Texas Teacher Law

Fundamental Friday - Erasing An Old Criminal Charge

You got arrested. You accepted a deferred adjudication and successfully completed it. And now you’re either about to apply for a job in a new school district, or you’re about to apply for your teaching certificate for the first time, and you want to make sure your record is clean. 

A deferred adjudication is a form of probation.  If successfully completed, no final conviction appears on your record.  If asked if you’ve ever been convicted of a crime, you can say no and you will be telling the truth.  However, a criminal background check will show the arrest and deferred adjudication, so the school district and Texas Education Agency will see this.   And you will have to explain what happened and why you are still fit to teach the youth of our state.

Deferred adjudication is possibly the most misunderstood provision in our criminal justice system.  Accepting a deferred adjudication does NOT mean that you have no record.  And there is no way to remove the deferred adjudication from your record, short of a pardon from the governor.

Expunction is a proceeding that allows a court to remove criminal history from your record.  But the circumstances that qualify for expunction are extremely narrow, and deferred adjudication will never, ever qualify for expunction. 

Expunction can be obtained if:

1.       You were arrested but released without a final conviction or deferred adjudication, and

2.       You do not have a felony conviction within five years prior to the arrest

Expunction is appropriate for persons who were never indicted, indicted but not prosecuted, or who were acquitted at a trial. That’s pretty much it.

 

Fundamental Friday - Sick Leave

I've been sick with flu most of the last two weeks, and the days I wasn't sick one or more of my kids were sick.  So I figured the only possible topic for today is sick leave.

Texas teachers are entitled to five days of paid leave each year, usable for any reason the teacher chooses - personal illness, family illness, travel, family business, mental health day, or any other reason the teacher wants, no questions asked. 

Some districts give teachers more than five days. If a district gives extra days, those extra days can be limited to specific uses, such as personal or family illness. 

Each district develops its own implementation rules for the leave days.  This means your district will tell you how to notify the district you are taking leave, how much notice you must give before an absence (advance notice obviously not required if you are ill and contagious), if there are limits on which you days you can use (many districts prohibit personal leave on TAKS days, or the day before a school holiday, etc). 

Each district that provides more than five leave days also determines whether the local or state days are used first.  This is important because state granted leave days  accumulate from year to year if they are not used, and can be taken to any Texas public school district if you change jobs.

Fundamental Friday - When your contract may be non-renewed

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot it was Friday!  I can't believe I could do such a thing.

The last few Fridays have been about contract renewals.  This week, let's consider the possibility of non-renewal.

There are several different ways you can find out about non-renewal.  Your options depend on how and when you find out.

If you have a probationary contract, and are told early that you are being considered for non-renewal, that means you may have a shot at avoiding it.  Ask for very frank information about what it would take for the principal to change his/her mind, and then try to do it.

If you have a probationary contract and are not given an advance warning but are simply notified that the board has voted to non-renew your contract, you have no realistic recourse UNLESS there is evidence that the non-renewal was for an illegal reason, like the fact that you were pregnant.

If you have a non-probationary contract and are told that you may be recommended for non-renewal, ask the principal what might change his/her mind, and then do it.

If you have a non-probationary contract and are told there is nothing that will change the principal's mind, or if you the board has already proposed your non-renewal, you have three options:

1. Do nothing, let the non-renewal become final, and go look for another job.
2. Submit a resignation before the board acts, and then go look for another job.
3. File a request for a hearing on the non-renewal, where the district will have to show proof of the reason they are citing for the non-renewal, and you will have the opportunity to defend yourself. The hearing examiner(essentially, the judge) will write an opinion on who made their case and on whether the board shoul non-renew the contract or not, and then the board will consider that opinion before taking a vote on your contract renewal.

If you go the hearing route, the final vote on your contract will usually not come before the end of May at the earliest, and may not happen until close to the end of summer, so you will need to be looking for another job at the same time you are contesting the non-renewal.

Fundamental Friday - contract resignations

Last week I reviewed what you can expect from your school board in the next month regarding your contracts for next year.  This week, the topic is what you should do if you do not want to return next year to your current job.

