The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (you may also hear it referred to as the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA) requires that school districts notify parents of all children in all Title I schools of their right to request and receive timely information on the professional qualifications of your child(ren)’s classroom teachers. This notice must be sent at the start of each school year. The notice does not itself contain the teacher information; it simply lets parents know the types of information they may request. At a minimum, if parents request it, your child’s school or our district (depending upon the type of information requested,) must provide:
Whether the teacher has met sate qualifying and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher is teacher;
Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which state qualification or licensing criteria have been waived;
The teacher’s college degree major and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher, including the field of discipline of the certification or degree; and
Whether the child is provided services by a teacher assistant and, if so, the assistant’s qualifications.
In addition, if a child is assigned, or taught by, a teacher who is not “highly qualified” for four or more consecutive weeks, the parent must receive timely notice.
These and other communications with parents must be in an understandable and uniform format and to the extent practical, in a language the parents can understand. According to US Department of Education guidance, if there is no other way to provide information, it should be provided verbally.
**This only applies to the Title I Schools: Centennial Elementary, Charlotte Elementary, Dickson Elementary, The Discovery School, Oakmont Elementary, Stuart Burns Elementary, Sullivan Central Elementary, Vanleer Elementary, and White Bluff Elementary