Requestor
Darria Wise
Organization/Agency
SECAC
Requested Information
TO: HCPSS MPIA Representative:
Under the Maryland Public Information Act, I request existing records showing the following for each school year: 2023–2024, 2024–2025, 2025–2026, and 2026–2027 to date:
1. The total number of HCPSS employees with National Board Certification in Exceptional Needs/Special Education.
2. The number teaching special education.
3. The number not teaching special education, broken down by general education, central office/instructional support, administration, or other roles.
Please provide existing records showing these totals for each school year. Employee names and individual personnel files are not requested.
Under the Maryland Public Information Act, I request existing records showing the following for each school year: 2023–2024, 2024–2025, 2025–2026, and 2026–2027 to date:
1. The total number of HCPSS employees with National Board Certification in Exceptional Needs/Special Education.
2. The number teaching special education.
3. The number not teaching special education, broken down by general education, central office/instructional support, administration, or other roles.
Please provide existing records showing these totals for each school year. Employee names and individual personnel files are not requested.
Date Received
Status
Complete
Responsive Documents
Responsive to this request, and per clarification you are seeking data for all “National Board Certification in Exceptional Needs Specialist categories provided, except for Gifted and Talented” please find attached data per school year. Please note the following:
• For school years 23-24, 24-25, 25-26 this data reflects an effective date of January 31 since the date for any new NBCT achievers is in December.
• For the current school year, this data reflects a date of October 15 which aligns with the MSDE Staff File reporting date. Please note, there will be new achievers this December, so the total for the current school year will change.
• This data includes staff on long term leave.
For the additional ask seeking “information on the subset of HCPSS teachers who hold special education certification/licensure which qualifies them to teach special education. And then those who are actually teaching special education as previously asked in #2 and those not in question #3,” the above spreadsheet also includes this data. Please note the following:
• For the current school year, this data includes teachers, resource teachers, and other instructional personnel.
• A review of the current data shows that 281 educators hold special education licensure but are teaching in an area other than special education. Please note, it is quite common for educators to hold multiple endorsement areas on their MSDE educator credential, while only teaching in one of those areas. We have found that many educators whose primary area of licensure is a general education content area seek to add special education licensure to their MSDE credential so that they are best prepared to provide instruction to their students receiving special education services. Additionally, many colleges and universities encourage dual licensure as part of the undergraduate program for the same reason.
No report for this data from previous years exist as expired certifications are removed from Workday and replaced with renewals. Please note, under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Nineteenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, an agency is only obligated to produce existing records and is not required to generate new data or summarize data.
• For school years 23-24, 24-25, 25-26 this data reflects an effective date of January 31 since the date for any new NBCT achievers is in December.
• For the current school year, this data reflects a date of October 15 which aligns with the MSDE Staff File reporting date. Please note, there will be new achievers this December, so the total for the current school year will change.
• This data includes staff on long term leave.
For the additional ask seeking “information on the subset of HCPSS teachers who hold special education certification/licensure which qualifies them to teach special education. And then those who are actually teaching special education as previously asked in #2 and those not in question #3,” the above spreadsheet also includes this data. Please note the following:
• For the current school year, this data includes teachers, resource teachers, and other instructional personnel.
• A review of the current data shows that 281 educators hold special education licensure but are teaching in an area other than special education. Please note, it is quite common for educators to hold multiple endorsement areas on their MSDE educator credential, while only teaching in one of those areas. We have found that many educators whose primary area of licensure is a general education content area seek to add special education licensure to their MSDE credential so that they are best prepared to provide instruction to their students receiving special education services. Additionally, many colleges and universities encourage dual licensure as part of the undergraduate program for the same reason.
No report for this data from previous years exist as expired certifications are removed from Workday and replaced with renewals. Please note, under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Nineteenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, an agency is only obligated to produce existing records and is not required to generate new data or summarize data.