This bill amends RCW 28A.415.265 to establish the Beginning Educator Support Team (BES) program and to define related terms. It creates a new, OSPI‑administered program to provide professional development and mentoring for beginning principals, beginning educational staff associates, beginning teachers, and candidates in alternative-route teacher certification programs. The amendment defines “mentor educator,” “beginning educator support team program,” and “novice school nurse” (an RN or ARNP in their first, second, or third year in a school-based role). The law changes procedures by directing the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to notify districts, encourage applications, and—subject to specific appropriations—allocate BES funds on a competitive basis to individual districts, consortia, or state‑tribal compact schools, with priority for schools/districts identified for federal support and districts with many beginning educators or demonstrable understanding of OSPI’s induction standards. Districts receiving BES funds must prioritize providing a trained mentor to any novice school nurse. Required program components include paid orientation, mentor assignment for up to three years with intensive first‑year support, mentor professional development, release time for collaboration and observations, nonevaluative observations with written feedback, support in understanding evaluation processes and instructional frameworks, adherence to OSPI’s research‑based induction standards, program evaluation, and optional use of components for continuous improvement coaching for educators on probation under RCW 28A.405.100. The bill is a program‑creation and procedural change rather than a criminal or penalty change. It authorizes competitive grant allocations and prescribes mentoring and professional development requirements but makes funding and implementation subject to the availability of appropriations. The extracted text does not include appropriation amounts, specific mentor training or induction standards, detailed application criteria or timelines, an effective date, or whether other related statutory changes appear elsewhere.

If enacted, the bill creates a state-supported beginning educator support (BES) program that pays for and requires trained mentors to work with new principals, teachers, educational staff associates, alternative-route teacher candidates, and especially “novice” school nurses (RNs or ARNPs in years 1–3) for up to three years with intensive first-year help. School districts that win competitive BES grants from OSPI would be expected to provide paid orientations, mentor professional development, release time for mentor-mentee collaboration and observations, non-evaluative feedback, and efforts to match mentors with educators from underrepresented groups; program tools can also be used to coach educators on probation. The practical effect is more structured, ongoing support for new educators and school nurses in districts that receive funding, which is likely to improve early-career retention and instructional support where applied. The program depends on specific legislative appropriations and competitive awards from OSPI, so districts must apply and may only get funds if the Legislature provides them; OSPI will set training and selection standards but the bill does not say how much money will be available, the application details, or an implementation timeline. That means districts considering relying on BES supports face uncertainty about funding and may still need to cover mentor release time or staffing changes if grant awards are limited; OSPI, districts, beginning educators, and mentor candidates are the parties most directly affected.