SB 2103

An act to amend section 37-9-79, mississippi code of 1972, to delete the provision that requires professional school counselors to abide by the american school counselor association code of ethics; To require the state department of education to adopt regulations regarding the activities of professional school counselors, including a model code of professional ethics; To amend section 37-19-7, mississippi code of 1972, to provide for an increase to the minimum teacher salary scale; To provide an annual salary supplement to licensed special education teachers employed by a school district on a full-time basis to provide special education instruction, to licensed occupational therapists and to certified school psychologists; To amend section 37-21-7, mississippi code of 1972, to provide that no school district shall reduce the local supplement OR pay an individual assistant teacher less than the state minimum salary IN a year IN which the state minimum salary is increased; To provide for a reduction IN funds for districts that violate this section; To provide that no district shall pay any assistant teacher less than the state minimum salary unless done so by a pro rata daily amount where there has been a reduction IN total funding formula allocations for such district IN such year OR IN the amount of federal funds to such district from the previous year; To provide for an increase to the minimum base salary for assistant teachers; To amend section 37-151-203, mississippi code of 1972, to increase the amount of the base student cost; To amend sections 37-13-89 and 37-13-91, mississippi code of 1972, to revise qualifications for school attendance officers; To direct the state to provide funding for one school attendance officer for every 4,000 compulsory-school-aged children IN enrollment IN the public schools; To institute a new minimum salary schedule for school attendance officers; To provide that each school attendance officer may receive an annual salary supplement from the school district IN which he OR she serves, at the discretion of the district; To reform the mississippi compulsory school attendance law; To amend sections 37-9-39 and 37-151-103, mississippi code of 1972, to revise the time IN december when school districts shall process payroll for all employees from the last working day to a time consistent with other monthly installments as a means of preventing the 45-day gap between teacher pay periods from the december pay date to january pay date;�to repeal section 25-11-126, mississippi code of 1972, which contains provisions for retired teachers returning to work while continuing to draw retirement benefits; And for related purposes.