Wanted: Retired teachers to return to Colorado classrooms
House Bill 1101 expands and makes permanent a program begun in 2017
Chalkbeat
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat Colorado. More at chalkbeat.org.
More retired school employees could go back to work without jeopardizing their pensions under two bills that passed the Colorado House. The bills are an effort to address widespread staffing shortages that are particularly acute in rural areas.
House Bill 1101 expands and makes permanent a program begun in 2017. It allows classroom teachers, aides, bus drivers, food service workers, and nurses to go back to work for up to six years while still receiving their full pension benefits.
The program had been set to expire next year. Rural school districts are eligible, and can use the program to fill positions they haven’t been able to fill through normal means.
Reece Blincoe, superintendent in the Dolores district in southwest Colorado, said his students wouldn’t have access to advanced science classes if it weren’t for “our most senior science teacher.”
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“We would not have him if it were not for this program, and we need to keep him,” Blincoe said.
Read more via the Colorado Sun.