Notice of Changes in Requirements for Continuing Professional Development of General Education Teachers

This notice is to inform you that the continuing professional development of general education teachers will be required to include activities related to meeting the needs of students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. Please be advised that, as a general education teacher, you will be held accountable for satisfying these requirements. Failure to do so will result in non-renewal of your standard or master certificate.

Under rules that were recently adopted by the State Board of Education, general education teachers will be required to devote 20% of their continuing professional development activities in each certificate renewal cycle to serving students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. Such activities may address topics such as multi-modality instruction, applied techniques for teaching academic content, making adaptations and modifications to the curriculum, managing student behavior or team teaching. They need not have the words “special education” in their titles in order to qualify. General education teachers must also engage in an activity that addresses adapting and modifying curriculum related to the Illinois Learning Standards to meet the needs of students with disabilities.

If you already had a plan for continuing professional development approved by your LPDC on or before January 1, 2002, the 20 percent requirement will be prorated for this current renewal cycle according to how much longer your standard or master certificate will be valid. Count the number of semesters of validity left as of January 1, 2002, and multiply that number by ten percent (or by five percent, if you hold a master certificate) to arrive at the proportion of the 20 percent requirement that applies to you this time. For example, if you received a standard certificate valid as of July 1, 2000, three semesters of its validity had elapsed on January 1, 2002, and seven semesters remained. Therefore 70 percent of the 20 percent requirement applies to you in this cycle, meaning that at least 14 percent of the total number of credits you need for certificate renewal must be devoted to activities that address meeting the needs of students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment.

You may revise your approved plan to incorporate activities that will meet this requirement, but you do not have to do so. LPDCs will be directed simply to accept the required evidence of completion for such activities and credit them appropriately. You can attribute all these activities to “Purpose B” since special education is one of the state priorities, and they will count toward accumulating the 50 percent you need to accumulate in some combination relevant to Purposes A and B.

If you did not have a plan approved on or before January 1, 2002, you must meet the 20 percent requirement in this renewal cycle, and sufficient activities to fulfill this requirement must be reflected in your plan, even if this means a revision to the plan.

The 20 percent requirement does not mean you must accumulate more credits than you otherwise would need, unless you have already fulfilled your plan but have insufficient credits to meet the 20 percent or prorated portion thereof that applies to you.

In the near future, the State Board of Education and the State Teacher Certification Board will provide a revised Certificate Renewal Manual to reflect the changes in continuing professional development applicable to both general and special education teachers.