The Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) Division of Educator Credentialing recently launched a live chat system to answers questions about teacher certification. Access to this user-friendly feature is as simple as clicking the grey “chat” box on TEA’s Educator Certification Web page 
. Live chat services are available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. TEA anticipates shorter wait times for those using the live chat feature. TEA will also continue to answer certification questions by phone (888-863-5880).
Earlier this year, we reported on the need for some new elementary teachers to pass “generalist” tests to satisfy a new U.S. Department of Education (USDE) interpretation of the highly qualified requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
The USDE had agreed that highly qualified teacher determinations for core subject elementary teachers hired in 2008–09 and earlier school years would remain valid as long as the teacher remained in the same teaching assignments, whether they remain in their current district or get a job in another.
According to a TEA letter for school administrators, the USDE is now requiring the agency to instruct school districts to complete elementary High, Objective, Uniform Standard of Evaluation (HOUSE) documentation for all teachers hired under the prior rule interpretation. Since these teachers now have experience, the HOUSE option is available to document their highly qualified status. TEA has reopened the Elementary HOUSE option for school districts’ use in completing the documentation process.
The good news for school districts is that once HOUSE documentation is finished, they will have more flexibility in teaching assignments because the documentation will demonstrate the highly qualified status of the affected teachers for any elementary assignment.
Documentation must be completed by June 1, 2010, and each campus’ Highly Qualified Teacher Compliance Report must be amended to reflect the changes.
For more information, call Scott Lewis in TEA’s Division of NCLB Program Coordination at 512-463-9374 or send a message to scott.lewis@tea.state.tx.us.
Does your district have a written identity theft prevention program? If you provide employees with debit cards associated with their health care flexible spending accounts (FSAs), you are required to have one, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The majority of the FTC’s “red flag rules” on identity theft apply only to creditors and financial institutions. However, the FTC has recently clarified that employers that provide employees with debit cards for health care FSAs are also subject to them and must have written identity theft prevention programs in place.
According to the rules, the district or its third-party administrator is considered a financial institution because it maintains accounts that a customer (i.e., employee) can use to make payments or transfers to a third party. In addition, debit card transactions extend or process credit to the employee, making the district or third-party administrator a creditor.
The red flag rules go into effect June 1, 2010. If your district has an FSA program that includes a debit card feature, you should work with your third-party administrator to ensure that a written program to detect, prevent, and mitigate identity theft is in place by this date.
Additional information on the red flag rules is available on the FTC Web site .
On April 15, President Obama approved another short-term extension for emergency unemployment insurance benefits and a COBRA health insurance premium subsidy for jobless Americans when he signed into law the Continuing Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 4851).
Under the law, the 65 percent subsidy for COBRA premiums for people who have lost their jobs is extended through May 31, 2010. “The new law also provides retroactive eligibility for individuals who lost their jobs after the prior COBRA subsidy expired on March 31, 2010,” says assistant secretary of labor Phyllis C. Borzi.
H.R. 4851 also includes provisions that:
As it passed this short-term extension, Congress continues to consider adopting legislation that would provide for a longer extension of unemployment and COBRA premium subsidy benefits.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently launched a public awareness campaign for employees called “We Can Help.” The goal is to provide workers easy access to information about their rights in the workplace and educate them on seeking the assistance of the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division. Employers should be aware of the campaign and the new Web site that DOL has put in place.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) recently announced that federal funds are available to subsidize teachers, librarians, and counselors who pursue certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). The funds will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, with teachers from low-income, low-performing schools receiving priority.
National Board certification is available in 25 subject areas and school counseling. Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree, have completed three full years of teaching or counseling, and possess a valid teaching or counseling certificate for that period.
First-time candidates are eligible for a subsidy of $1,250, half the application fee. Candidates cannot apply for the subsidy until they’ve been assigned a candidate number and made an initial payment of $500 to NBPTS. Applications must be submitted no later than Dec. 31, 2010. Candidates who have previously received federal funds are not eligible.
A handful of Texas school districts offer stipends to educators who earn National Board certification. To learn more about how to apply, view the National Board Certification page on the TEA Web site.
