EdVANTAGE Blog

The prospect of sweeping teacher layoffs have been commanding media attention lately, including the lead-off story on the NBC Nightly News last evening.

Earlier this week the State Board of Regents voted to adopt three recommendations originating with the Council to help school districts retain good teachers who might otherwise be laid off.

Guidance on the new regulations has been released by the State Education Department.

SED sums up the intent,

Essentially, the changes from a certification perspective will permit general education and special education teachers currently in a school district to be reassigned by the district to teach in grades close to their current certification area; specifically, for kindergarten and the Middle Childhood grades, in order to avoid or mitigate layoffs. These new regulations address certification issues only. Hiring decisions or appointments to tenure areas continue to be governed by existing law and rules.

To give an example, a school district facing a need to layoff a proven effective 1st grade school could, under certain conditions, retain him or her to fill a vacancy for a kindergarten teacher.

We are grateful to SED officials Joseph Frey, Robert Bentley, Kenneth Slentz, and John King and the Regents for quickly responding to this request from superintendents.

Some districts have already sent out layoff notices due to collective bargaining agreement requirements.

I explained to some of the Regents that this initiative was less about saving money than about saving careers.