It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows

SECTION 1. Section 16-13-3 of the General Laws in Chapter 16-13 entitled "Teachers' Tenure" are hereby amended to read as follows:

16-13-3. Probationary period -- Tenure after probation. -- (a) Three (3) {DEL successive DEL} annual contracts {ADD within five (5) successive school years ADD} shall be considered evidence of satisfactory teaching and shall constitute a probationary period. Teachers who complete the probationary period shall be considered in continuous service and shall not be subject to annual renewal or nonrenewal of their contracts. No such tenured teacher shall be dismissed except for good and just cause. Whenever a tenured teacher in continuous service is to be dismissed, the notice of the dismissal shall be given to the teacher in writing on or before March 1st of the school year immediately preceding the school year in which the dismissal is to become effective. The teacher shall be furnished with a complete statement of the cause(s) for the dismissal by the governing body of the school and shall be entitled to a hearing and appeal pursuant to the procedure set forth in section 16-13-4.

(b) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prohibit or at any time to have prohibited a school committee from agreeing, in a collective bargaining agreement, to the arbitration of disputes arising out of the dismissal of a tenured teacher pursuant to subsection (a) of this section.

(c) Any teacher appointed to a position of principal, assistant principal, or vice principal within the school system in which the teacher has attained tenure shall, upon termination or resignation of the administrative position, be allowed to return to his or her former status as a tenured teacher within the system.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.