Florida may consider mentor program for teachers

Orlando Sentinel | By News Service of Florida | October 26, 2021

TALLAHASSEE — Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, has filed a bill for the 2022 legislative session that seeks to create a training and mentoring program for teachers.

The proposal (SB 618) would pair retired or current classroom teachers who have been evaluated as highly effective with educators who are new to the job, in an effort to increase “effectiveness and involvement” through mentorship. Mentors also would be placed with teachers who are “rated as needs improvement, developing, or unsatisfactory,” and teachers who are from “a different demographic group, under the bill.

The measure would require lawmakers to budget an unspecified amount of money for the program.

“The funds must be sufficient for each school district to establish three mentors at each school within the district and for school districts to provide each selected classroom teacher a stipend in the amount of $2,000,” according to the bill filed Monday.

Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville, filed a similar proposal (HB 165) in the House on Sept. 22. The session begins in January.

About 176,000 Florida teachers received $1,000 bonus checks earlier this year paid for with federal COVID-19 money as a thank you for their performance during the pandemic. About 50 of those checks bounced because of a banking error that has been corrected, according to the state education department.