On December 4, 2017, Governor Asa Hutchinson announced the creation of the K-8 Computer Science Lead Teacher Stipend and Training Program.

The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) requests that superintendents and principals forward this information to all staff members within their districts and schools.

Under this program Arkansas educators may be eligible to receive up to $2,000.00 in stipends for attending a 5-day professional development session provide at no cost by the Arkansas Department of Education Office of Computer Science; gaining a 528 Computer Science Endorsement on their Arkansas Educator’s License; and  providing a requisite number of both one-on-one support and school wide professional development hours. The stipends amounts are listed as follows:

• $500.00 - Arkansas educator attended one of the required 5-day (30 hour) K-8 Computer Science Lead Teacher Training sessions approved by the ADE Office of Computer Science. These sessions will be provided in multiple Educational Service Cooperatives during the Summer of 2018 and announced as they are scheduled. All five days of the training must be completed to be eligible for this stipend; it will not be prorated. Each Arkansas educator may only receive this stipend once.

• $300.00 - Arkansas educator has the 528 Endorsement on their Arkansas Educator's License. Each Arkansas educator may only receive this stipend once.

• $600.00 - Arkansas educator, that holds the 528 Computer Science endorsement, has completed the requisite 5-day (30 hour) K-8 Computer Science Lead Teacher Training, and has provided twenty-five (25) hours of documented one-on-one support and two (2) hours of school wide professional development during the first semester after completion of the requisite training. Each Arkansas educator may only receive this stipend once.

• $600.00 - Arkansas educator, that holds the 528 Computer Science endorsement, has completed the requisite 5-day (30 hour) K-8 Computer Science Lead Teacher Training, and has provided twenty-five (25) additional hours of documented one-on-one support and two (2) additional hours of school wide professional development during the second semester after completion of the requisite training. Each Arkansas educator may only receive this stipend once.

Disbursements of stipends will be processed by the 20th of the month following receipt and approval of the application.

Arkansas educators that have received or anticipate receiving a stipend for gaining the 528 Computer Science endorsement under any other state funded program or grant are not eligible for the K-8 Computer Science Lead Teacher Stipend.

Educators receiving any of these stipends are not disqualified from 5651 PRAXIS reimbursement as outlined at: https://adecm.ade.arkansas.gov/ViewApprovedMemo.aspx?Id=1920

The ADE Office of Computer Science, has established an anticipated allocation of $500,000.00. Stipend program funding is subject to the availability of funds. ADE reserves to right to reduce or void this stipend program upon appropriated funds becoming reduced or unavailable. In addition, this stipend may be terminated by ADE at any time for any reason upon notice via the ADE Commissioner’s Memo, or similar, communication system.  

The application for these stipends can be accessed at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBNBMP

Note: Educators seeking one or both of the $600.00 stipends must submit a completed “K-8 Computer Science Lead Teacher Endorsement and Instruction Stipend Program Attestation” with their application. The attestation template is found at https://goo.gl/sXWZpE.

A “K-8 Computer Science Lead Teacher Endorsement and Instruction Stipend Program Attestation” is not required to receive the $300.00 endorsement stipend.

Computer Science Education Week

December 4-10, 2017, is Computer Science Education Week. Arkansas will release a new computer science-related announcement each day; this is announcement one of seven. For a full listing of announcements as they are made, please visit the newly-redesigned ADE Computer Science webpages at https://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/Offices/ar-comp-sci-initiative.