Employer updates support options for teachers in IEP process

The Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) this week released an updated memo that outlines and adds to the support available for special education teachers and general education teachers involved in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process.

The memo supersedes a prior 2017 memo outlining options available to HIDOE special education and general education teachers who need time to participate in parent conferences, attend or prepare for IEP meetings, write reports, and input data. These options include:

• Recall pay for teachers who perform work that exceeds their normally scheduled hours.
• 10 days of one-hour early release to be used immediately before the end of the student day to participate in the IEP process, which includes preparing, scheduling, and attending IEP meetings.
• Extra prep time for designated staff in the master schedule for secondary schools.
• Teacher use of time when students attend “specials” or electives such as music, art, physical education, etc.
• Hiring substitutes to use on a rotational basis.

The most significant change is the department’s official commitment to offer recall pay to teachers for additional days of work. Recall pay is different from stipend pay, which is granted to teachers who attend voluntary training activities. Teachers earn recall pay when they are officially recalled to work during non-work days (e.g., a Saturday or summer break) for work that is necessary to do their job, such as creating IEPs.

How to request recall pay

• If you need additional time for IEP work outside of the work week, one option is to approach your principal with the memo and discuss if you could be recalled to complete the work.
• In support of the additional days needed, be prepared with an estimate of the time it will take, show your schedule to the principal, and demonstrate how you don’t have time to do it during the workweek.
• Use this tool* to assess your workload. *Please note, this resource page is password protected for HSTA members. You must be logged in with your registered web account to view it.
• If your administration declines your request for recall pay, ask for additional time to be provided using the other options outlined in the memo guidance.

The reissued memo serves as a reminder for teachers to take advantage of 10 one-hour early releases to participate in the IEP process. While a similar memo including that information was distributed in 2017, a recent survey by the Hawaii State Teachers Association revealed nearly 40% of special education classroom teachers who responded didn’t know early release time was available to them.

The memo reflects a collaborative effort by the joint Special Education Committee, which is established in the contract and is made up of up to five representatives each from the HSTA and HIDOE to address operational and working condition concerns in special education.

“This memo is such a win because our teachers in the field are feeling overwhelmed and do not have adequate time to fulfill their job responsibilities during the workday,” said HSTA committee member Kristel Meyers, a fully self-contained middle school teacher at Keaʻau Middle School on Hawaii Island. “This memo will outline options for them to receive more time and compensation for the time they use outside of their workday.”

Options to support, ease high special education workload

HSTA’s survey of special education classroom teachers found that 86% don’t have enough time to complete their IEP reports during the workday.

HSTA committee member Shannon Kaaa, a pre-kindergarten teacher at Fern Elementary on Oahu, spoke about the hardships special education teachers face in their jobs.

“For one of my high-needs students, honestly, it took me 10 hours to write the IEP, and that was crazy,” Kaaa said. “It took me that long to go through and look at all of the data and try to really think about it, because it’s really hard work. It’s not just, you know, checking a box. It really takes a lot of deep complex thinking for some of these cases.”

Many special education duties are mandated by state and federal laws and require lengthy processes and paperwork to complete. Those duties often pile on top of teachers’ normal teaching schedules.

Justin Hughey, a 3rd-grade teacher at King Kamehameha III Elementary on Maui, said when a coworker in his department left, the principal approached him about taking over their IEP duties.

“Because there’s all this extra work that we have to do beyond the school day, we’ve been saying, ‘Hey, isn’t there some sort of avenue where principals can pay us for work, because we’re doing things that are beyond our capability in our capacity?’” Hughey said. “And so we’ve fought for that, and they’ve come around to reluctantly say ‘Yes, this is something that’s that can be possible’ but you still have to get permission from your principal.”

In their work to support colleagues, HSTA committee members developed a special education workload toolkit* and collected member data around special education to support productive decision-making and actions. And while they view the employer’s latest memo as a victory, they say more needs to be done to recruit and retain special education teachers.

“Special education teachers, the majority of them, are such dedicated teachers,” Kaaa said. “They take this job because they really want to help these students with special needs. And it’s a tough job and you know, at some point, even the $10,000 differential is not enough to keep them in the field.

“We really need to help teachers, special ed teachers. We need to make changes, and whether it’s in the contract and codified or if there are just things that need to happen, this data is going to be just one more way for us to go back to the employer and say these changes need to happen,” Kaaa added.

*Please note, this resource page is password protected for HSTA members. You must be logged in with your registered web account to view it.