Sen. James A. DeLeo

Filed: 3/10/2010

 

 


 

 


 
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1
AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 3111

2     AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 3111 by replacing
3 everything after the enacting clause with the following:
 
4     "Section 5. If and only if Senate Bill 3000 of the 96th
5 General Assembly becomes law, the School Code is amended by
6 changing Section 14-9.01 as follows:
 
7     (105 ILCS 5/14-9.01)  (from Ch. 122, par. 14-9.01)
8     Sec. 14-9.01. Qualifications of teachers, other
9 professional personnel and necessary workers. No person shall
10 be employed to teach any class or program authorized by this
11 Article who does not hold a valid teacher's certificate as
12 provided by law and unless he has had such special training as
13 the State Board of Education may require. No special
14 certificate or endorsement to a special certificate issued
15 under Section 21-4 on or after July 1, 1994, shall be valid for
16 teaching students with visual disabilities unless the person to

 

 

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1 whom the certificate or endorsement is issued has attained
2 satisfactory performance on an examination that is designed to
3 assess competency in Braille reading and writing skills
4 according to standards that the State Board of Education may
5 adopt. Evidence of successfully completing the examination of
6 Braille reading and writing skills must be submitted to the
7 State Board of Education prior to an applicant's examination of
8 the subject matter knowledge test required under Section 21-1a.
9 Beginning July 1, 1995, in addition to other requirements, a
10 candidate for a teaching certification in the area of the deaf
11 and hard of hearing granted by the Illinois State Board of
12 Education for teaching deaf and hard of hearing students in
13 grades pre-school through grade 12 must demonstrate a minimum
14 proficiency in sign language as determined by the Illinois
15 State Board of Education. All other professional personnel
16 employed in any class, service, or program authorized by this
17 Article shall hold such certificates and shall have had such
18 special training as the State Board of Education may require;
19 provided that in a school district organized under Article 34,
20 the school district may employ speech and language pathologists
21 who are licensed under the Illinois Speech-Language Pathology
22 and Audiology Practice Act but who do not hold a certificate
23 issued under the School Code if the district certifies that a
24 chronic shortage of certified personnel exists. Nothing
25 contained in this Act prohibits the school board from employing
26 necessary workers to assist the teacher with the special

 

 

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1 educational facilities, except that all such necessary workers
2 must have had such training as the State Board of Education may
3 require. The Instructional Mandates Task Force shall give
4 special consideration to the training requirements for special
5 education teacher assistants. The Task Force's final report
6 shall include an analysis on the merits of requiring more
7 comprehensive training, which may include the following:
8         (1) Training on the legal requirements of the
9     individualized education program (IEP), including access
10     to general education curriculum and access to general
11     education classrooms for students who receive special
12     education services. This should include (i) the importance
13     of confidentiality, (ii) the legal requirements for
14     individuals who are working within a school system, (iii)
15     the appropriate and least restrictive settings for
16     children with disabilities, (iv) the parents' rights under
17     the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in
18     defining the IEP agreement in collaboration with the school
19     system, and (v) understanding that developmentally
20     informed goals, objectives, and methods are the standard
21     for an appropriate education.
22         (2) Training on specific disabilities and the
23     potential impact these disabilities may have on a student's
24     ability to access the various components of their
25     education. This should include understanding children's
26     individual differences, beyond their diagnoses, regarding

 

 

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1     their physical needs, academic needs, communication needs,
2     functional needs, health needs, developmentally
3     appropriate needs, social and emotional needs, and
4     cognitive needs and those specific disabilities. This
5     training should be individualized for the teacher
6     assistant, according to their duties and students. It
7     should also include specific elements of instruction
8     related to the individual students to which that assistant
9     is assigned, and those students' needs, including the level
10     of family support with homework and other school chores.
11         (3) Training on specific curriculum needs and how that
12     curriculum might be modified for individual students. The
13     training should include an understanding of the difference
14     between accommodations that are specific to the needs of
15     students and modifications of the curriculum should be part
16     of that training. The training should provide assistants
17     with information and strategies on how to make those
18     modifications so that they are appropriate for the student
19     and meet the requirements of the teacher. Having a general
20     knowledge about the various types and formats of making
21     modifications is important to the success of that
22     assistant, and ultimately their students.
23         (4) Training on specific specialized competencies and
24     strategies that might be used with an individual student,
25     according to that student's needs. This training on
26     competencies and strategies should be specific to the

 

 

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1     students with whom that assistant is assigned, and their
2     specialized needs. These strategies might be
3     implementation of academic materials and programs, social
4     and emotional strategies, behavior and developmentally
5     appropriate strategies, or physical strategies. This
6     training should provide an emphasis on the need for
7     students to learn to solve academic, social, and emotional
8     problems, to learn to focus and be calm and attentive, to
9     communicate, and to do independent work and routines and
10     the importance of teaching students with disabilities
11     independence.
12         (5) Training on the medical needs of students as
13     needed. This might include training on the feeding,
14     positioning, lifting, and care of body needs for specific
15     students.
16         (6) Training on the elements of data collection and how
17     it is used within the individualized education program
18     process to document progress. Teacher assistants are often
19     a part of the daily contact with students and are asked to
20     provide feedback and information on progress that might be
21     connected to individualized education program goals. The
22     training on effective data collection is important for
23     teacher assistants to understand. This training should
24     include specific information related to the needs of the
25     students to which that assistant is assigned to teach.
26         (7) Training on collaboration and how the teaming

 

 

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1     process and how working within a team including parents and
2     other professionals create success for the student. This
3     training should include specific information on how the
4     team functions and the expectations and roles that are
5     defined for each individual assistant. This training
6     should include discussion on family communication goals
7     and the roles each team member has in fostering positive
8     communication.
9         (8) Training regarding collaborative practices with
10     parents that involve parents directly in making choices
11     that affect their child within the school or educational
12     environment.
13         (9) Training on developmentally appropriate
14     competencies and strategies that recognize and understand
15     the functions of behavior. Teacher assistants should
16     become familiar with basic concepts related to emotion and
17     behavior, in regards to the child they will assist and in
18     regards to their own emotions and behaviors that can assist
19     the specific child better. This training should include
20     specific information on the functional analysis of
21     emotions and behaviors and the specific strategies used for
22     the students with whom they work. Some commonly used
23     classroom management strategies and how to anticipate,
24     prevent, address, and redirect student non-compliance
25     should be part of this training.
26     No later than January 1, 1993, the State Board of Education

 

 

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1 shall develop, in consultation with the Advisory Council on the
2 Education of Children with Disabilities and the Advisory
3 Council on Bilingual Education, rules governing the
4 qualifications for certification of teachers and school
5 service personnel providing services to limited English
6 proficient students receiving special education and related
7 services.
8     The employment of any teacher in a special education
9 program provided for in Sections 14-1.01 to 14-14.01,
10 inclusive, shall be subject to the provisions of Sections 24-11
11 to 24-16, inclusive. Any teacher employed in a special
12 education program, prior to the effective date of this
13 amendatory Act of 1987, in which 2 or more districts
14 participate shall enter upon contractual continued service in
15 each of the participating districts subject to the provisions
16 of Sections 24-11 to 24-16, inclusive.
17 (Source: P.A. 92-651, eff. 7-11-02.)
 
18     Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
19 becoming law.".