BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) -- New policies have been approved for teachers across the state that will give them more time in the classroom, officials said.

State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley has suggested new solutions to reduce teacher distractions. The changes will include fewer trainings that teachers must take and give them more freedom regarding lesson planning.

“Louisiana is making a stand to take the teaching profession back for educators, students and parents,” Brumley said. “I applaud BESE for helping us remove disruptions so teachers can actually teach and students can actually learn.”

These new policies will start before the end of the school year, Brumley said.

Based on Brumley's "Let Teachers Teach" workgroup recommendations, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved these new policies today.

Teachers Teach is community where teachers can collaborate on various accepts of their curriculum and technology integration.

A set of 18 recommendations are designed to reduce unnecessary training and paperwork and focus more on teaching with fewer disruptions in the classroom.

These are highlights of the policies approved in this month's meeting:

• Decoupling student behavior and the school accountability system. Student suspension rates will no longer be used to identify schools needing intervention.
• Ensuring teachers have the right to have a student removed from the classroom immediately when their behavior prevents the orderly instruction of other students or poses a threat. A new discipline policy impacts the Teacher Bill of Rights and changes how school leaders must respond to persistent disruptions during class.
• Streamlining and reducing dozens of non-academic trainings and lessons teachers had been required by the state to repeat annually. Most will shift to a “one-and-done” approach where teachers complete the training one time, while others will be folded into other resources or support opportunities.
• Increasing professional autonomy for effective educators. Teachers who consistently demonstrate success will be provided more freedom with teaching practices and lesson planning.

BESE President Ronnie Morris said fewer trainings will give teachers more flexibility and time to work on teaching their classes.

“Our unanimous decision today reflects an intentional approach to improve student outcomes,” Morris said. “By eliminating redundant training and improving educator support, we are optimizing the environment for both teaching and learning, which are essential to academic success.”

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