97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2011 and 2012
HB3167

 

Introduced 2/24/2011, by Rep. Rich Brauer

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Grow Your Own Educational Service Provider Act. Establishes the Grow Your Own Educational Service Provider Initiative to effectively recruit and prepare staff of non-profit social service agencies who also provide public or private school educational services to obtain a higher level of or additional licensure or certification. Provides that the Board of Higher Education shall administer the Initiative as a grant competition to fund consortia that will carry out Grow Your Own Educational Service Provider preparation programs. Sets forth provisions concerning the selection of grantees, expenditures under the Initiative, implementation of the Initiative, and an independent program evaluation. Provides that funding of the Initiative is subject to appropriation.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1    AN ACT concerning education.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Grow
5Your Own Educational Service Provider Act.
 
6    Section 5. Purpose. The Grow Your Own Educational Service
7Provider preparation programs established under this Act shall
8comprise a major new statewide initiative, known as the Grow
9Your Own Educational Service Provider Initiative. The
10Initiative shall effectively recruit and prepare staff of
11non-profit social service agencies who also provide public or
12private school educational services to obtain a higher level of
13or additional licensure or certification.
 
14    Section 10. Definitions. In this Act:
15    "Accredited program" means a regionally accredited,
16Board-approved program authorized to prepare service providers
17to fulfill all of the requirements to receive a higher level of
18or additional licensure or certification.
19    "Board" means the Board of Higher Education.
20    "Cohort" means a group of service provider candidates who
21are enrolled in and share experiences in the same program and
22are linked by their desire to obtain a higher level of or

 

 

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1additional licensure or certification and by their need for the
2services and supports offered by the Initiative.
3    "Community organization" means a non-profit organization
4that has a demonstrated capacity to train, develop, and
5organize parents and community leaders into a constituency that
6will hold the eligible school accountable for achieving high
7academic standards; in addition to organizations with a
8geographic focus, "community organization" includes general
9parent organizations, organizations of special education
10parents, and school employee unions.
11    "Eligible school" means a public or private elementary,
12middle, or secondary school in this State that utilizes staff
13of a non-profit social service agency to provide educational
14services.
15    "Initiative" means the Grow Your Own Educational Service
16Provider Initiative created under this Act.
17    "Paraeducator" means an individual with a history of
18demonstrated accomplishments in school staff positions such as
19teacher assistants, school-community liaisons, school clerks,
20and security aides.
21    "Parent and community leader" means an individual who has
22or had a child enrolled in an eligible school or schools and
23who has a history of active involvement in the school or who
24has a history of working to improve schools, including
25membership in a community organization.
26    "Program" means a Grow Your Own Educational Service

 

 

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1Provider preparation program established by a consortium under
2this Act.
3    "Service provider" means a staff person of a non-profit
4social service agency who also provides public or private
5school educational services and is a qualified worker as
6defined in Article 14 of the School Code; a qualified mental
7retardation professional as defined in the Mental Health and
8Developmental Disabilities Code; a licensed clinical
9professional counselor as defined in the Professional
10Counselor and Clinical Professional Counselor Licensing Act; a
11public or private school teacher; a direct care or
12rehabilitation staff member of the non-profit social service
13agency; an educational specialist, paraeducator, or
14paraprofessional; a certified occupational therapy assistant;
15or a certified physical therapy assistant.
 
16    Section 15. Creation of Initiative. The Grow Your Own
17Educational Service Provider Initiative is created. The Board
18shall administer the Initiative as a grant competition to fund
19consortia that will carry out Grow Your Own Educational Service
20Provider preparation programs.
 
21    Section 20. Selection of grantees. The Board shall award
22grants to qualified consortia that reflect the distribution and
23diversity of eligible schools across this State. In awarding
24grants, the Board shall select programs that successfully

 

 

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1address Initiative criteria and that reflect a diversity of
2strategies in terms of serving urban areas, serving rural
3areas, the nature of the participating institutions of higher
4education, and the nature of eligible schools on which a
5program is focused.
6    The Board shall select consortia that meet the following
7requirements:
8        (1) A consortium shall be composed of at least one
9    4-year institution of higher education with an accredited
10    program, at least one eligible school or group of eligible
11    schools, and one or more community organizations. The
12    consortium membership may also include a 2-year
13    institution of higher education, a school employee union,
14    or a regional office of education.
15        (2) The 4-year institution of higher education
16    participating in the consortium shall have past,
17    demonstrated success in preparing service providers.
18        (3) The consortium shall focus on a clearly defined set
19    of eligible schools that will participate in the program.
20    The consortium shall articulate the steps that it will
21    carry out in preparing service providers for its
22    participating schools.
23        (4) A candidate in a program under the Initiative must
24    be a service provider.
25        (5) The consortium shall employ effective procedures
26    for teaching the skills and knowledge needed to prepare

 

 

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1    highly competent service providers. Professional
2    preparation shall include on-going direct experience in
3    target schools and evaluation of this experience.
4        (6) The consortium shall offer the program to cohorts
5    of candidates, as defined in Section 10 of this Act, on a
6    schedule that enables candidates to work full time while
7    participating in the program and allows service providers
8    to continue in their current positions. In any fiscal year
9    in which an appropriation for the Initiative is made, the
10    consortium shall guarantee that support will be available
11    to an admitted cohort for the cohort's education for that
12    fiscal year. At the beginning of the Initiative, programs
13    that are already operating and existing cohorts of
14    candidates under this model are eligible for funding.
15        (7) The institutions of higher education participating
16    in the consortium shall document and agree to expend the
17    same amount of funds in implementing the program that these
18    institutions spend per student on similar educational
19    programs. Grants received by the consortium shall
20    supplement and not supplant these amounts.
21        (8) The Board shall establish additional criteria for
22    review of proposals, including criteria that address the
23    following issues:
24            (A) Previous experience of the institutions of
25        higher education in preparing service providers and in
26        working with students with non-traditional

