Teacher's Qualifications

Did you know you have a right to know the qualifications of your child's teachers and paraprofessionals? Did you know that your school district must notify you of your right to request information about the qualifications of your child's teachers and paraprofessionals?

At the beginning of the school year, the school district must notify parents of all children who attend Title I schools of their right to request information about the qualifications of your child's teachers and paraprofessionals, including:

(1) Whether the teacher has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction;

(2) Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which State qualification or licensing criteria have been waived.

(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.

(4) Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.

Substitute Teacher Qualifications

Is your child being taught by a substitute teacher? If your child has been taught by an unqualified person for 4 consecutive weeks, you r school district must notify you. This requirement applies to substitute teachers, many of whom do not meet "highly qualified" requirements. [Source: NCLB, Title I, Section 1111(h)(6)]

Request Information about Teacher Qualifications

If you want to learn the qualifications of your child's teachers and
paraprofessionals, you need to write a letter to request this information from the school.

Since people often lack confidence in their ability to write letters, we wrote a sample letter that you can use as a template. Just change the identifying information - your name, address and phone number, your child's name, school, and principal, etc.

The letter to request teacher qualifications is in two formats:

In pdf: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/nclb.ltr.teacher.qual.pdf

In Word: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/nclb.ltr.teacher.qual.doc

We suggest that you print the February 1, 2003 issue of The No Child Left Behind Newsletter and include a copy of this newsletter with your letter.

Learn how to write effective letters - and why you need to learn this skill.

If you have our book, Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, turn to page 331. You will find more than a dozen letters that you can tailor to your circumstances.

Links: No Child Left Behind Resources

Facts about Teacher Training & Certification: Are We Destroying the
Future, One Child at a Time? We take a look at teacher quality,training and certification.

Improving Teacher Quality - Free pub from U.S. Department of Education includes standards for highly qualified teachers and clarifies parents' right to know about the quality of their children's teachers; is written in an easy-to-understand "Question and Answer: format.

Facts About Good Teachers from No Child Left Behind site.