Highly Qualified Teachers

THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT OF 2001 (NCLB) requires that any charter school teacher hired after the first day of instruction of School Year 2002- 2003 who teaches core academic subjects in a Title 1, Part A program (whether the teacher’s salary is paid in whole or in part by Title I, Part A funds) must be “highly qualified” when hired. To be “highly qualified” under NCLB, a Texas charter school teacher must have at least a bachelor’s degree and must have demonstrated competency in the core academic area assigned. (Core academic subjects include English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts [theater arts, dance, music, and art], history, and geography.) In order to demonstrate competency in the core academic area the teacher plans to teach, he or she must either pass the applicable ExCET/TExES content exam for a certification area appropriate to the teaching assignment, or have taken 24 semester hours in the core academic subject areas in which they will teach, with 12 of the hours being upper division (junior- or senior-level) courses. All teachers hired before the first day of instruction of School Year 2002-2003 must become highly qualified by the end of School Year 2005-2006. For more information, please see the NCLB Bulletin released on May 7, 2003, available at www.tea.state.tx.us/taa/comm050703a1.pdf.

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK INFORMATION 19 TAC, Chapter 100, §100.1151, requires that before a person begins service with a charter school, and ANNUALLY thereafter, a charter holder must obtain from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) all criminal history record information that relates to the following people:

1. an employee or a person whom the charter school intends to employ in any capacity, or whom the charter holder intends to employ in any capacity relating to its charter school activities;
2. a member of the governing body of the charter holder or charter school or a person who has agreed to serve as a member of the governing body of the charter holder or charter school; and
3. a person who files, in writing, an intention to serve as a volunteer at the charter school, if the duties are or will be performed on school property or at another location where students are regularly present.

1. a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude or any felony;
2. an offense listed in Texas Education Code (TEC), §37.007(a); or
3. an offense listed in the Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 62.01(5).