BILL #    HB 2608

TITLE:     teacher retention; study; report

SPONSOR:    Gress

STATUS:   As Introduced

PREPARED BY:    Gordon Robertson

 

 

 

Description

 

The bill would require the State Board of Education (SBE) to conduct a study on teacher retention rates and vacancies in school districts and charter schools and submit an annual report on the findings of the study to the Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, and the Secretary of State.

 

Estimated Impact

 

We estimate that the bill's reporting requirements would generate additional workload for SBE staff. The amount of added workload would depend on the amount of data necessary for the report is already collected by either the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), the State Board for Charter Schools (ASBCS), or SBE. As a result, we estimate that the cost would range from minimal to SBE's estimate of $175,000.

 

In addition to the cost to create and maintain any systems necessary to collect and house any required data, SBE estimates that it would require an additional FTE position to collect, analyze, and report the data required in the bill, which the Board estimates would generate an ongoing General Fund cost of $175,000. The actual magnitude of such costs would depend on the need for new data collection mechanisms for data not already collected by ADE or ASBCS.

 

Analysis

 

The bill would require the State Board of Education (SBE) to conduct a study on teacher retention rates and vacancies in school districts and charter schools and submit an annual report on the findings of the study to the Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, and the Secretary of State. The report would include retention rates and turnover rates delineated by certified and noncertified teacher, teaching assignment and location. The report would further include the number of vacant positions, including the average time to fill a vacancy, delineated by both teaching assignment and location, as well as an analysis of the effect of each teacher preparation or training program on retention and recruitment.

 

The bill would further require ADE and ASBCS to collect and provide any data requested by SBE.

 

The new report would generate additional workload for SBE staff. The magnitude of the workload increase would depend on how much information is already available to SBE through data already collected by either ADE, ASBCS, or SBE. To the extent that new data would need to be collected, the bill would also generate additional workload for ADE, ASBCS, or both.   

 

Local Government Impact

 

None

 

1/29/24