According Washington State University's Center for Real Estate Research, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in King County is $900 a month.

The yearly salary for a first-year teacher in the Highline School District is $32,000. This year the Highline School District can offer some assistance on rent payments--up to $250 a month.

With rent taking a third of a new teacher's income, recruiting new teachers can be challenging, but a unique multi-government and agency program, the Teacher Housing Incentive Grant Program will provide rental assistance to up to 20 beginning teachers living in Burien in the 2008-2009 school year. It already has 13 applicants, with another 20 to be added the following year. Each teacher who qualifies will receive funds for two years through the pilot program.

Funded by the state with a $250,000 pilot grant, the program operates through the City of Burien, the Housing Trust Fund, the Washington State Legislature, King County, the Highline School District and the Highline Education Association.

The idea behind it is to attract more beginning teachers and retain more of them once they sign on. Highline currently has a 16% attrition rate for first-year teachers.

"We're really excited about this," said Jenn Ramirez Robson, program manager for Burien, adding that the program has been heavily promoted through the recruiting process for the school district. Recruiters are focusing primarily on first or second-year teachers.

Using federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) income guidelines, teachers making 80% or less than the median household income in King County qualify to apply. Those income levels are $43,000 for singles, or $49,000 for a two-person household.

With starting teachers making well below those figures, the incentive is a good one.

"There's been a great deal of interest," Robson said. "Some of the teachers have even said this is what tipped them over (to come to Burien)."

Retaining new teachers by easing the rental burden may do more than slow teacher turnover, Robson said. With several Highline schools struggling with meeting No Child Left Behind test score requirements, fewer turnovers will hopefully translate into a rise in scores.

Because schools with lower income students tend to struggle the most and also have higher attrition rates among beginning teachers, Robson said she expects that it is in those schools where the program will do the most good.

Another plus will be the addition of more teachers in typically hard-to-fill endorsements such as math, science and special education.

According to district spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers, "The priority is the hard-to-fill positions."

Though assistance isn't limited to teachers with those endorsements, recruiting has focused on them, as well as those willing to relocate, Rogers said. If spots in the program go unfilled, any teacher meeting the income qualifications could apply.

The district's recruiting and retention department has made the assistance program the focus of its recruiting efforts. While there are several lower-income, teacher homebuyer assistance and first-time homebuyers programs around the state, rental assistance isn't as common, In fact, Robson said, she is unaware of any other such program aimed at teachers.

But, as Rogers said, "Anything they can do to enhance (teachers') salary is a good thing."

Robson added, "We're really grateful to the Legislature for providing this option."

Rogers agrees. "We're hoping that this will help us. If it's successful, we'll go back to the Legislature to continue it."