The Ohio Department of Education invites you to participate in an exciting international opportunity, the Visiting Teacher from Taiwan Program. This program, a joint venture between the Ohio Department of Education and the Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan), enables local school districts to hire a highly-qualified native Chinese speaker.

Through this program, school districts are able to recruit world language and bilingual education teachers from Taiwan to teach at elementary, middle and high school levels. At the same time, it provides students, parents, and educators with the opportunity to work with professionals who are native speakers of the target language, bringing an authentic and valuable international perspective to Ohio classrooms. With the growing interest in the Chinese language, this is an opportunity to address the immediate need to place highly qualified teachers of Chinese in schools where resources are available to hire a teacher but where positions may be hard to fill.

The visiting teachers make a one to three year commitment to teach in the United States, provided that the school district agrees to rehire them. Participating districts employ these teachers in accordance with state regulations and policies, and pay them according to their experience and certification level. Districts are also required to provide the same health insurance benefits that other district employees receive. Additionally, a medical evacuation policy and a repatriation-of-remains policy must also be purchased to satisfy visa requirements. J-1 work visas and visiting teacher licenses are issued to these educators by the Ohio Department of Education. ODE will also provide these teachers with an in-state orientation session prior to their arrival in their school communities. Districts are responsible for their visiting teacher¡¦s roundtrip airfare from Taiwan to Ohio.

Districts are required to assist visiting teachers by securing a temporary host/welcome family for the initial days following the teacher¡¦s arrival in their communities. Districts are also requested to assist their visiting teachers with making housing arrangements and securing transportation, expenses for which the visiting teachers are financially responsible. While the visiting teachers are responsible for their making and paying for their housing and transportation expenses, they may need to request an advance on their first pay in order to expedite these arrangements.

Visiting teachers from Taiwan are required to contribute retirement funds to STRS, but they are eligible for a refund of their contribution upon completion of their time in the U.S. Additionally, these teachers are required to pay local, state, and federal taxes, pay for the same portion of their health insurance benefits as other district teachers, and pay union dues if applicable.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Education will further support this program by donating instructional materials to districts which are to be used by the visiting teachers.

Please disseminate this information to district superintendents, principals, curriculum directors, gifted and talented coordinators, directors of human resources, and department chairs for world languages. If you are unfamiliar with Ohio¡¦s visiting teachers programs, or your school district is in need of a highly qualified, native speaker of Chinese, please contact Ryan Wertz, World Languages Consultant and International Education Coordinator by phone at 614-728-4630 or by e-mail at Ryan.Wertz@ode.state.oh.us by March 31, 2007.