August 29, 2008
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Californians for Justice Education Fund (CJEF) v. California Commission on Teaching Credentialing (CTC), No. 05-505517 (Cal. Sup. Nov. 2, 2005)


The Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco has ordered the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to cease issuing Individual Internship Certificates (IIC) to teachers. The court ruled that the announcement establishing the IIC as a teaching credential violated the California Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because the IIC was an "underground regulation" subject to the requirements of the APA for adopting regulations. In addition to invalidating the ICC program, the superior court ordered the CTC to cease issuing ICCs and accepting applications for ICCs until a regulation implementing the IIC program is adopted pursuant to APA requirements. It also ordered the CTC to correct its 2003-04 edition of its annual legislative report on Teacher Supply in California "by removing any references to IIC holders as interns and as 'highly qualified' teachers under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)." Regarding teachers holding the now invalid IIC, the court allowed CTC to convert those IICs to one time, nonrenewable Special Temporary Certificates (STC) to be valid until the individual teacher obtains another teaching credential or the IIC expires, whichever occurs first. Additionally, it instructed CTC that teachers holding STCs cannot be counted as "highly qualified" teachers under NCLB.

Californians for Justice Education Fund (CJEF) v. California Commission on Teaching Credentialing (CTC), No. 05-505517 (Cal. Sup. Nov. 2, 2005)
[Link to full opinion]

[Editor's Note: A San Francisco Chronicle news story on the suit reports that CJEF brought the suit to prevent the CTC from issuing IICs to teachers in order to mask the fact that low-income students are not being instructed by "highly qualified" teachers as required by NCLB. According to John Affeldt, an attorney with Public Advocates who represented CJEF in the suit, "The court's order unmasks an ongoing problem of underprepared teachers at our neediest schools." The issue raised in the suit was whether ICCs were based on legitimate internship programs whose participants can be considered "highly qualified" or were actually emergency credentials. For additional background information on the suit, access the NSBA School Law link below.]

San Francisco Chronicle
By Bob Egelko
[Link to full story]

[NSBA School Law pages on CJEF suit against CTC]