Critical Issues in Human Resources Presented by Melissa Aguero Ramirez February 20, 2014

Welcome, Introductions, Announcements New? Retirements EPP representatives – Project P.a.C.E. – Naomi Arnold – Teacher Builder – Dr. Noe Sauceda

EPP Roundtable Discussion New Teacher / Principal Survey Fingerprinting of candidates TEAL support for new teachers Issuance of Probationary certificate for Bilingual Generalists EPP Questionnaire

No Child Left Behind Update 6 th grade = Secondary teacher – Effective immediately Use secondary method for HQ determination “This change is solely to add flexibility to HQ determinations. It takes nothing away. An EC-6 test still makes you HQ for EC-6 subjects. 4-8 still works for never worked for 7 or 8, and it still doesn’t. But it did work for 6 th, and it still does.” – No changes to current submission required – Forms will be updated for 14-15

Institution of Higher Education – Paraprofessional Requirements See Handout for list of For-Profit! 1)admits as regular students only persons having a certificate of graduation from a school providing secondary education, or the recognized equivalent of such a certificate; 2)is legally authorized within such State to provide a program of education beyond secondary education; 3)provides an educational program for which the institution awards a bachelor’s degree or provides not less than a two-year program that is acceptable for full credit toward such a degree; 4)is a public or other non-profit institution; and 5)is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association or, if not so accredited, is an institution that has been granted pre- accreditation by such an agency or association that has been recognized by the Secretary for the granting of pre-accreditation status, and the Secretary has determined that there is satisfactory assurance that the institution will meet the accreditation standards of such an agency or association within a reasonable time. NCLB: Section 9101(24)

Loan Forgiveness Programs General information Viviana Lopez at 2013 – 2014 Teacher shortage areas: Bilingual/English as a Second Language Computer Science Languages Other Than English (Foreign Languages) Mathematics Science Special Education Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness TEACH for Texas Loan Repayment Assistance (outside source) TEACH for Texas Loan Repayment Assistance Federal Perkins Loan Teacher Cancellation (outside source) Federal Perkins Loan Teacher Cancellation Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program – No date restriction or require you to be teaching in a class room; you can be working in any position within the school or other public service job category. – forgiveness.shtmlhttp:// forgiveness.shtml – Contact Public Service Loan Forgiveness specialists at for more information.

State Mentorship Survey Required by HB2012 – Effectiveness of school district mentoring programs Alignment of mentorship activities with expectations for new teachers and with teaching standards – Mentorship advisory committee Online survey – Disseminated on 1/15/14 through Region XIII

Revised PDAS Domain VII and Domain VIII Criterion 10 – updated to reflect the approved federal waiver and new reporting standards. AYP is no longer used in the reporting only the state reporting is used now – Met Standard/Met Alternative = 2 or – Improvement Needed = 0.

SB9 Update

Statutory Authority- TEC Chapter 22, Subchapter C Applicants for Certification & Certificate Holders TEC § – obtain & evaluate criminal history record information (CHRI) for all certified holders & applicants

More Statutory Authority Other School District and Charter School Employees – TEC § obtain & evaluate CHRI for all non-certified charter school employees working in a job that would require certification in a traditional school district – TEC § obtain & evaluate CHRI for all non-certified employees hired after 1/1/08 – TEC § obtain & evaluate CHRI for all substitute teachers

The TEA Fingerprinting Team April Carmichael, Jeannie Tomasek, Pamela Coy, Baerbel Repella, Beatrice Avalos

What TEA does….. Access to the Educator Certification Online System (‘green screen’) Problems with uploads Issues with the Fast Fingerprint Pass Notification of rejects FBI Name Searches No fingerprint result showing on green screen Training for new district HR employees on the TEA upload process

What DPS does….. Secure site eligibility Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) Question Clearinghouse Problems and Questions ‘LEE’ Fast Fingerprint Pass/Volunteer Fast Fingerprint Pass Training for the Secure Site/CHRI CHRI Related Laws Security Audits

