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Teachers: Did you get a letter from Indiana's Attorney General? Here's why.
08/03/2015

 

indiana_oag_official_seal.jpgIf you’re a licensed and active educator in Indiana, chances are you have received a letter from the Indiana attorney general (AG), Gregory Zoeller. Please know that the AG is responding to a legislative directive given to him by the Indiana General Assembly.

 

The AG letter is the direct result of language in SEA 566, but its “heritage” comes from SB 538.

 

Here are the words in SEA 566 that precipitated the letter from Indiana’s AG:

 

Not later than July 30 of each year, the attorney general, in consultation with the Indiana education employment relations board established in IC 20-29-3-1, shall draft and disseminate a letter by first class mail to the residence of teachers providing a summary of the teacher's rights and protections under state and federal law, including a teacher's rights and protections relating to the teacher's performance evaluation under IC 20-28-11.5.

 

SB 538, a bill ISTA battled throughout the session, called for divisive and unnecessary actions like requiring new representation elections throughout the state and giving “professional educator organizations” equal access and equal standing to the exclusive representative.  Thanks to many teachers and parents who called for its defeat and, in particular, due to the hard work of ISTA and its members throughout the session, SB 538 was negotiated down into what became a requirement to inform teachers of their rights—in other words, the letter from the AG.

 

At the expense of taxpayers, through the budget of the AG office, the legislature required the AG to send every teacher a letter explaining their rights under Indiana law.  Please know that ISTA reached out to Attorney General Zoeller to discuss the letter prior to its creation and he included ISTA and ISTA’s attorney as a consultant in the development of the letter.

 

To our members:  We know that one of the many reasons you belong to ISTA, your professional association, is because you know our commitment to you is absolute and unfettered. Should you ever have a question about your rights, we are always just a call or click away through our Member Resource Center