The exchange of teachers with a foreign country under the provisions of this article shall be conditioned upon the fact that the employing school district in California shall not be required to pay the salary of the teacher from the foreign country. Teachers employed by California school districts shall, while serving as teachers in a foreign country pursuant to this article, continue to receive from their employing school districts the full amounts of the regular salaries which would be payable to them if they were serving in the schools of the particular employing districts, and the district shall make all deductions provided by law for retirement purposes during such period.

The Department of Education may pay to the teachers from a foreign country employed by a school district in California under this article, part or all of the difference between the salary being paid them by their respective foreign employers and the salary being paid by the California school district to the particular teachers with whom they are exchanged, as the department shall determine to be appropriate in each instance; except that no such payment to a foreign teacher shall exceed three thousand dollars ($3,000) in one school year nor shall such payments be made to more than 500 teachers from foreign countries in any one fiscal year.

The Department of Education may pay the travel expenses of teachers in the exchange program but such payments shall not be made to more than 500 California teachers and 500 teachers from foreign countries in any one fiscal year. Such payments shall be for the actual expense involved in travel to and from the exchange assignments or for one thousand dollars ($1,000), whichever is the lesser amount.

The Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing shall establish minimum standards for credentials for such exchange teachers from a foreign country and shall provide for the issuance of such credentials to such teachers.

(Enacted by Stats. 1976, Ch. 1010.)