Section 75.40  Program Specifications; Allowable Expenditures

Funds provided pursuant to this Subpart B may be expended only for activities and initiatives conducted in accordance with Section 2-3.80a(b) of the School Code and this Section.

a)         For purposes of this Subpart B, "teacher education candidate recruitment and retention initiatives" include:

1)         the identification of students in grades 11 and 12 who may be interested in pursuing agricultural education as a profession; and

2)         activities and strategies that are designed to attract these and other students to teaching in agricultural education, including, but not limited to:

A)        introducing the students to multiple aspects of agricultural work and agricultural education in Illinois;

B)        providing mentors or other forms of personal support to the students as they determine whether to pursue careers as agricultural education teachers and as they progress through the teacher preparation program; and

C)        providing scholarships, stipends, or other forms of financial or in-kind support that will make completion of a teacher preparation program in agricultural education more affordable and accessible to students from a broad range of backgrounds.

b)         Each institution that elects to deliver professional development experiences for new teachers shall first seek approval as a provider of professional development for teachers in this field under the applicable provisions of the rules of the State Board of Education for Educator Licensure (see 23 Ill. Adm. Code 25.855 and 25.872).

c)         For purposes of this Subpart B:

1)         a "master teacher" is a teacher with no fewer than six years of teaching experience in the field of agricultural education, ending no more than ten years prior to submission of an application under this Subpart B, exclusive of teaching experience on an educator license with stipulations endorsed for either career and technical educator or provisional career and technical educator; and

2)         a "practitioner" is an individual who, as demonstrated by the institution's proposal narrative:

A)        is currently engaged, or has been engaged within the previous 10 years, in an agricultural occupation requiring knowledge and skills in agricultural science, agricultural mechanization, agricultural business, horticulture, or agricultural resources; or

B)        holds an educator license with stipulations endorsed for provisional career and technical educator for a skill area related to agricultural education and is currently teaching, or has taught within the previous 10 years, in a position requiring that educator license.

d)         A university shall expend no more than 5 percent of the grant funds received for professional development for the staff of its agricultural education teacher preparation program.

e)         Activities shall be supported by funding under this Subpart B only to the extent that they do not duplicate or supplant efforts already conducted by or under the auspices of the community college or university.  The use of grant funds for administrative expenditures shall be limited to amounts demonstrably necessary for the implementation or coordination of additional activities under this Subpart B.

(Source:  Amended at 45 Ill. Reg. 16012, effective December 1, 2021)