(1) ASSISTANCE.—Each district school board shall adopt and implement a plan to assist any teacher teaching out-of-field, and priority consideration in professional development activities shall be given to a teacher who is teaching out-of-field. The district school board shall require that the teacher participate in a certification or staff development program designed to provide the teacher with the competencies required for the assigned duties. The board-approved assistance plan must include duties of administrative personnel and other instructional personnel to provide students with instructional services.
(2) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.—When a teacher in a district school system is assigned teaching duties in a class dealing with subject matter that is outside the field in which the teacher is certified, outside the field that was the applicant’s minor field of study, or outside the field in which the applicant has demonstrated sufficient subject area expertise, as determined by district school board policy in the subject area to be taught, the parents of all students in the class shall be notified in writing of such assignment, and each school district shall report out-of-field teachers on the district’s website within 30 days before the beginning of each semester. A parent whose student is assigned an out-of-field teacher may request that his or her child be transferred to an in-field classroom teacher within the school and grade in which the student is currently enrolled. The school district must approve or deny the parent’s request and transfer the student to a different classroom teacher within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 2 weeks, if an in-field teacher for that course or grade level is employed by the school and the transfer does not violate maximum class size pursuant to s. 1003.03 and s. 1, Art. IX of the State Constitution. If a request for transfer is denied, the school must notify the parent and specify the reasons for the denial. An explanation of the transfer process must be made available in the student handbook or a similar publication. This subsection does not provide a parent the right to choose a specific teacher.
History.—s. 717, ch. 2002-387; s. 182, ch. 2010-102; s. 30, ch. 2016-237.