Who fingerprints through TEA? Individuals are fingerprinted through TEA for different purposes including: –Applicants for Certification - Application Recent college graduates or those completing an alternative certification program Interns participating in an educator preparation program Newly hired educational aides –Previously certified educators (new hires) - Upload –Non-certified employees (new hires) - Upload –Substitute teachers (new hires) - Upload

How does applicant fingerprinting work? Educator applies for certificate If educator has not previously been printed through TEA, system prompts for fingerprinting payment Once applicant pays for fingerprinting, educator is ed a Fast Fingerprint Pass Educator makes appointment with MorphoTrust and is fingerprinted TEA receives results from DPS and FBI Fingerprint process completes Certification is issued

Previously fingerprinted applicants Senate Bill 9 fingerprinting may overlap  Many applicants for certification may have previously been fingerprinted as a non-certified employee or substitute –These applicants are most times prompted by the system to fingerprint again Applicants should NOT pay for fingerprinting again Results will transfer to educator’s file within 48 hours of application submission

The SB9 FP process in short… ISD hires a new employee or substitute ISD uploads employee/sub information to Educator Online system, or checks FP status on green screen TEA s ISD response data Employee/substitute is fingerprinted prior to beginning employment ISD subscribes in DPS Clearinghouse to any employees that were already “FP Complete” Fingerprinting results are received by TEA ISD reviews results in the DPS Clearinghouse ISD unsubscribes to employees in the Clearinghouse as they leave the district

Categories of ISD employees for fingerprinting purposes Certified - A certified employee includes ANY employee of the district who holds an active or inactive certificate or an active permit issued by State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) regardless of the role they are serving in. Non-certified - A non-certified employee is any school district employee that does not hold certification issued by SBEC/TEA. Classroom Substitutes - A teacher who is on call or on a list of approved substitutes to replace a regular teacher and has no regular or guaranteed hours. A substitute teacher may be certified or noncertified.

Categories of ISD employees Continued…. Applicants for Certification – An employee who has recently applied for certification, or will be required to do so for their current position. All new hire information must be uploaded to the Educator Certification Online system to determine if the employee is required to be fingerprinted –If the new hire is non-certified, but has recently applied for certification, or will be required to do so for their current position, be sure to follow through to make sure the employee fingerprints will the fast pass issued to them during the application process Employee information must be uploaded on the appropriate Excel template and converted to a csv file before uploading

Hiring a new employee/substitute for a school district To determine which upload category a new hire belongs, ask yourself: –Is this person a classroom substitute? If YES – upload on substitute template (both certified and non-certified subs) –Does this person hold an SBEC/TEA issued certification? If YES – upload on certified template –If you answered NO to both of the above questions…. Upload on the non-certified template Remember to allow non-certified new hires that are applicants for certification to receive their FAST Fingerprint Pass through the certification application process, not through the upload process

Upload Reminders Uploading must take place on an ongoing basis as new employees and subs are hired! This should be a part of your hiring process! All newly hired employees and substitute teachers are required to be fingerprinted before beginning work with your district; No one has 80 days to be printed!!! If you make an error on your upload, you must contact TEA to correct the error; re-uploading the correct information will not result in a corrected Fast Fingerprint Pass being sent Don’t upload letters in the SSN field – If the SSN has a leading zero, remember to format the column to text Uploads can only be done using a PC; a successful upload cannot be done using a Mac

Why subscribe? For each employee with an “FP Complete” status, the district must log on to the DPS Clearinghouse and subscribe to that employee in order to receive subsequent HIT notifications Uploading to the TEA Online system alone does not subscribe the district to that employee’s record; the district/charter will not receive rapbacks unless they are subscribed to the employee’s record

