Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, the following provisions shall apply to teachers of English as a Second Language, hereinafter referred to as ESL. Every teacher of ESL shall either hold the ESL certificate or shall be teaching under a waiver requested by the school district and granted by the department of education. Any teacher of ESL, who is not currently certified in ESL but who holds an elementary education or secondary English certificate granted prior to September first, nineteen hundred and eighty-two which qualified the teacher to teach ESL, shall have up to three years to meet the current requirements for ESL certification. This three year time period shall commence on the date the teacher receives from the department of education notice of the specific certification requirements which the teacher must satisfy. For each school year during this time period, the employing school district shall request, and said department shall grant, a waiver for employment of the teacher, according to said department's standards and procedures for waivers, on an annual renewal basis, provided that the teacher has, in the judgment of said department, made sufficient progress each year toward completing the certification requirement.