What's happening
This bill creates a grant program to recruit and retain bilingual teachers in New York schools facing bilingual teacher shortages.
Why it matters
Targets the most acute needs by prioritizing schools and districts with the largest bilingual teacher shortages and limited fiscal capacity for grant awards. meaning resources are intentionally directed to areas where students may be most underserved due to language barriers.
Creates significant financial incentives (up to $40,000 over four years) for newly hired bilingual, certified teachers. in shortage areas, potentially making the profession more attractive, offsetting student debt, and encouraging retention in high-need schools.
Includes accountability measures requiring districts to maintain or match their own local recruitment and retention efforts. this prevents state funds from simply replacing (rather than supplementing) existing investments, ensuring a real increase in resources aimed at addressing the shortage.
Mandates annual reporting on program effectiveness and detailed tracking of grant usage. , which could inform future policy and budget decisions, increase transparency, and allow adjustments if the program isn’t meeting its goals in recruiting and retaining bilingual teachers.
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Who cares
School districts with bilingual teacher shortages
They could compete for recruitment and retention grants, subject to available funding and requirements to maintain local spending or provide a local match.
Bilingual, certified teachers newly hired by a district
They could receive $10,000 annually for up to four years to reimburse prior teacher-certification education costs, with a year of service required for each award.
Boards of education
They would select award recipients, administer payments and service agreements, and seek repayment when teachers fail to complete their service obligations unless a hardship waiver applies.
State Education Department
The commissioner would determine qualifying shortages, administer district grant applications and report annually on funding and the program’s recruitment and retention results.
Headline styles
Recruit More Bilingual Teachers
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Referred to education
- Referred to education
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Recruit More Bilingual Teachers
In Senate Committee · Finance · Sponsor Kevin S. Parker
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
334
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by M. of A. CRUZ, CUNNINGHAM, SAYEGH, RAGA, DAVILA, SIMON, ZINERMAN, LEVENBERG, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, RAMOS -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing the bilingual teachers of tomorrow teacher recruitment and retention program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 3615 to read as follows:
§ 3615. Bilingual teachers of tomorrow teacher recruitment and retention program. 1. Definitions. a. The term "school with a bilingual teacher shortage" means a public school in which there was a shortage of bilingual, certified teachers in the previous school year and there is a projected shortage in the current school year as determined by the commissioner.
b. The term "bilingual, certified teacher" means a teacher who holds a permanent or professional state teaching certificate appropriate to the teaching position, including the subject area if applicable, in which such teacher is to be employed and who is fully qualified to teach in a bilingual education program.
c. The term "school district" shall mean a common, union free, central, central high school, or city school district.
d. The term "board of education" shall mean the governing board of any public school or public school district defined in paragraph c of this subdivision.
e. The term "year of service" shall mean ten months of continuous full-time service as a teacher during a school year, generally occurring between September first and June thirtieth.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00170-01-5
2. Application and funding. a. Grants shall be made to school districts for bilingual, certified teacher recruitment and retention activities necessary to increase the number of bilingual, certified teachers in schools with a bilingual teacher shortage.
b. Such grants shall be awarded to school districts, within the limits of funds appropriated therefor, through a competitive process that takes into consideration the magnitude of any shortage of bilingual, certified teachers in the school district, the fiscal capacity of the district, and the number of new bilingual, certified teachers the school district intends to hire in the coming school year. Grants provided pursuant to this section shall be used only for the purposes enumerated in this section.
c. Not more than sixty percent of the funds allocated pursuant to this section shall be made available to any one school district.
d. Any school district receiving funds under this section shall maintain any local effort in the current year equivalent to such effort in the base year for any local program related to the recruitment or retention of teachers or any program that has purposes that are similar to any purpose of this section or the district shall provide a local match to state funds received pursuant to this section. State funds provided pursuant to this section shall not supplant local funds for any purpose similar to the purposes of this section.
e. Applications by a school district for funding pursuant to this section shall be filed with the commissioner, in a form determined by the commissioner, by June first of the base year and school districts shall be notified of their grant award by June thirtieth of the base year, provided that in any year such application and award dates may be modified by the commissioner for the reasonable administration of the program. Such application shall include a plan by the school district for the expenditure of the funds in each category of allowable expenses authorized by subdivision three of this section, and such expenditures shall be consistent with such plan and the provisions of this section.
f. A person receiving an award pursuant to any subdivision of this section shall not be eligible for an award pursuant to any other subdivision of this section in a school year.
3. Bilingual teachers of tomorrow teacher recruitment incentive program. Bilingual teachers of tomorrow teacher recruitment incentive awards may be available to teachers pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision to attract teachers to employment in schools with a bilingual teacher shortage.
a. Eligibility. To be eligible for an award pursuant to this subdivision, an applicant shall:
(1) be a bilingual, certified teacher;
(2) agree to a service obligation of one year of service in a school with a bilingual teacher shortage as a condition of receiving an award pursuant to this subdivision; and
(3) be employed for the first time as a bilingual, certified teacher in the school district.
b. Application and selection. (1) The board of education shall determine the form of the application and the application process for teachers deemed eligible for the award, and shall in its discretion select the number of eligible applicants who will receive an award pursuant to this subdivision.
(2) If the number of eligible applicants exceeds the number of awards determined by the board pursuant to this subdivision, then the board shall use an objective competitive process based on educational qualifications to determine which eligible applicants shall receive awards.
c. Payment of awards. (1) Annual awards from state and local funds provided for this purpose shall be paid by the board of education to the award recipient. Award recipients shall be entitled to receive awards pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision and such awards shall be in addition to and not part of any award recipient's base salary.
(2) The initial annual award shall be ten thousand dollars, and such initial award may be renewable each year, for up to three additional years, provided that the recipient agrees to one year of service as a full-time bilingual, certified teacher in schools with a bilingual teacher shortage for each year of a renewed award and has provided satisfactory service in any prior year in which an initial or renewed award was granted to the recipient. No awards shall be made for less than one school year of service and the sum of any initial and renewed awards shall not exceed forty thousand dollars.
Awards made pursuant to this subdivision shall be used to reimburse any educational costs, including those for which student loans may have been taken, incurred by the recipient prior to receipt of the award for certification as a teacher in the public schools of the state.
(3) The board of education shall develop and secure from the award recipient a written agreement outlining the service obligation. Such agreement shall include provisions for the recipient to repay the amount of the award to the school district if the recipient fails to complete their service obligation in any year where an initial or renewed award is granted, and such repaid amounts shall be deducted from any grant amounts due to the district from the state pursuant to this section. Upon a written appeal by an award recipient, the board of education, in its discretion, may provide a waiver of repayment provisions for an award recipient who fails to complete their service requirement for documented reasons of health or other severe hardship, as determined by the commissioner.
d. Notification. The board of education shall notify both successful and unsuccessful applicants by September first of any school year for which an initial or renewed award is provided to teachers pursuant to this subdivision.
4. Reporting. By November first following the completion of each school year, the commissioner shall report to the governor and the legislature regarding the bilingual teachers of tomorrow teacher recruitment and retention program. Such report shall list the amount of each school district's total grant pursuant to this section, the uses of the grant, and the number of awards granted by type pursuant to this section, as well as an analysis of the effectiveness of the program in recruiting and retaining bilingual, certified teachers in schools with a bilingual teacher shortage in the state.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
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