Feature Story

Members of the Kansas State Board of Education voted this week to continue with the modifications made to the state’s emergency substitute teacher licenses.  

Members of the Kansas State Board of Education will vote during their June monthly meeting whether to make modifications to the emergency substitute licenses permanent. 

The meeting will be held June 10-11, in the first floor board room, Landon State Office Building, 900 S.W. Jackson, in Topeka. 

The Kansas State Department of Education’s teacher licensure program has recently made some updates to a frequently asked questions (FAQ) fact sheet for the licensure literacy requirement that will go into effect in 2028. 

Those updates are as follows: 

• Elementary is defined as grades Pre-K-6. 
• The Certificate of Mastery is specified as the type of certificate educators must receive to complete LETRS® training. 
• Information about additional training providers has been updated to include links to their websites and a list of the training options the provider offered. 

Teaching is not for the faint of heart.

“Teachers make 1,500 decisions a day,” said Kara Belew, a 2020 Kansas Teacher of the Year finalist. “It can be exhausting. But if you set your expectations, people will meet them.”

Belew, who teaches government at Andover Central High School, Andover Unified School District 385, was one of three certified teachers leading a group of registered teacher apprentices during an academy this week in Topeka. The event was at the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning & Careers, or TCALC, part of Topeka USD 501.

Some educators in Kansas will have until 2028 to become trained or pass a test to show they are complying with the science of reading structured literacy requirements to renew their license. Members of the Kansas State Board of Education voted to approve the licensure renewal requirement this week during their June meeting in Topeka.