All employees of the district funded in whole or part with state or federal excess special education funds will meet the standards established by the State Board of Education (SBE) and defined in WAC 392-172-A-02090.

All employees will hold such credentials, certificates, or permits as are now or hereafter required by the SBE for the particular position of employment and shall meet such supplemental standards established by the district.

All special education teachers providing, designing, supervising, evaluating, or monitoring the provision of special education shall possess “substantial professional training.” This shall be shown by the issuance of an appropriate special education endorsement on an individual teaching certificate issued by the superintendent of public instruction.

In the event a special education teacher does not have a certificate endorsed in special education, a district may apply for a pre-endorsement waiver through the special education section of the OSPI. To qualify for the special education pre-endorsement waiver, the teacher must meet SBE criteria.

If the district must temporarily assign a classroom teacher without a special education endorsement to a special education position, the district’s Human Resources department will document in writing that:

• The district is unable to recruit a teacher with the proper endorsement who was qualified for the position; and/or
• The need for a teacher with such an endorsement could not have been reasonably anticipated and the recruitment of such a classroom teacher at the time of assignment was not reasonably practical; and/or
• The reassignment of another teacher within the district would be unreasonably disruptive to the current assignments of other classroom teachers or would have an adverse effect on the educational program of the students assigned to the other teacher

If one or more of these criteria can be documented and the district determines that a teacher has the competencies to be an effective special education teacher and the teacher has completed six-semester hours or nine-quarter hours of course work which are applicable to the special education endorsement, the district can assign the teacher to special education in compliance with the process for making out-of-endorsement assignments and reporting them to the state. Classified staff will present evidence of skills and knowledge necessary to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The district will provide training to classified staff to meet the state recommended core competencies.

*See the Special Education Terms & Definitions page for more information.

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