Parents' Right to Know
Title I Schools
Elementary and Secondary
Education Act requires all LEAs to notify parents of all children in all
Title I schools that they have the right to request and receive timely
information on the professional qualifications of their children’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 tells parents the
types of information they may request.
At a minimum, if a parent requests
it, LEA/school must report:
• Whether the teacher has met state qualifying and
licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher
is teaching;
• Whether the teacher is teacher under emergency or
other provisional status through which state qualification or licensing
criteria have been waived;
• The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher 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
paraprofessional and, if so, their 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 parents 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 ED guidance,
if there is no other way to provide information, it should be provided in oral
translation.
Requests must be in writing to
the principal.
This applies only to Title I
schools.