Decisions on reductions in force in school districts are not common in Illinois, so a recent opinion from the Fourth District Appellate Court warrants brief mention. The issue in a recent case, Nafziger v. Board of Education of Staunton Community Unit School District No. 6, centered on which evaluation ratings are determinative of a teacher’s grouping placement on the sequence of honorable dismissal list. The teacher who brought the lawsuit claimed she was improperly honorably dismissed after being placed in Group 2 on the sequence of honorable dismissal list for a RIF. Although the teacher’s final evaluation ratings for the previous two school terms justified her placement in Group 2, she argued that she should have been placed in Group 3 because she received two “Proficient” evaluation ratings in the school term immediately preceding the RIF. The Illinois Appellate Court disagreed and clarified that a school district must consider available evaluation ratings from the two school terms preceding a RIF in determining a teacher’s grouping placement. If a teacher receives more than one evaluation in a school term, then only the last evaluation from that school term should be relied upon.