Amends existing law to allow for certain employees to continue to receive master educator premiums.

In 2015 the Career Ladder was created to provide a new teacher state appropriation policy. This policy was phased in over 5 years. It was originally recognized that the first Career Ladder was more favorable to young teachers at the expense of veterans. Within that bill Section 10 of the HB292 bill established Master Teacher Premiums,whatbecameknownastheMasterEducatorPremium(MEP).Section33-1004IdahoCodeprovided veteran teachers to apply for the Master Educator Premium. The process was complex and time consuming. It requiredtremendouseffortbythecandidateandmanyreviewersacrossthestate. ThoseeducatorsontheCareer Ladder would then qualify for a premium appropriation of $4,000 per year, renewable every three years. In 2020 the Career Ladder was revised to add a new rung “Advanced Professional” to address the complexity created by the Master Educator Premium and address the salary appropriation for our veteran teachers. In that bill, the Master Educator Premium was set to sunset on July 1, 2024, after two cohorts of teachers qualified. It has been noted that there was an inequity for veteran teachers, who had been patient with the original career ladder and ultimately qualified. Some teachers saw their education career grow over the past seven years and serve our Idaho students in their schools with a different role. Teachers have invested many hours and personal dollars to qualify to become a school administrator, like a principal or vice-principal. Unfortunately, legislative foresight did not provide for this contingency. Administrators are not covered by the Career Ladder and accordingly, teachers who had applied and been approved for the Master Educator Premium and were subsequently offered an administrator position, found themselves outside the career ladder, yet still serving Idaho Students. Thislegislationwouldauthorizeanestimated23schooladministratorstoreceivetheirfullthreeyearsofMaster Educator Premium as scheduled. They may have one, two or three premiums remain