Recall Rights for Honorably Dismissed Teachers in Grouping 2

Public Act 098-0648 gives limited recall rights to honorably dismissed teachers placed in Grouping 2 who have one "needs improvement" rating. 

Effective as of July 1, 2014 Public Act 098-0648 provides that if a board has any vacancies that become available from the beginning of the school year following a teacher's honorable dismissal through February 1 of that school year (unless a date later than February 1, but no later than 6 months from the beginning of the following school term, is established in a collective bargaining agreement), such positions must be made available to any teacher placed in Grouping 2 due to one "needs improvement" rating on either of the teacher's last two performance evaluation ratings who was honorably dismissed.  In order to secure this new recall right, the teacher must be qualified to hold the position(s) and, if two ratings are available for the teacher, the teacher's other rating must be satisfactory, proficient, or excellent.

The amendment to the School Code also clarifies that only one performance evaluation per year may be used for determining the sequence of dismissal list.  Except for performance evaluations conducted during or at the end of a remediation period, if multiple performance evaluations are conducted, only the rating from the last evaluation conducted prior to establishing the sequence of honorable dismissal list shall be the rating used for the purpose of creating the sequence of dismissal.  Average ratings from multiple evaluations are not permitted (unless otherwise agreed to in a collective bargaining agreement).

ISBE recently released non-regulatory guidance addressing some of the questions raised by these amendments.  In the guidance ISBE states that vacancies that become available any time after a teacher receives his or her notice of honorable dismissal through February 1 of the following school term must be offered to eligible teachers in Grouping 2, not just those vacancies that become available after the beginning of the school year following the teacher's honorable dismissal.

ISBE also assures that Public Act 098-0648 did not change the order of recall for eligible teachers, and thus the order of recall must still be in the inverse order of dismissal (unless an alternative order is established in a collective bargaining agreement). Thus, before any vacancies are offered to eligible teachers in Grouping 2, vacancies must first be offered to eligible teachers in Grouping 4 and Grouping 3, respectively.

ISBE plans to incorporate its guidance on P.A. 098-0648 into a revised version of its existing non-regulatory guidance on the Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) and The Education Reform Act, Senate Bill 7 (last updated in January 2012).