(a) To employ such educational support personnel employees as it deems advisable and to define their employment duties; provided that residency within any school district shall not be considered in determining the employment or the compensation of any such employee, or whether to retain, promote, assign or transfer such employee. If an educational support personnel employee is removed or dismissed or the hours he or she works are reduced as a result of a decision of the school board (i) to decrease the number of educational support personnel employees employed by the board or (ii) to discontinue some particular type of educational support service, written notice shall be mailed to the employee and also given to the employee either by certified mail, return receipt requested, or personal delivery with receipt, at least 30 days before the employee is removed or dismissed or the hours he or she works are reduced, together with a statement of honorable dismissal and the reason therefor if applicable. However, if a reduction in hours is due to an unforeseen reduction in the student population, then the written notice must be mailed and given to the employee at least 5 days before the hours are reduced. The employee with the shorter length of continuing service with the district, within the respective category of position, shall be dismissed first unless an alternative method of determining the sequence of dismissal is established in a collective bargaining agreement or contract between the board and any exclusive bargaining agent and except that this provision shall not impair the operation of any affirmative action program in the district, regardless of whether it exists by operation of law or is conducted on a voluntary basis by the board. If the board has any vacancies for the following school term or within one calendar year from the beginning of the following school term, the positions thereby becoming available within a specific category of position shall be tendered to the employees so removed or dismissed from that category or any other category of position, so far as they are qualified to hold such positions. Each board shall, in consultation with any exclusive employee representative or bargaining agent, each year establish a list, categorized by positions, showing the length of continuing service of each full time educational support personnel employee who is qualified to hold any such positions, unless an alternative method of determining a sequence of dismissal is established as provided for in this Section, in which case a list shall be made in accordance with the alternative method. Copies of the list shall be distributed to the exclusive employee representative or bargaining agent on or before February 1 of each year.
     If an educational support personnel employee is removed or dismissed as a result of a decision of the board to decrease the number of educational support personnel employed by the board or to discontinue some particular type of educational support service and he or she accepts the tender of a vacancy within one calendar year from the beginning of the following school term, then that employee shall maintain any rights accrued during his or her previous service with the school district.
     Where an educational support personnel employee is dismissed by the board as a result of a decrease in the number of employees or the discontinuance of the employee’s job, the employee shall be paid all earned compensation on or before the next regular pay date following his or her last day of employment.
     The provisions of this amendatory Act of 1986 relating to residency within any school district shall not apply to cities having a population exceeding 500,000 inhabitants.
     (b) In the case of a new school district or districts formed in accordance with Article 11E of this Code, a school district or districts that annex all of the territory of one or more entire other school districts in accordance with Article 7 of this Code, a school district receiving students from a deactivated school facility in accordance with Section 10-22.22b of this Code, or a special education cooperative that dissolves or reorganizes in accordance with Section 10-22.31 of this Code, the employment of educational support personnel in the new, annexing, or receiving school district immediately following the reorganization shall be governed by this subsection (b). Lists of the educational support personnel employed in the individual districts or special education cooperative for the school year immediately prior to the effective date of the new district or districts, annexation, deactivation, dissolution, or reorganization shall be combined for the districts forming the new district or districts, for the annexed and annexing districts, for the deactivating and receiving districts, or for the dissolving or reorganizing special education cooperative, as the case may be. The combined list shall be categorized by positions, showing the length of continuing service of each full-time educational support personnel employee who is qualified to hold any such position. If there are more full-time educational support personnel employees on the combined list than there are available positions in the new, annexing, or receiving school district, then the employing school board shall first remove or dismiss those educational support personnel employees with the shorter length of continuing service within the respective category of position, following the procedures outlined in subsection (a) of this Section. In the case of a special education cooperative that dissolves or reorganizes, the districts that are parties to the joint agreement shall follow the procedures outlined in subsection (a) of this Section. The employment and position of each educational support personnel employee on the combined list not so removed or dismissed shall be transferred to the new, annexing, or receiving school board, and the new, annexing, or receiving school board is subject to this Code with respect to any educational support personnel employee so transferred as if the educational support personnel employee had been the new, annexing, or receiving board’s employee during the time the educational support personnel employee was actually employed by the school board of the district from which the employment and position were transferred.
     The changes made by Public Act 95-148 shall not apply to the formation of a new district or districts in accordance with Article 11E of this Code, the annexation of one or more entire districts in accordance with Article 7 of this Code, or the deactivation of a school facility in accordance with Section 10-22.22b of this Code effective on or before July 1, 2007.