Special-education teachers not allowed to switch jobs
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
Some special-education teachers will not be allowed to transfer to other positions next school year in a decision by the Department of Education to ensure the state has enough certified and licensed special-education teachers to reach a court-mandated goal.
Because of efforts to comply with the Felix consent decree, a federal court agreement to improve Hawai'i's special-education services, Superintendent Pat Hama-moto has said that special-education teachers who are also certified to teach in other subject areas cannot switch jobs next year.
The move will help the state reach the court-mandated goal of having at least 90 percent of its special-education teachers licensed or certified. Now, about 88 percent of the Hawai'i's special-education teachers are certified or licensed, Hamamoto said.
But some who are restricted by the new rule say they are being trapped in their jobs unfairly.
Ron Ikari, a Highlands Intermediate special-education teacher, was told recently that he could not apply for a position on another campus as a school librarian, even though he recently earned a master's degree in library and information sciences.
"As a special-education teacher, why am I being treated as a prisoner?" Ikari said.
Ikari, a special-education teacher for 10 years, noted that the state has a shortage of both special-education teachers and librarians. Teachers who want to move between shortage areas should be able to do so, he said. Ikari recently took a sabbatical to earn his master's degree and get certified as a librarian.
"My education and sabbatical would have been for nothing," he said.
But Hamamoto said she faced hard choices to either lose special-education teachers to other positions and see a regression in the efforts to comply with Felix, force certified special-education teachers who now teach other subjects to return to special education or keep special-education teachers in their positions.
"There is no option that we all like," Hamamoto said.
The decision to keep special-education teachers in their current jobs is the least intrusive solution for the department, she said.
Hamamoto said that principals can allow teachers to change positions within their own schools if they want, or principals from two schools can work out an agreement to have someone switch jobs, as long as it doesn't affect Felix compliance.
Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, said the decision was a short-term fix that could create a long-term problem in the state.
"It will already compound a bad situation," she said.
Husted said the teachers the state needs the most are being sacrificed for compliance with the consent decree. There is a national shortage of special-education teachers.
Education majors at the University of Hawai'i who were hoping to become certified to teach in two areas are growing concerned that they could be forced to teach only special-education classes and never have the opportunity to transfer to a different position, Husted said.
The union has written U.S. District Judge David Ezra and special court master Jeff Portnoy to ask that something be done to give teachers more flexibility.
The DOE was to have had 90 percent of its special-education teachers licensed or certified statewide by the end of March, under the court's rules. Individual schools should have 75 percent licensed or certified teachers.
Hawai'i's special-education system has been under federal court oversight since a 1993 class-action lawsuit that accused the state of not adequately educating children with mental disabilities. The state signed the consent decree in 1994, agreeing to improve services.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