Scheduling an appointment to be fingerprinted Once an employee receives his FAST Fingerprint Pass, an appointment should be scheduled with the DPS contracted vendor, MorphoTrust USA At the appointment, each employee will receive a receipt that contains a TCN number used to track their prints; it is important that this receipt be retained as proof that the employee was printed Prints are retained by MorphoTrust for 14 days only, so tracking by MorphoTrust using a TCN number is only possible for 14 days after printing

Rejections Fingerprints may be rejected for poor print quality;MorphoTrust notifies employees of the need to re- print. – In the case of certified rejections, TEA also s the educator, as well as the contact person at the ISD, with information regarding the rejection and the need for the educator to schedule an appointment to be re-printed. – In the case of non-certified rejections, TEA s the contact person at the ISD that uploaded the employee with information regarding the rejection and the need for the employee to schedule an appointment to be re-printed. Rejected prints in no way suggest that the educator may have a criminal history.

Adjudication of Criminal Histories There should always be someone at the district or charter school with an active account with DPS As results appear in the Clearinghouse, the criminal histories should be reviewed by someone at the district level Pay attention to subsequent arrest notifications called ‘rapbacks’. –TEA receives rapbacks on certified educators, but not on non-certified employees; if you aren’t looking at those, no one is!!!

Student teachers (university students) Under TEC , student teachers and those serving in internships are required to undergo a name-based criminal history check only Many districts are choosing to fingerprint student teachers as substitutes of the district before allowing them on their campuses Since the onset of Senate Bill 9 fingerprinting, statistics have shown a decline in the number of applicants for certification being fingerprinted

Use of the Generic Fast Fingerprint Pass Local Education Entity fast pass Issued by DPS Also known as the ‘Generic’ Fast Pass Should NOT be used to fingerprint any employee or substitute that is required to be uploaded and fingerprinted through the TEA process CAN be used to fingerprint: –Non-certified employees hired BEFORE 1/1/08 –Certified educators previously printed using the card and ink method

Covered contractors School contractors hired 1/1/08 or after who meet the following criteria must be fingerprinted: – Work on a contract for services; – Have continuing duties related to the contract; and – Have direct contact with students.

Contractor/District responsibilities Contractor should certify to the school district or charter school that they are compliant with fingerprinting their employees. Districts may subscribe to the records of contractors/subcontractors employees that are subject to fingerprinting. District should unsubscribe to records in the FACT Clearinghouse when the contract or the employment has terminated.

DPS Contact info Contractors must contact DPS to be set up with a secure site account. Access and Dissemination Bureau Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Records Service P. O. Box Austin, Texas Phone: (512)

Employees previously printed as contractors TEA will accept fingerprint results for new district employees and substitute teachers previously printed as school contractors or ESC employees when possible If the employee was subject to an FBI Name Search when printed as a contractor, DPS may not be able to provide results from the name search

Employees previously printed as contractors continued –District/charter must upload the employee to TEA online system according to the role they will serve in –District/charter must TEA contact the name, date of birth and the DL number for the employee –TEA will manually subscribe to the employee in the DPS FACT Clearinghouse, manually update fingerprint results in the TEA system, and DPS to flag the employee with TEA’s ORI –In the event that FBI results cannot be obtained from DPS, TEA will notify the district/charter that the employee will need to be printed again

Annual Compliance Certification On an annual basis, superintendents of districts and chief operating officers of open-enrollment charter schools are required to certify that the district or charter school has complied with TEC Section This certification will most likely take place in October each year to coincide with School Safety Week.

