wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 1651 > Substitute Bill

HB 1651 - Teacher residency & apprent.

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Section 1

  1. A teacher residency is a teacher preparation model that integrates a full year of collaborative hands-on classroom teaching with an experienced preservice mentor with concurrent, targeted academic coursework, designed to develop effective, community-focused teachers. This collaborative model is offered by a public elementary or secondary school and a board-approved teacher preparation program.

  2. At a minimum, a teacher residency model must meet the following requirements:

    1. It must be operated as a formal partnership between a school district, charter school, or state-tribal education compact school and a board-approved teacher preparation program;

    2. The partners must collaboratively design the coursework to align with the unique context of each resident's classroom and to the context and priorities of the elementary or secondary school, and school district if applicable;

    3. Each resident must be assigned to at least one preservice mentor, who must co-teach with the resident, throughout the resident's preservice clinical practice;

    4. Each resident must receive at least 900 hours of preservice clinical practice over the course of one school year;

    5. Each resident must be grouped into a cohort based on geography, specialty, or other relevant criteria determined by the board;

    6. Funding must be provided to each resident; and

    7. A stipend must be provided to each preservice mentor.

  3. For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

    1. "Board" means the Washington professional educator standards board.

    2. "Cohort" means a group of residents enrolled in the same board-approved teacher preparation program who begin their residencies at the same time and have the same anticipated completion date.

    3. "Preservice mentor" means a teacher qualified to be a mentor for the beginning educator support team program under RCW 28A.415.265.

    4. "Resident" means a person enrolled in a board-approved teacher preparation program who is participating in a teacher residency model.

Section 2

  1. A teacher apprenticeship program is a program approved by both the Washington state apprenticeship and training council under chapter 49.04 RCW and the Washington professional educator standards board under RCW 28A.410.210. In addition to meeting other requirements, the program must provide the apprentice with 2,000 hours of on-the-job mentored teaching experience under a gradual release method. Up to 500 hours working as a paraeducator may count towards the minimum on-the-job requirement.

  2. Beginning September 1, 2025, before applying to the Washington state apprenticeship and training council to operate a teacher apprenticeship program, an entity must be approved by the Washington professional educator standards board as a teacher preparation program.

Section 3

A teacher apprenticeship program must meet the requirements in section 2 of this act.

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