{"id":135,"date":"2009-01-02T18:00:43","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T23:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=135"},"modified":"2019-04-08T10:27:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T14:27:58","slug":"how-can-i-know-if-my-childs-teacher-is-highly-qualified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/how-can-i-know-if-my-childs-teacher-is-highly-qualified\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can I Know if My Child&#8217;s Teacher is Highly Qualified?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"How%20Can%20I%20Know%20if%20My%20Child%27s%20Teacher%20is%20Highly%20Qualified%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><em>Do I have a right to know the qualifications of my child&#8217;s teachers? If the answer is &#8220;yes,&#8221; how long does the school have to provide me with this information?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>**********<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Congress has reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the statute formerly known as No Child Left Behind. The new statute, <strong><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/essa\/index.htm\">Every Student Succeeds Act<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, was signed into law by President Obama on December 10, 2015.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">**********<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px; float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/images\/teacher.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"150\" \/>The answer is &#8220;yes&#8221; if your child attends a school that receives Title I funding, and &#8220;maybe&#8221; if the school does not receive Title I funds.<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the school year, your school district must notify parents of all children who attend Title I schools of their right to request information about the qualifications of their child&#8217;s teachers and paraprofessionals, including . . .<\/p>\n<p>(1) Whether the teacher has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction;<\/p>\n<p>(2) Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which State qualification or licensing criteria have been waived.<\/p>\n<p>(3) The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher, and the field of discipline of the certification or degree.<\/p>\n<p>(4) Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Are teachers who instruct students with Specific Learning Disabilities in general education classes &#8220;highly qualified&#8221;? <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Teachers are &#8220;highly qualified&#8221; to teach academic subjects. To be &#8220;highly qualified,&#8221; special ed teachers must demonstrate that they are competent to teach academic subjects. They can do this by having a degree in the subject or by passing a knowledge and skills test. The knowledge and skills tests are developed by state departments of education so the quality and content differs between states. Most tests are not rigorous.<\/p>\n<p>Special ed teachers who are not highly qualified can assist highly qualified teachers, give advice about accommodations, etc.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to get information about the qualifications of your child&#8217;s teachers, you need to make your request in writing. When you make requests in writing, you make it more likely that you will get an answer.<\/p>\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/nclb.parent.right.know.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">NCLB: Parent&#8217;s Rights to Know Qualifications of Child&#8217;s Teachers<\/span><\/a>. This article answers questions about highly qualified teachers and includes a sample letter you can use to request information about the qualifications of your child&#8217;s teachers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/nclb.parent.right.know.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/nclb.parent.right.know.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If the school does not answer your request in a couple of weeks, send another letter explaining that you sent a letter on XXX Date and haven&#8217;t received a response. Attach letter #1 to this letter.<\/p>\n<p>If the school does not provide the information you requested, contact the <span style=\"color: #000080;\">No Child Left Behind Regional Representative<\/span> for your state. [no longer available]<\/p>\n<p>NCLB Representatives are responsible for helping states comply with the law and for monitoring compliance in their region. To find the Regional Representative for your state, click here: <span style=\"color: #000080;\">http:\/\/www.ed.gov\/about\/contacts\/gen\/regions.html<\/span> [no longer available]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do I have a right to know the qualifications of my child&#8217;s teachers? If the answer is &#8220;yes,&#8221; how long does the school have to provide me with this information? <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/how-can-i-know-if-my-childs-teacher-is-highly-qualified\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,157,11,161],"tags":[1305,66,266,41,265],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-idea-2004","category-no-child-left-behind","category-special-ed-law","category-teachers","tag-highly-qualified-teachers","tag-nclb","tag-nclb-monitoring-compliance","tag-parental-rights","tag-teacher-qualifications"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24158,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/24158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}