Posted on: Saturday, March 17, 2001

Special ed teachers not allowed to strike

Advertiser Staff and News Services

The Hawai'i Labor Relations Board ruled yesterday that as many as 322 special education teachers won't be allowed to join fellow public school teachers if they strike.

The board approved a Department of Education request to designate the special ed teachers as essential workers. The Hawai'i State Teachers Association had opposed the request.

The teachers union has set April 5 as a strike deadline if there is no settlement in its contract negotiations with the state.

The state has said that keeping special education teachers on the job was necessary to continue services to children with special needs.

That has been a point of contention with attorneys for special-needs students. Attorney Eric Seitz has said they will ask a federal judge to intervene should Hawai'i's teachers walk off the job because it would have "serious ramifications" for the DOE's efforts to comply with the Felix consent decree and a federal judge's order to show improved special education services by December.

The judge would have the power to cut the strike short.

Seitz said that even if special education teachers were declared essential, there would not be enough teachers to provide adequate care for special-needs children.

The absence of regular education teachers also would disrupt services to special education children because many are mainstreamed, said Seitz.

The labor relations board gave education officials 10 days to develop a plan about how the special ed teachers would be used in the event of a strike.

It said special education teachers assigned to schools closed by a strike or where no special ed students are present would not be considered essential workers.