Personnel Variance/"Highly Qualified" Memo
June 28, 2005
Beginning with the 2005-06 school year, The Minnesota Department of Education will be reporting federal “highly qualified” teacher data to the U.S. Department of Education in accordance with federal law. The Department and the Board of Teaching have updated the Request for Personnel Variance and the Request to Appeal Rule 8710.1400 forms to include a section regarding federal “highly qualified” teacher status for general education personnel variance requests.
The information collected during the 2005-06 school year will help determine Minnesota’s level of compliance with the federal “highly qualified” teacher requirements for federal reporting purposes and will not be a deciding factor in determining whether or not the variance is granted.
All general education personnel variance requests for the 2005-06 school year must include a response regarding federal “highly qualified” teacher requirements when a school district requests a personnel variance for an individual to teach core academic subjects. If “yes” is checked to indicate the teacher is “highly qualified” in the core academic subject requested, pages 1 and 2 (sections 1 and 2) of a completed HOUSSE application for that core academic subject are the ONLY documents that must be attached to the variance request.
The forms have also been changed to assist districts in stating the appropriate special education licensure field(s) when requesting special education personnel variances. Special Education variance requests do NOT require a response regarding federal “highly qualified” teacher requirements. Please do not send any additional documents with special education variance requests.
Please distribute the attached new forms to all appropriate district personnel. Previous variance request forms will not be accepted for the 2005-06 school year.
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