AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO STUDENT IMPROVEMENT COMPONENT.

New evaluation safeguards for Delaware educators

Delaware’s Education Department must test a revised student progress measure for evaluating teachers, specialists, and administrators. The pilot starts in at least 3 local education agencies in 2025–2026 and adds at least 6 more in 2026–2027. Agencies must agree to participate, along with their educators’ collective bargaining organization, where applicable. During both pilot years, agencies must still provide overall evaluations, but the student progress measure cannot affect overall ratings. Beginning in 2027–2028, the revised measure applies statewide to all licensed and certified educators. The measure must account for absences, student moves, repeated school rule-breaking, repeated parental failure to follow the Parents’ Declaration of Responsibilities, and other factors that may hurt evaluations. A student’s performance can count only with the educator’s agreement if the student misses more than 15% of class time.