Message-ID: <000801c40d04$a4cf5d20$6501a8c0@suzanne>
From: "Suzanne Heath" <sueheath@charter.net>
To: "Pam Wright" <pamwright@wrightslaw.com>
References: <003301c40ce5$a5070000$6501a8c0@suzanne> <20040318132814.M28912@wrightslaw.com>
Subject: Re: NEWSLETTER Fw: Enforcing NCLB
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:18:25 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Status: RO

Hi Pam,

I combined the e-mails and cleaned up the sentences but it still needs
another eye.

You told me that the pilings would be coming soon and that the trees were a
thing of the past.

Sue
=====================
Hi,


I have been subscribing to your newsletters and using many of the tactics
suggested for advocating successfully for my child. I am now advocating for
another child. I thought it would be easier because of the NCLB law.


I have run into a brick wall that seems impenetrable. I downloaded and
copied a letter requesting teacher and paraprofessional qualifications. I
included this information in a letter to the school district.


The principal was not familiar with this part of the NCLB and had to check
with their lawyers. Then she told the parent that she would request the
teacher to supply her with a copy of her resume. Finally she gave the parent
the phone number to the district's human resource department and told the
parent they were the only ones that could furnish that type of information
!!


We live in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. I am ready to file a complaint  with
the state even though I am not sure that would do any good. I do not believe
that Philadelphia has even notified parents of their rights to be given
teacher qualification information.


I have contacted the "Pennsylvania Education Law Center". I have had many
dealing with them in the past concerning my own son and surprisingly they
have not been very effective for me.


I know that you said enforcement of this NCLB law would be difficult, but
could you please advise what the next step should be? This child and parent
really need help to get an appropriate education. I have even spoken to a
few lawyers and amazingly most that I spoke to do not seem to like this
NCLB. They feel it is worthless.


Who exactly enforces the NCLB law? It is always important to have as much
information about regulations and laws, but what worth is it when there is
no mechanism in place to enforce it? The school district in this case refuse
to give any information about teacher qualifications other than if the
teacher is not highly qualified they must notify the parent, hence if the
parent receives no information regarding teacher qualifications, then one
may assume the teacher' is indeed highly qualified.


Please advise what options a parent have when a district may not comply with
this new and complex law.


PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!


Sincerely,
Carolin Andrews

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888


Dear Carolin,


The next step for you and for the people who have been giving you advise
would be to read the No Child Left Behind statute, regulations and policy
guidance. Start with the policy guidance in the areas that interest you the
most. The NCLB Desktop Reference is helpful in getting an idea of the scope
of the law. It will also contain the answers to many common questions.


In the time you have taken trying to find someone in the district who knew
the answer you could have read about the answer and a lot more. The key is
1) knowing where to look, and 2) sharing the resource with others so that
others will have the answers they need to do their jobs or educate their
children.


NCLB does not give the public access to the teacher's resume.  It does give
the parents of children in a school that receives Title I funds a right to
information about their child's  teacher's qualifications. The distinction
between these two situations is immediately apparent to anyone with general
knowledge of current education law.


School administrators, parents, and advocates will make many mistakes when
they try to use and follow a law they have never read. It is much simpler in
the long run just to learn what the law says. There really is not an easier
way.


Primarily, the federal government enforces NCLB by financial penalties to
the states. The states enforce NCLB within the states.


The parent is the one with rights under NCLB.  Therefore, the parent must be
the one making the request, not an advocate. Once the parent requests
something that they are entitled to from the Title I school district, such
as information about the teacher's major, degree, and certification, they
should get an answer within a reasonable time. The parent involvement policy
should tell the parents the procedure for obtaining this information. Title
I school districts must have a parent involvement policy.


If the district does not have a parent involvement policy the parents should
request information about the teacher's major, degree, and certification
from the principal. If the principal does not provide the information the
parents should request the information from the district superintendent.
These requests should be in writing.


If a parent involvement policy is not in place, or the information about
teacher qualifications is not available to the parent, the parent should
contact the NCLB contact person at the state department of education. If a
NCLB contact person has not been designated, then the parent should contact
the commissioner of education. This contact should be in the form of a short
concise letter explaining the facts and asking for the information.


If that is unsuccessful the parent should send a letter, or a well composed
e-mail, to the federal NCLB contact person. This person is called the
Secretary's Regional Representative.


There may not be anything to enforce in the situation you describe. It
sounds like the district has been scrambling around to get a copy of the
teacher's resume of you. That is a whole separate issue and has nothing at
all to do with NCLB. There is no federal law that entitles you or the parent
to a teacher's resume.


If all the parents want is information about the teacher's certification
they can get that by contacting the state education department's bureau of
credentialing. That is has nothing to do with NCLB either.


NCLB is one of many reauthorizations of a law that is 38 years old. The
reauthorization itself is more than 2 years old. It is not reasonable for
anyone involved in education to be saying that this is something new that
they are still struggling with.


Resources---


NCLB statute, regulations and policy guidance
http://www.wrightslaw.com/nclb/law.htm


No Child Left Behind: A Desktop Reference


Improving Teacher Quality, Revised Draft Non-Regulatory Guidance. This 43
page document provides non-regulatory guidance for Title II programs about
preparing, training, and recruiting high-quality teachers and principals;
requires states to develop plans with annual measurable objectives to ensure
that all teachers teaching in core academic subjects are highly qualified by
the end of the 2005-2006 school year. (September 12, 2003)


Fact Sheet about Highly Qualified Teachers
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/teachers/hqtflexibility.html.


