MEA continues to monitor federal ruling on No Child’s highly qualified requirement
MEA’s Professional Development/Human Rights staff continues to work with the Michigan Department of Education to monitor a federal ruling that impacts secondary special education teachers who believed they had met the highly qualified requirement of the No Child Left Behind act.
U.S. Department of Education auditors last month ruled that taking the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification elementary test is not an option for Michigan secondary special education teachers to become highly qualified.
How many special education teachers the mandate will affect is not known at this time, but the Professional Development/Human Rights staff is working to make compliance as painless as possible for these teachers.
This much is known:
- The deadline for compliance for teachers affected by the ruling is June 30, 2009, according to the Michigan Department of Education.
- The state department will be recommending options on how teachers can best meet the highly qualified requirement.
- Special education teachers that work in a co-teaching assignment (inclusion classroom) with a general education teacher are not required to demonstrate competence as a highly qualified teacher.
- In classrooms where a special education teacher is facilitating instruction provided by a general education teacher, it is not necessary for the special education teacher to demonstrate competence as a highly qualified teacher.
The MEA staff will continue to keep members informed as new information becomes available.