qualified shall be
assigned to any comparable position in a member district
currently held by a teacher who has not entered upon
contractual continued service or held by a teacher who has
entered upon contractual continued service with a shorter
length of contractual continued service. Any teacher employed
after July 1, 1987 as a full-time teacher in a program of a
special education joint agreement, whether the program is
operated by the joint agreement or a member district on behalf
of the joint agreement, in the event of the dissolution of a
joint agreement in which the notice to teachers of the
dissolution is provided during the 2011-2012 school term or a
subsequent school term, the teacher who is qualified shall be
included on the order of honorable dismissal lists of each
member district and shall be assigned to any comparable
position in any such district in accordance with subsections
(b) and (c) of Section 24-12 of this Code and the applicable

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honorable dismissal policies of each member district.
(l) The governing board of the joint agreement, or the
administrative district, if so authorized by the articles of
agreement of the joint agreement, rather than the board of
education of a school district, may carry out employment and
termination actions including dismissals under this Section
and Section 24-12.
(m) The employment of any teacher in a special education
program authorized by Section 14-1.01 through 14-14.01, or a
joint educational program established under Section 10-22.31a,
shall be under this and the succeeding Sections of this
Article, and such employment shall be deemed a continuation of
the previous employment of such teacher in any of the
participating districts, regardless of the participation of
other districts in the program.
(n) Any teacher employed as a full-time teacher in a
special education program prior to September 23, 1987 in which
2 or more school districts participate for a probationary
period of 2 consecutive years shall enter upon contractual
continued service in each of the participating districts,
subject to this and the succeeding Sections of this Article,
and, notwithstanding Section 24-1.5 of this Code, in the event
of the termination of the program shall be eligible for any
vacant position in any of such districts for which such teacher
is qualified.
(Source: P.A. 97-8, eff. 6-13-11.)