Supporting Students with IEPs in the General Education Classroom
Section 29.7 in the contract speaks to supporting students with IEPs in the general education classroom. The contract requires the District to notify the affected unit member(s) prior to assigning students with IEPs into their regular education classroom, and to provide the unit member(s) with a copy of the student’s IEP.
The site administrator should assign students in such a way as to minimize the impact and equalize student load across the grade level or department. Another key right is that whenever the ratio of students with IEPs in a general education classroom exceeds 20% of the overall class size, the site administration will meet with the general education teacher, within ten (10) workdays of the request for such a meeting, to develop a class support plan. This 20% threshold is not a hard cap that prohibits an educator from having more than 20% of their class roster be made up of students with IEPs. The 20% is also 20% of your class’s total enrollment, not 20% of the class size caps found in the contract for your grade level.
Per the contract, the class support plan must be developed and implemented. Some examples of support may include, but not be limited to, smaller class size, redistribution of site Special Education staff, additional prep time, and/or the elimination of non-teaching duties or obligations. The site could also come up with other ideas if they have the resources to do so. If the plan is not developed, or the supports are not adequate, and the site could do more, there may be grounds for a grievance. Speak with your site’s SDEA Association Representative (AR) about any concerns and to develop a plan of action.
Special Enrollment Opportunity for The Standard Disability Insurance!
Health insurance pays your doctor. Disability insurance pays you. Disability benefits are paid directly to you if you’re unable to work due to:
· Injury
· Illness (including mental health disorders and substance abuse)
· Pregnancy and childbirth
Standard Insurance Company (The Standard) is the only CTA-endorsed provider of Disability and Life insurance. These plans were designed with California educators’ needs in mind. CTA has partnered with Standard Insurance Company to bring CTA members a special enrollment opportunity for the CTA-endorsed Disability insurance and Life insurance. Eligible CTA members can get guaranteed enrollment with no health questions asked. This opportunity lasts from October 1 - November 30, 2023.
SDEA members can find more details or apply online at www.standard.com/cta/justforyou. You must be a member of SDEA in order to enroll in The Standard, so make sure to join your union now!
Jury Duty
"I got summoned for jury duty! Now what?" If you're summoned to appear for jury duty on a workday, you can report for duty, or postpone duty to non-workdays.
The union contract has a rule to incentivize you to postpone jury duty from workdays to non-workdays by paying you for postponed service on non-workdays. If you get a summons to appear for jury duty on a workday and postpone it to non-workdays, you have the right in the union contract to still get paid. The rate of pay is 75% of the day-to-day Visiting Teacher rate for each day! Read more.
SDUSD Teacher PREP and Support
Could you benefit from a little extra support? The Peer Review and Enrichment Program (PREP), offers 1:1 confidential targeted support. The Consulting Teachers’ support can include:
- Classroom environment and management
- Engagement strategies
- Standards based- equity driven assessment strategies
- Lesson planning
- Technology, and
- Curriculum support
To request support, click on this link.
Native American Heritage Month Book Program - November 2023
Stories of Native History and Cultural Ways is a book distribution program in November 2023 (Native American Heritage Month) sponsored by SDUSD's Indian Education Program and Ethnic Studies Department. It is intended to develop awareness, understanding, knowledge, and respect about Native American history, cultural traditions, resistance movements, and lived experiences.
- 500 elementary & 100 secondary teachers get 3 Native American books (Nov. 4th distribution or by Nov. 6th)
- 35 secondary teachers attending the Nov. 4th Ethnic Studies Conference receive
Hoover High Community School Program Highlighted by CTA
Open up this month's CTA Educator magazine to read about how SDEA is leading the way with Community Schools, along with an in-depth look at the work being done at Hoover High School.
Salary Advancement Credits for Watching Recordings of CTA Conferences
Need units for salary advancement? If you’re an SDEA member, our statewide union California Teachers Association (CTA) will pay for up to six university credit units (up to $450 value) for attending virtual conferences. You can watch recordings of CTA Virtual Pass sessions and have the opportunity to accumulate the professional growth hours needed to qualify for university credit units through CSU Chico. Deadline to finish is December 7, 2023. For more information and a step-by-step process on how to claim University Credits, visit: www.CTA.org/Credit. To view the Virtual Pass course library, visit: www.CTA.org/VirtualPass. For any questions, please contact VirtualPass@CTA.org.
Process for Addressing Caseload Overages in the 2023-24 School Year
In Fall 2022, SDEA staff filed a unionwide grievance for Mild/Moderate & Moderate/Severe caseload overages. We have reached an agreement and have won a settlement that provides significantly more compensation for SDEA members than settlements provided in past school years. Read the full agreement and find out if you are eligible in this Contract Win! SPED Caseload Overage Agreement for 2022-2023 School Year flyer.
The District and SDEA have come to an agreement to implement a process to remedy caseload overages that occur due to the reassignment of students from a colleague’s leave of absence or a vacancy in the 2023-24 school year. Read the full agreement and find the summary at the bottom of this Contract Win! SPED Caseload Overage Agreement for 2022-2023 School Year flyer.
Evaluations for 2023-24 School Year
If this is your evaluation year, the traditional Stull Evaluation process has been replaced by a choice between the Educator Effectiveness and Empowerment (E3) Growth and Development Model or the Alternative Evaluation outlined in Section 14.7 of our union contract. The prior requirement of members to be in permanent status with five year’s teaching experience in order to qualify for an Alternative Evaluation will no longer apply.
The E3 model is voluntary for all bargaining unit members. 2023-24 is the first year E3 is available to School Nurses, Audiologists, and Librarians; therefore, the educators from these groups who choose to participate in E3 in the 2023-2024 school year will be deemed effective for their evaluation cycle. All other educators must complete the steps within the MyPGD platform and make progress on their goal or be rated “Accomplishing” in all CSTPs or UBPs, in order to be deemed effective for this year’s cycle.
Find the E3 timeline and Evaluation Side Letter here.
Fully-Paid Family Healthcare Locked In
In addition to the 15% salary increase that we will all see in our paychecks this school year, our SDEA union educator organizing efforts also resulted in a stellar new contract that locks in our fully-paid family healthcare for the next 2 school years. We are the only large district in San Diego County with fully-paid family healthcare and this critical benefit is essential to attracting and keeping the highest quality educators at our schools! In addition, healthcare premium costs are rising, so it’s essential to protect our standard-setting benefits in this volatile environment.
Our strength as a union is the foundation of the historic new contract that we will be starting to implement this school year. The reality is that district leadership didn't just "give" us the union contract we wanted. We organized to fight for it. Each collective action we took -- from t-shirt days to rallies and pickets -- built our solidarity and pushed the district closer to saying "yes." None of us has that power alone, but together, we have the power to win improvements to educator working conditions that are our students’ learning conditions. The source of our strength is that 95% of us choose to be SDEA members. Are you?