Professional development for certified employees

(a) For the school year commencing July 1, 2021, and each school year thereafter, each certified employee shall participate in a program of professional development. Each local and regional board of education shall make available, annually, at no cost to its certified employees, a program of professional development that is not fewer than eighteen hours in length, of which a preponderance is in a small group or individual instructional setting. Such program of professional development shall (1) be a comprehensive, sustained and intensive approach to improving teacher and administrator effectiveness in increasing student knowledge achievement, (2) focus on refining and improving various effective teaching methods that are shared between and among educators, including, on and after July 1, 2024, play-based learning, as defined in section 10-24f, for teachers in a preschool program or grades kindergarten to five, inclusive, (3) foster collective responsibility for improved student performance, (4) be comprised of professional learning that (A) is aligned with rigorous state student academic achievement standards, (B) is conducted among educators at the school and facilitated by principals, coaches, mentors, distinguished educators, as described in section 10-145s, or other appropriate teachers, (C) occurs frequently on an individual basis or among groups of teachers in a job-embedded process of continuous improvement, (D) includes a repository of best practices for teaching methods developed by educators within each school that is continuously available to such educators for comment and updating, and (E) for principals and vice principals, includes training on the management of school personnel and methods for engaging school personnel with the goals of the school, and (5) include training in culturally responsive pedagogy and practice. Each program of professional development shall include professional development activities in accordance with the provisions of subsection (b) of this section. The principles and practices of social-emotional learning and restorative practices shall be integrated throughout the components of such program of professional development described in subdivisions (1) to (5), inclusive, of this subsection. (b) Local and regional boards of education shall offer professional development activities to certified employees as part of the plan developed pursuant to subsection (b) of section 10-220a or for any individual certified employee. Such professional development activities may be made available by a board of education directly, through a regional educational service center or cooperative arrangement with another board of education or through arrangements with any professional development provider approved by the Commissioner of Education and shall be consistent with any goals identified by the certified employees and the local or regional board of education.