Washington, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, the only N.C. member of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Monday requesting that he review and postpone a recent Department decision which will adversely affect North Carolina students.
“Our schools remain dedicated to having high-quality instructors teaching special education students in their classrooms,” said Etheridge. “However, the Department of Education has to recognize that if they change the rules, school districts need adequate time to prepare parents, students and teachers for the transition.”
A recent Title II review by the U.S. Department of Education (USED) determined that North Carolina’s certification requirements did not meet High Quality Teacher (HQT) standards. This ruling stated that special education teachers who teach core subjects must hold certification in both special education and in all subject areas in which they are the primary teacher. Until this ruling issued by USED in September, special education teachers who were Highly Qualified for teaching exceptional children and who also passed the Praxis 0511 examination were considered by the State of North Carolina to be highly qualified to teach core academic subjects. Schools and teachers acted in good faith to complete the requirements as they had been outlined to them prior to this ruling. Etheridge has requested the Secretary delay the judgment on teacher qualifications until the start of the 2010 school year.
In their ruling, the U.S. Department of Education also called for new testing of special needs instructors in ‘core subjects’ and required the schools to notify parents of special needs students by mail that their child’s teacher is not highly-qualified. Etheridge has asked that the teachers be allowed to use the rest of the 2009-10 school year to take the new Praxis II examination or demonstrate 24 credit hours of coursework in each of the core subject areas for which they are the teacher of record.
“This is not a case of a school trying to evade the rules, but instead it’s a school system acting in a good faith manner to benefit students and families, while still meeting federal guidelines,” Etheridge said. “If we work together and are flexible, local and federal education officials can deliver what’s best for students and families.”