Title 1 Paraprofessionals - March 1, 2004, Non-Regulatory Guidance
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/paraguidance.pdf This publication
includes general information about paraprofessionals, answers questions
about educational requirements for paraprofessionals, assessment, related
issues, and funding.


List of NCLB contact people and commissioners of education
http://www.nichcy.org/states.htm


List of Secretary's Regional Representatives - choose the state, click on
the third item, scroll to the bottom of the page
http://www.ed.gov/about/contacts/state/index.html


Let me know if you need more.


Sue Heath

=======================

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pam Wright" <pamwright@wrightslaw.com>
To: "Suzanne Heath" <sueheath@charter.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 8:28 AM
Subject: Re: NEWSLETTER Fw: Enforcing NCLB


> Sue:
>
> Your emails to Carolin are excellent. We need to use them as the basis of
an
> article for the site.
>
> Pete and I were driving through DC yesterday (more about that later) when
I
> logged on and read your first email about the need to read the law for
> oneself. I read it to Pete, he had the same thought.
>
> This one is great too. Do you want me to merge both into an article and
send
> to you for review and revisions? Or do you want to do it?
>
> I see you are having lots of snow with more forecast. We talked to Dot on
> Tues night, she said lots of snow that day. I think we celebrated the end
of
> winter too early - the weather gods heard us and decided to hammer us with
> snow again. (down here, we aren't getting snow but lots and lots of rain)
>
> I don't know if I told you what we have been doing for past week or so,
> clearing Eagle Point. I'll put that into another email.
>
> Let me know how you want to handle this article.
>
> Me
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 07:36:32 -0500, Suzanne Heath wrote
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: Suzanne Heath
> > To: Cpmamamia@aol.com
> > Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 7:35 AM
> > Subject: Re: Enforcing NCLB
> >
> > Dear Carolin,
> >
> > Primarily, the federal government enforces NCLB by financial
> > penalties to the states. The states enforce NCLB within the states.
> >
> > The parent has the rights under NCLB so the parent needs to be the
> > one making the requests. Once the parent requests something that
> > they are entitled to from the Title I school district, such as
> > information about the teacher's major, degree, and certification,
> >  they should get an answer within a reasonable time. The parent
> > involvement policy should tell the parents the procedure for
> > obtaining this information. Title I school districts must have a
> > parent involvement policy.
> >
> > If all the parents want is information about the teacher's
> > certification they can get that by contacting the state education
> > department's bureau of credentialing. That is has nothing to do with
> > NCLB.
> >
> > If the policy is not in place or the information is not available to
> > the parent then the parent should contact the NCLB contact person at
> > the state department of education. If a NCLB contact person has not
> > been designated by the state department of education, then the
> > parent should contact the commissioner of education and write a
> > short concise letter explaining the facts and asking for the
> > information.
> >
> > If the is not successful then the parent should contact the
> > Secretary's Regional Representative for that state.
> >
> > There may not be anything to enforce so far. It sounds like the
> > district has been scrambling around to get a copy of the teacher's
> > resume of you. That is a whole separate issue and has nothing at all
> > to do with NCLB.
> >
> > When the parents make their request for information about the
> > teacher's major, degree, and certification they should make it in
> > writing and address it to the person responsible for providing that
> > information. This would be the principal, or if they are past that
> > stage now, it should be to the district superintendent. The first
> > letter asking for enforcement (written as a nice request) would be
> > to the state commissioner of education and then to the federal NCLB
> > contact person, the Secretary's Regional Representative.
> >
> > This law is a reauthorization of a law that is 38 years old. The
> > reauthorization itself is more than 2 years old. Don't let the
> > school district or state department of education tell you this is
> > something new that they should still be struggling with.
> >
> > List of NCLB contact people and commissioners of education
> http://www.nichcy.org/states.htm
> >
> > List of Secretary's Regional Representatives - choose the state,
> > click on the third item, scroll to the bottom of the page
> http://www.ed.gov/about/contacts/state/index.html
> >
> > Let me know if you need more.
> >
> > Sue Heath
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> >   From: Cpmamamia@aol.com
> >   To: sueheath@charter.net
> >   Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 12:13 AM
> >   Subject: Re: Enforcing NCLB
> >
> >   Hi, many thanks for the links to the NCLB Law, you are correct
> >  that many mistakes will be made by parents, educators etc. The
> > Desktop Reference is especially helpful to me. However, I still do
> > not feel that my question has been answered and that is who exactly
> > enforces the NCLB law. It is always important to have as much
> > information about regulations and laws, but what worth is it when
> > there is no mechanism in place to enforce it? The school district in
> > this case refuse to give any information about teacher
> > qualifications other than if the teacher is not highly qualified
> > they must notify the parent, hence if the parent receives no
> > information regarding teacher qualifications, then one may assume
> > the teacher' is indeed highly qualified.  Again , Please advise what
> > options a parent have when a district may not comply with this new
> > and complex law.  Sincerely, Carolin Andrews
>
>
>
>