Title 1 School: teacher not certified? (PA)

[Mandypenn76]

We just received a letter that our son's ELA teacher is not state certified. They sent out a "4-Week Consecutive Letter" earlier in the year without specifying which teacher at the school, but now it was listed as his ELA teacher. He had the same teacher last year (no letter). Is this OK, especially with an IEP (this is not being upheld, by numerous teacher, including this one)?

What questions do I need to ask? 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

I would call the Pennsylvania Department of Education and ask if this is ok.  Many requirements for teachers have been modified to address the staffing shortage.

But regardless if this is ok or not, the IEP MUST be followed.  There is no excuse for not doing this.  I would first go over all the accommodations with your son to see which ones are being followed (and if not being followed, does he still need them?).  Then I would gather information as to how this failure to follow the IEP is affecting your son in the educational environment - is he getting low grades? is he struggling to turn in assignments, keep up with homework, etc.? is he frustrated or does he "hate" school? are his standardized test scores going down?  Then request an IEP meeting (ask that every teacher attend, but you probably won't get that) and ask how accommodations are being implemented and outline the struggles he is having based on not following the IEP.  For teachers who are not at the meeting, ask them in an email or phone call or informal meeting (during the latter two taking meticulous notes and following up with an email as to what was said).

If you continue to have issues with implementation of the IEP, contact the director of special education.  Next step would be filing a state complaint.

[JSD24]

I'm in PA & my son ended up with a Spanish teacher who wasn't certified.  I'm pretty sure this is OK.  They need to be working toward getting certified to do this.  Not sure if this is the case with the ELA teacher.

If you are finding that a teacher isn't following the IEP, filing a state complaint is an option.  What I'd do before I went that route and became "that parent" is to have an IEP meeting.  Before the meeting, write out your parent concerns.  If teacher X isn't providing extra time and teacher Y isn't reading directions aloud and this is in the IEP, write it out.  Send this to the IEP team a week before the meeting.  At the IEP meeting, you can request teacher training in how to provide the accommodations in the IEP.  (I'm assuming that SDI is being provided by a special ed teacher and that's going OK.)  I wouldn't want to meet one on one with a teacher to tell them they need to follow the IEP.  That could be done with an email.  I'd email the teachers who aren't following the IEP and copy the case manager and principal so they are aware of the situation.  Not sure what's going to be the best route to take to get the IEP followed.  Sending your parent concerns to the team and the gen ed teachers who aren't with the program might be a strategy.  Adding a self-advocacy goal might help your child be able to get the teachers to follow the IEP as well.  Lots of options.