Superintendent asks legislature for $2.25 million for RAPBACK and seeks to eliminate costly resident educator performative assessment

Superintendent Paul Kraft told the State Board of Education that the board office is seeking new legislative funding to cover rising costs tied to the RAPBACK background-check program, and he proposed eliminating a costly performative assessment in the resident educator program as a budget savings measure.

Kraft said the board now issues almost 490,000 credentials to about 364,000 individuals and that referrals to the Office of Professional Conduct rose from about 13,160 in 2019 to roughly 22,000 in 2023. He reported RAPBACK — the fingerprint-based background-notification system — now covers about 460,000 individuals, a cohort that has expanded to include nonlicensed employees such as custodians and bus drivers under recent law changes (House Bill 433 was referenced in the hearing). That expansion, Kraft said, has increased the board’s annual RAPBACK costs to roughly $5 per person and the board requested $2,250,000 from the legislature to cover those expenses; the executive budget included $2,000,000 and the Department of Education and Workforce included $250,000 to cover bus drivers.

Kraft described the “performative assessment” tied to the resident educator (RESA) program as an expensive requirement that costs more than $1 million annually for the several thousand educators who take it. The board’s administrative proposal would eliminate that performative assessment; Kraft said the draft language would remove the requirement even for individuals already in year two of the resident educator cycle, freeing them from the assessment during the next year if the rule change is adopted and enacted.

Kraft also told the board the office is asking for roughly $505,000 in general revenue funding to cover legal representation from the Attorney General’s office (with an inflationary second-year estimate of about $515,000). He said those attorney fees — used when the board is represented in court (for example, on territory transfers) and in other legal matters — were historically paid from the teacher licensure fund and the board is asking the legislature to cover them as a general state expense.

Kraft warned that without the requested funds (the combination of RAPBACK funding and savings from eliminating the performative assessment), the agency would need to find more than $3 million in savings from current operations. He said that, to achieve that level of cuts, the board would have to reduce staff from about 56 (current operating) toward roughly 26 — a level he described as incompatible with fulfilling core licensure, evaluation and professional conduct responsibilities.

Board members asked questions about timelines, statutory language, and the operational impacts of any change. Member Lloyd pressed for clarification of the AG request amount; Kraft confirmed the $505,000 first-year figure and a roughly $515,000 second-year projection. Member Flory and others praised the superintendent’s testimony to the legislature. Several members raised the substitute-teacher issue during the discussion: board members said districts have broadened the substitute pool (now often requiring only a high school diploma), that the pool has expanded quickly and that district staffing practices are still adjusting. Kraft said districts are reporting the substitute pool is stabilizing but acknowledged concerns about planning time loss when regular staff cover uncovered classes. Board members also discussed outreach plans to recruit retirees and military veterans as potential substitute or licensed teachers.

Kraft closed by asking board members to continue nominating teachers for Teacher of the Year and by summarizing that the office’s top budget priorities are funding for RAPBACK, elimination of the performative assessment in resident educator licensing, and coverage for Attorney General legal representation.