On Friday, August 4, Governor Pritzker signed into law Public Act 103-0500 (SB1872), which amends the School Code provisions pertaining to the acquisition of tenure and the deadline for non-renewal and RIF notices.
Tenure Rules
For those teachers first employed as a full-time teacher on or after the PERA implementation date (i.e., September 1, 2016, for most school districts) but before July 1, 2023, the law modifies how teachers may acquire “accelerated” tenure. Prior to this amendment, teachers could acquire tenure after three years of probationary service if they received Excellent summative evaluation ratings in all three years. Now, those teachers can acquire tenure after three years with only two Excellent evaluation ratings. Although changes to tenure laws have typically been applied on a forward-looking basis only, this change is different and likely means that teachers who completed Year 3 last year (2022-2023) will now be considered tenured, even if they only had two Excellent ratings in their first three years (with no recourse for school districts that planned to evaluate those teachers once more before they acquired tenure).
For those teachers first employed as a full-time teacher on or after July 1, 2023, the tenure law is fundamentally changed. The default will now be a three-year tenure process instead of four, and the concepts of “accelerated” tenure and “portable” tenure are essentially collapsed into one. For those teachers, the probationary period will be one of the following:
- “Default” Tenure: Three consecutive school terms in which the teacher receives summative evaluation ratings of at least “Proficient” in the second and third years;
- “Accelerated” Tenure: Two consecutive school terms in which the teacher receives two summative evaluation ratings of “Excellent; or
- “Portable” Tenure: Two consecutive school terms in which the teacher receives two summative evaluation ratings of “Excellent” but only if the teacher previously attained tenure in another school district and either voluntarily resigned or was honorably dismissed in the immediately prior school year and received at least “Proficient” ratings on the teacher’s last two evaluations with the prior school district.
Careful readers will note that the concept of “portable” tenure is now virtually irrelevant for new hires, as teachers can now get “accelerated” tenure just as fast without having to worry about evaluations from prior school districts.
Additionally, the amendment makes clear that only those positions requiring the teacher to hold a Professional Educator License (PEL) qualify for probationary service. This helps clarify the fact that although substitutes and paraprofessionals hold certain types of licenses, if they do not possess a PEL and a PEL is not required for the position that they are serving in, then they are not eligible for tenure. (But note that certain positions, like so-called “permanent subs,” likely are eligible for tenure if the individual employed in that position possesses a PEL and the school district requires the employee to hold a PEL for that position.) While that categorization has long been understood within the industry, this language helps resolve a potential ambiguity in the statute.
Non-Renewal and RIF Notices
The amendment also changes the deadline for issuing probationary teacher non-renewal notices and honorable dismissal (i.e., RIF) notices from 45 days before the end of the school term to a fixed date of April 15th. (Tax day is now your non-renewal and RIF deadline, so at least it’s easy to remember!)
Source: Public Act 103-0500