Monitoring and Enforcement TEA has recently begun a comprehensive review of all school districts and charter schools to determine compliance New position at TEA responsible for monitoring and enforcement TEA staff will work with the district to bring the district/charter school back to compliance

Audit “Triggers” Normal cycles of auditing –3 school districts and 1 charter per region in approximately 6 week cycles Failure to return Compliance Certification Complaint received by TEA

Components of the Audit Intent to Audit Letter Pre-Audit Questionnaire Audit of Upload Data by TEA Staff Results sent to the district/charter District/Charter Response Findings Letter sent by TEA Response by district to Audit Findings

Audit Findings Official letter of audit findings sent to the district/charter specifying areas of non- compliance and required action. A finding of non-compliance may result in further compliance review, which may include: – Desk Audit – Special accreditation investigation

FP staff contact info Jeannie Tomasek, Manager April Carmichael, Program Specialist Baerbel Repella, Program Specialist Pamela Coy, Program Specialist Beatrice Avalos, Program Specialist Customer Service , Option 3

Clarification on Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT) and TeXES Supplemental Tests Impacted exams: – Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT) and – any of the TExES Supplemental tests (Bilingual, English as a Second Language, Gifted and Talented, and Special Education) need further clarification in State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) rule – There will be opportunities to provide feedback on the proposed revisions as well as testimony at board meetings. Until further notice from the agency, educator preparation programs and school districts should advise candidates that while the BTLPT and TExES Supplemental tests are not required for issuance of the Probationary Certificate and/or emergency permit, the testing requirements remain in place for issuance of the five-year Standard Certificate

Update on the new Generalist EC-6 and Generalist 4-8 tests House Bill (HB) 2012, 83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2013, – more rigorous examinations are being developed for the new Generalist certificates that will independently assess the four core subject areas: English Language Arts and Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Slated for implementation in January Educational Testing Service (ETS) working on procedures to allow candidates that pass subject areas of the new Generalist tests to retain that passing performance and only be required to retake sections on which they are not successful. More information about this process will be shared as it becomes available. Current Generalist EC-6 and Generalist 4-8 tests administered through August – will have two additional years to use the passing results; – all remaining requirements for those certificates must be completed by August 31, – An application and a recommendation must be received by October 30, 2017, in order to issue the current Generalist EC-6 and Generalist 4-8 certificates

Resources for BTLPT Candidates Spanish Content Vocabulary: Academic Vocabulary for Fifth- to Seventh-Grade English Language Learners in Texas Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in Spanish: Spanish Language Arts and Reading, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies Spanish Writing: Real Academia Española: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas; Accent information Bilingual Education Resources in Spanish, Region One Education Service Center: Lectura en Español y estrategias con recursos, materiales, apoyo y sugerencias (LEER MAS)

Educational Aide Certification Requirements Educational Aide I - An applicant must: – be a high school graduate or hold a General Educational Development (GED) certificate; and – have experience working with students or parents as approved by the employing superintendent. Experience may be work in church related schools, day camps, youth groups, private schools, licensed day-care centers, or similar experience.

Educational Aide Certification Requirements Educational Aide II - An applicant must: – be a high school graduate or hold a General Educational Development (GED) certificate; – have satisfied one of the following requirements: – have two creditable years of experience as an educational aide I; or – have a minimum of 15 semester hours of college credit with some emphasis on child growth and development or related subject areas; or – have demonstrated proficiency in a specialized skill area as determined by the local school district; and – have experience working with students or parents as approved by the employing superintendent.

Educational Aide Certification Requirements Education Aide III - An applicant must: – be a high school graduate or hold a General Educational Development (GED) certificate; – have satisfied one of the following requirements: have three creditable years of experience as either an educational aide I or II; or have 30 semester hours of college credit with some emphasis on child growth and development or related subject areas; and – have experience working with students or parents as approved by the employing superintendent.

