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AFT Urges Extended Deadline
for Paraprofessionals' NCLB Requirements
The AFT has
asked the U.S. Department of Education to extend the deadline for
paraprofessionals to meet the "highly qualified" requirement of
the No Child Left Behind Act from Jan. 8, 2006, to the end of the
2005-06 school year.
The union
made this request after reviewing results of a recent survey of
AFT paraprofessional local union leaders. Leaders reported that
a large number of school districts are reducing the amount of
time paraprofessionals have to meet these requirements, in
some cases setting the deadline as early as the end of the current
school year.
"This is
a disservice to the many paraprofessionals who have been playing
by the rules and are in the process of fulfilling the law's requirements,"
said AFT president Edward J. McElroy in a May 4 letter to Secretary
of Education Margaret Spellings. The union also noted that all of
the law's other deadlines are timed to coincide with school year
calendars.
McElroy has
asked for an opportunity to explore these ideas and other "commonsense
solutions" with the Department of Education "to make sure that these
dedicated paraprofessionals are not shortchanged in the coming months."
The letter
to Secretary Spellings is posted on the AFT Web site at http://www.aft.org/topics/nclb/downloads/SpellingsLetter.pdf
. To share your comments on this letter, send a message to psrp@aft.org
May 6, 2005
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