Highly Qualified Teachers

Dear Parent or Guardian,

On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind(NCLB) Act of 2001 into law. The law states that any school that receives funds for educationally disadvantaged students (Title I funds)must inform parents if their child is assigned a teacher for four or more consecutive weeks who is not "highly qualified" under NCLB.According to the No Child Left Behind law, a "highly qualified" teacher is one who:

• Has obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher;
• Has obtained full State certification;
• Has demonstrated competency in the core academic subject area(s) that he/she teaches by passing a content area test or enough hours to be equivalent to a major (24 semester hours). The core academic subjects are English;Reading or Language Arts; Mathematics; Science; Foreign Languages;Social Studies (Civics, Government, Economics, History, Geography); The Arts (visual arts, Drama, Music).

All teachers who teach the core academic subjects had until the end of June 2010 to meet NCLB requirements. I am pleased to inform you that all of our teachers in the Elmwood Park Public Schools District are considered highly qualified.Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact your son/daughter’s building principal or me.

Sincerely,

Anthony Iachetti

Superintendent of Schools