Existing law establishes the Student Teacher Stipend Program to support prospective educators, as defined, during their completion of 500 or more hours of student teaching, as provided, and appropriates, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the commission for allocation to support the Student Teacher Stipend Program.

Article 13.7. Experienced Mentor Teacher Stipend Program

44400.05.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) Experienced mentor teachers play a pivotal role in the teacher preparation process.

(2) Selecting effective, experienced mentor teachers and supporting them through professional learning activities designed for the role is the joint responsibility of a local educational agency and a commission-approved teacher preparation program.

(3) Providing an experienced mentor teacher stipend recognizes the importance of this role and the professional expertise and ongoing learning needed to perform it effectively.

(4) To improve both teacher retention and recruitment in California’s public school system, it is the intent of the Legislature to expand the Student Teacher Stipend Program to compensate experienced mentor teachers who mentor, in their classrooms, student teacher candidates who are enrolled in commission-approved teacher preparation programs.

(b) Subject to an appropriation of one-time funds by the Legislature for this purpose in the annual Budget Act or another statute, the Experienced Mentor Teacher Stipend Program is established, under the administration of the commission, to expand the Student Teacher Stipend Program to compensate experienced mentor teachers’ nonevaluative coaching and support to preservice teachers.

(c) The commission shall expand the online process established pursuant to Section 44400.02 for local educational agencies to submit an experienced mentor teacher’s information, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(1) The experienced mentor teacher’s credential.

(2) Certification of the experienced mentor teacher’s successful teaching experience and number of years teaching.

(3) The local educational agency or agencies that employ the experienced mentor teacher.

(4) The schoolsite or schoolsites where the experienced mentor teacher provides mentorship.

(5) The experienced mentor teacher’s demographic information.

(d) To the extent that demand for this program exceeds the amount appropriated by the Legislature, the commission shall prioritize experienced mentor teacher stipend applications for the year on a first-come-first-served basis.

(e) The commission shall award funding appropriated for this purpose to local educational agencies that host student teachers to provide each student teacher with an experienced mentor teacher.

(f) Local educational agencies awarded funding pursuant to this article shall do both of the following:

(1) Provide a stipend of three thousand dollars ($3,000) to each experienced mentor teacher while they provide mentorship to a prospective educator during their completion of 500 or more hours of student teaching.

(2) Partner with a commission-approved teacher preparation program to create an experienced mentor teacher recruitment and selection process accompanied by planned professional learning and support activities that include all of the following:

(A) Criteria for selecting the experienced mentor teacher, including demonstrated exemplary teaching practices.

(B) A collaborative process to match the student teacher and experienced mentor teacher.

(C) Ten hours of initial orientation to the preparation program curriculum, including effective supervision approaches such as cognitive coaching, adult learning theory, and current content-specific pedagogy and instructional practices.

(D) Ongoing professional learning and support activities that ensure experienced mentor teachers remain current in the knowledge and skills for candidate supervision and program expectations.

(E) Practices to evaluate and recognize the experienced mentor teacher in a systematic manner.

(g) The commission shall, on or before January 1 of each year, annually report to the education policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature regarding the status of the program, including, but not limited to, the number of experienced mentor teachers paid, the degree to which the student teacher candidates meet the teacher shortage needs of the local educational agency, and the ethnic and racial composition of the participants in the program. The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(h) For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Commission” means the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

(2) “Experienced mentor teacher” means an educator who meets all of the following requirements:

(A) Has at least three years of teaching experience and a clear credential in the subject in which the teacher will be mentoring.

(B) Has a record of successful teaching as demonstrated, at a minimum, by satisfactory annual performance evaluations for the preceding three years.

(C) Receives specific training for the mentor teacher role, and engages in ongoing professional learning and networking with other mentors.

(D) Receives compensation and appropriate release time to serve as a mentor.

(3) “Local educational agency” means a school district, charter school, county office of education, or programs or sites currently authorized by commission program standards as appropriate for student teaching.

(4) “Program” means the Experienced Mentor Teacher Stipend Program established pursuant to this article.

(5) “Student Teacher Stipend Program” means the program established pursuant to Section 44400.01.