Sec. 17. (a) A teacher who:
(1) has not retained a status as a semipermanent, permanent, or nonpermanent teacher with a participating school corporation; and
(2) loses the teacher's job in a special education cooperative because of a reduction in services or discontinuance of the cooperative;
shall be considered for any job opening for which the teacher is qualified that occurs in any of the participating school corporations in the school year immediately following the reduction in services or discontinuance of the cooperative.
(b) A teacher employed under this section has the same rights and privileges as teachers employed under IC 20-26-10-5 and IC 20-26-10-6.