 

 

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1        backgrounds.
2            (B) The quality of the implementation plan,
3        including strategies for overcoming institutional
4        barriers to the progress of non-traditional
5        candidates.
6            (C) If a community college is a participant, the
7        nature and extent of existing articulation agreements
8        and guarantees between the community college and the
9        4-year institution of higher education.
10            (D) The number of candidates to be educated in the
11        planned cohort or cohorts and the capacity of the
12        consortium for adding cohorts in future cycles.
13            (E) Experience of the community organization or
14        organizations in organizing parents and community
15        leaders to achieve school improvement and a strong
16        relational school culture.
17            (F) The qualifications of the person or persons
18        designated by the 4-year institution of higher
19        education to be responsible for cohort support and the
20        development of a shared learning and social
21        environment among candidates.
22            (G) The consortium's plan for collective
23        consortium decision-making, involving all consortium
24        members, including mechanisms for candidate input.
25            (H) The consortium's plan for direct impact of the
26        program on the quality of education in the eligible

 

 

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1        schools.
2            (I) The relevance of the curriculum to the needs of
3        the eligible schools and positions, and the use in
4        curriculum and instructional planning of principles
5        for effective education for adults.
6            (J) The availability of classes under the program
7        in places and times accessible to the candidates.
8            (K) Provision of a level of performance to be
9        maintained by candidates as a condition of continuing
10        in the program.
11            (L) The plan of the 4-year institution of higher
12        education to ensure that candidates take advantage of
13        existing financial aid resources before using the loan
14        funds described in Section 25 of this Act.
15            (M) The availability of supportive services,
16        including, but not limited to, transportation,
17        technology, and technology support.
18            (N) A plan for continued participation of
19        graduates of the program in a program of support for at
20        least 2 years, including mentoring and group meetings.
21            (O) A plan for testing and qualitative evaluation
22        of candidates' skills that ensures that graduates of
23        the program are as prepared as other individuals
24        completing the institution of higher education's
25        accredited program for the higher level of or
26        additional licensure or certification sought.

 

 

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1            (P) A plan for internal evaluation that provides
2        reports at least yearly on the progress of candidates
3        towards obtaining a higher level of or additional
4        licensure or certification and the impact of the
5        program on the target schools and their communities.
6            (Q) Contributions from eligible schools and other
7        consortia members to the program.
8            (R) Consortium commitment for sustaining the
9        program over time, as evidenced by plans for reduced
10        requirements for external funding, in subsequent
11        cycles.
12            (S) The inclusion in the planned program of
13        strategies derived from community organizing that will
14        help candidates develop tools for working with parents
15        and other community members.
 
16    Section 25. Expenditures under the Initiative.
17    (a) Every program under the Initiative shall implement a
18program of forgivable loans to cover any portion of tuition and
19fees of candidates under the program in excess of the
20candidates' grants-in-aid. All students admitted to a cohort
21are eligible for a forgivable student loan. Loans shall be
22fully forgiven if a graduate completes 5 years of service in an
23eligible school, with partial forgiveness for shorter periods
24of service. The Board shall establish standards for the
25approval of requests for waivers or deferrals from individuals

 

 

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1to waive this obligation. The Board shall also define standards
2for the fiscal management of these loan funds.
3    (b) The Board shall award grants under the Initiative in
4such a way as to provide the required support for a cohort of
5candidates for any fiscal year in which an appropriation for
6the Initiative is made. Program budgets must show expenditures
7and needed funds for the entire period that candidates are
8expected to be enrolled.
9    (c) No funds under the Initiative may be used to supplant
10the average per-capita expenditures by the institution of
11higher education for candidates.
12    (d) Where necessary, program budgets shall include the
13costs of indirect expenses, such as transportation,
14technology, and technology support, necessary to permit
15candidates to maintain their class schedules. Grant funds may
16be used by any member of a consortium to offset such costs, and
17the services may be provided by the community organization or
18organizations, by any other member of the consortium, or by
19independent contractors.
20    (e) The institution of higher education may expend grant
21funds to cover the additional costs of offering classes in
22community settings.
23    (f) The community organization or organizations may
24receive a portion of the grant money for the expenses of
25recruitment, community orientation, and counseling of
26potential candidates, for providing space in the community, and

 

 

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1for working with school personnel to facilitate individual work
2experiences and support of candidates.
3    (g) The eligible school may receive a portion of the grant
4money for expenses of supporting the work experiences of
5candidates and providing mentors for program graduates.
6    (h) One or more members of the consortium may expend funds
7to cover the salary of a site-based cohort coordinator.
 
8    Section 30. Implementation of Initiative. The Board shall
9develop guidelines and application procedures for the
10Initiative. The Board may, if it chooses, award a small number
11of planning grants during any fiscal year to potential
12consortia.
 
13    Section 35. Independent program evaluation. The Board
14shall contract for an independent evaluation of program
15implementation by each of its participating consortia and of
16the impact of each program, including the extent of candidate
17persistence in program enrollment, acceptance in an accredited
18program at a 4-year institution of higher education, completion
19of the higher level of or additional licensure or
20certification, subsequent effectiveness as a service provider,
21and persistence in providing public or private school
22educational services. The evaluation shall assess the
23Initiative's overall effectiveness and shall identify
24particular program strategies that are especially effective.
 

 

 

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1    Section 40. Funding. Funding of the Initiative is subject
2to appropriation.
 
3    Section 45. Rules. The Board may adopt any rules necessary
4to carry out its responsibilities under this Act.