Educational Aide Assignment Requirements &pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=7&ch=230&rl=61

Staffing Tools Student Enrollment Trends – 5 year enrollment comparison by campus type – 5 year enrollment by district – Staffing guidelines Student: Teacher ratio (courtesy Walsh Anderson) – TEC § » 1 teacher : 20 students in ADA districtwide – TEC § » 1 teacher: 45 students in PE » Otherwise identify “manner in which student safety will be maintained”

Special Education Staffing Guidelines Factors for consideration – Districts must provide a continuum of services – Individual needs are determined by ARD committee – Services are to be provided in the least restrictive environment – Increase services in the general education classroom requiring collaboration – Students must have access to general curriculum – Levels of support vary per individual student – Gender may be a factor when student’s needs include behavioral restraint and/or personal care – IEP meetings and data management – Transition of 3 year olds with disabilities into public school as of 3 rd birthday – Indirect services (medical management, case management, parent training, teacher training)

Implications of Staffing Decisions Contracts Letter of reasonable assurance Unemployment Compensation Liability

“Getting more bang for your buck” – Various uses of funds Special Education Bilingual NCLB – Reimburse teachers for passing Generalist 4-8 and/or multiple subject area certificates – Stipend for multiple preps – Hiring criteria Bilingual Generalists

Employment Contracts / Notifications Contract administration cycle? Reminder: Employee Notifications TEC (d) – Policy Code Policy Title – DA series Equal employment opportunity, genetic nondiscrimination, criteria for personnel decision – DBAA* Criminal history and credit reports – DBD Conflict of interest – DC* Employment practices – DCB Term contracts – DEA series Salaries and wages; incentives and stipends – DEC series* Leaves and absences – DF Termination of employment – DFA series Termination of, or return to probationary contract

Employee Notifications Continued Policy Code Policy Title DFB series Termination of term contracts DFD Hearings before hearing examiner DFE* Resignation DFF Reduction in force DFFA Reduction in force due to financial exigency DFFB Reduction in force due to program change DG Employee rights and privileges DGBA Employee complaints/grievances DH Employee standards of conduct DHE Searches and alcohol/drug testing DI Employee welfare DIA Freedom from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation DK Assignment and schedules DN series Performance appraisal

Texas Teacher of the Year Due to Region One ESC (HR office) – 5 p.m. on Friday, June 13, 2014 ENCOURAGE electronic submission – Application – Picture 2 district representatives (1 Elem / 1 Sec) Clarifications: – 2 year commitment – FT employees; can be PT teacher (minimum 4 hours/day) BUT other duties NOT administrative

Job Descriptions Why they are necessary – Federal fund requirements – Evaluation purposes – Workman’s compensation / FMLA purposes – Screening when hiring – ADA – FLSA – Differentiating jobs (pay grade purposes) NEW recommendation – Identify method / test for determining Exempt status See TASB sample

Rules of Engagement: Determining Employment Status Date: March 4, 2014 Time: 9:00 – 3:30 Workshop # Fee: No fee for up to 2 participants from Region One PSS cooperative member district; $125 additional participants Non-PSS cooperative member districts: $175 Topics Covered: – Understanding employment status—including full- and part-time, independent contractor, temporary, and substitute – Defining the terms of employment and contract entitlement – Understanding benefit entitlement (TRS membership, health insurance, and leave) – Determining exemption status under the Fair Labor Standards Act – Handling special cases including employment of retirees and student workers

More…..Upcoming Trainings TxBESS Mentor Teacher training March 20 th 8:30 – 4:30 Workshop # Texas Notary Public training – March 27, 2014 – 1:30 – 4:30 Conference for Administrative Professionals – April 11 th – $99 fee includes lunch – Workshop # 39972

Job Fairs April 3, University of Texas – Brownsville April 3, 2014 – University of Texas - San Antonio April 4, University of Texas Pan American April 8, 2014 – University of Texas at Austin April 9, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi April 10, 2014 – Texas State University - San Marcos April 15, Texas A&M University - Kingsville April 16, Texas A&M International University April 3, University of Texas – Brownsville April 3, 2014 – University of Texas - San Antonio April 4, University of Texas Pan American April 8, 2014 – University of Texas at Austin April 9, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi April 10, 2014 – Texas State University - San Marcos April 15, Texas A&M University - Kingsville April 16, Texas A&M International University June 5, 2014 – Region One ESC Educator Fair

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