Paraprofessionals gain time to meet job mandates

Just before reporter went to press, the AFT received word that it had helped win an important concession for paraprofessionals still trying to meet job qualification requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. The U.S. Department of Education on June 16 confirmed it will extend the deadline for paraprofessionals to meet the NCLB mandates to the end of the 2005-06 school year, which is in line with other deadlines in the law.

Until now, the deadline for paraprofessionals to meet new qualifications for working in schools receiving Title I funds had been Jan. 8, 2006. Because that deadline falls in the middle of the school year, however, many districts were actually moving up the deadline.

The decision by the department followed a letter in May from AFT president Edward J. McElroy to Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings outlining the union’s concerns about the earlier deadline. Spellings agreed to the extension after meeting with McElroy and hearing from members of Congress on the issue.

The decision “recognizes and corrects one of NCLB’s several unintended consequences—the inequity that until now existed in the time provided for teachers and paraprofessionals to demonstrate their qualifications,” McElroy said.

He added that the shortened deadline was “a tremendous disservice to paraprofessionals who are playing by the rules in fulfilling NCLB’s requirements. It also threatened to adversely affect students, as the ability of these paraprofessionals to continue working in the classroom was unfairly compromised.”

McElroy’s letter to Spellings also pointed out the delays by the Department of Education in finishing regulations and monitoring the progress of the states on this issue. For example, McElroy cited a January 2004 AFT report which showed that just under half of the states (24) were providing adequate support to local education agencies and paraprofessionals.

Confirmation of the decision came through a statement from Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon, who said, “It’s unusual to have a deadline in the middle of the school year, and we believe that the paraprofessional and highly qualified teacher provisions should be consistent. Therefore, the department will align its monitoring and enforcement efforts of states for both the highly qualified teacher and paraprofessional provisions of the law.”

Earlier this spring, the aft launched a national education and advocacy campaign aimed at fixing some of the other flaws in No Child Left Behind. The campaign, titled “NCLB—Let’s Get It Right,” debuted with radio and print ads warning that many schools making solid progress are still labeled as failures under benchmarks tied to NCLB.

In addition to addressing much-publicized problems with NCLB underfunding and accountability provisions, the AFT also will tackle many components that speak directly to concerns expressed by frontline AFT members and leaders, including the job requirements for classroom paraprofessionals. While the deadline for paraprofessionals was one of the AFT’s pressing concerns with the law, the union will continue to address other matters related to paraprofessionals and other school staff.

As McElroy said after the Education Department’s decision, “Today’s announcement is a positive one, and we look forward to continuing to work with the department on all matters related to this important law. When it comes to NCLB, we remain committed to getting it right.”

The full text of President McElroy’s May 4 letter to Secretary Spellings is posted online at www.aft.org/topics/nclb/downloads/SpellingsLetter.pdf. And plenty more information on the AFT’s NCLB campaign can be found online at www.aft.org.