SCHOOL COUNSELORS
House Bill 5740
Sponsor: Rep. Gerald Van Woerkom
Committee: Education
Complete to 5-4-00
A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 5740 AS INTRODUCED 5-4-00
House Bill 5740 would amend the Revised School Code to allow, under certain circumstances, a school district to employ a school counselor who was not certified as a teacher.
Currently under the law, the board of a school district or intermediate school district cannot allow a teacher who does not hold a valid teaching certificate to teach in a grade or department of the school, or a teacher without an endorsement by the state board to serve in a counseling role, as that role is defined by the state board.
House Bill 5740 specifies instead that the board of a school district or intermediate school district could not allow an individual to serve in a counseling role in the district as that role was defined by the superintendent of public instruction, unless the individual met one or more of the following: a) the individual held a valid teaching certificate with a counseling endorsement; or b) the individual held at least a master's degree in guidance counseling in education, or an equivalent degree as approved by the superintendent of public instruction.
In addition, the current law requires an intermediate superintendent to notify immediately the state board of the names of noncertificated teachers who are teaching in violation of this provision, and the names of nonendorsed teachers serving in counseling roles, the employing district, and the amount of time the noncertificated and nonendorsed teachers were employed. House Bill 5740 specifies that the intermediate superintendent would instead immediately notify the superintendent of public instruction, and the bill would eliminate the references to nonendorsed teachers in this provision.
Finally, House Bill 5740 would delete an outdated provision of the law which allowed the board of a school district or intermediate school district to renew through June 30, 1995, an annual vocational authorization of a noncertificated vocational teacher who was employed by the district, under certain conditions.
MCL 380.1233
Analyst: J. Hunault