Your teaching contract, if renewed, gives you a right to work in the district for the next school year. Unless your contract specifies a particular campus or assignment, the district can put you to work on any campus and in any teaching position that you are certified for.  

• If you want to stay in the district, but change campuses, you will have to apply for a transfer according to your local district policy.  Check the policy now, since the deadline for applying may be very early. 

• If you want to stay on your campus but change grade level or course, you will need to let your principal know.  Nearly all campus assignments are at the discretion of the campus principal.

• If you want to change districts (perhaps because you couldn't get a transfer or assignment change), you have until the 45th day before the first day of class for the following school year to let your current district know.  This means that you can go ahead and sign a new contract when they are issued, and then resign later.   

Fundamental Friday - Your Teaching Contract

If you didn't dig your contract out last Tuesday and read it, you'll want to do that after you read this post. 
In the spring, principals and school boards make decisions about renewing and non-renewing teacher contracts.  Depending on what type of contract you have, the possible actions vary.

Below is a list of the different contracts you could have, and what to expect for each one.

If you have a probationary contract, you could be renewed, or you could receive notice of a non-renewal by the 45th day before the last day of instruction. If you do not receive any notice at all before the 45th day before the last day of instruction, then you have been renewed.

If you have a term contract that ends this year, you can be renewed, or you can receive notice of a possible non-renewal before the 45th day before the last day of instruction. 

If you have a term contract that ends in 2010 or 2011, you may not receive any notice at all.  Your contract will continue for next year.  You may also receive notice that your contract has been extended for an additional year beyond its current ending date.

If you have a continuing contract, you may receive notice of a proposed discharge.  That notice may come at any time.  If the district is not proposing discharge, then you may not receive any notice at all about your contract, but you may receive a general notice of your assignment for the following year.

Most teachers are employed under a term contract of one or two years.

Fundamental Friday: Layoffs

Galveston ISD is still struggling to get back on it's feet after Hurrican Ike devastated much of the island and it's economy.  Facing a lowered student population and a stressed budget, the GISD board of trustees decided it had no choice but to reduce staff. 

But instead of the usual pink slips, it is starting with a request for voluntary resignations.  Those who submit resignations will receive a percentage of salary based on their years of service with the district as a severance. 

It's a creative solution.  There may very well be teachers who are more than happy to voluntarily leave the district, especially in Galveston's current unique circumstances.  Any resignations will reduce the district's need to layoff people who want and need their jobs, and I applaud GISD for taking this approach.  In addition to simply being a very employee-friendly way of handling the crisis, it also makes it abundantly clear to the staff that the Board's motivation really is reduce staff, not to "clean house," as other districts have appeared to do.

But what happens if the district still needs to reduce staff after all the resignations have been turned in?  Texas law does allow a district to break teaching contracts mid-year, but sets out very specific rules about when and how to do so.

First, in order to terminate teaching contracts mid-year for financial reasons (non-contract employees can be let go anytime), the school board must declare that a financial exigency exists, after considering all relevant information.  This forces open debate and public input on the plan to reduce staff.

Second, once the Board declares the financial exigency and staff reductions are chosen as a means to respond to it, the choice of which contract staff to terminate must be made according to objective, pre-determined criteria.  What does that mean?  It means the district must have adopted a policy that describes who will be terminated if there is a financial exigency.  The policy should clearly describe how to identify the people to terminate - including how to distribute reductions among campuses and how to pick the individual teachers.

Each district adopts their own policy, so there are no statewide criteria.  But most districts use a list of the following criteria, in a variety of orders:

proper certification

appraisal scores

years with district

years in teaching

Layoffs (also called reductions in force) are not the time for principals to get rid of their least favorite teachers.  The criteria in the district policy must be followed, or the contract termination will fail if challenged.

Fundamental Friday - Appraisal Scheduling

Teacher appraisals will be happening in most schools over the next few months.  Most teachers are appraised every year, although some lucky ones are appraised less often, sometimes as infrequently as every five years. 

But for most teachers, the biggest question surrounding appraisals is this:  "Will I get advance notice of my appraiser's visit?"

The answer is probably, but not necessarily.

The scheduling of appraisals is an area that is primarily left up to individual campuses to deal with.  The law allows advance notice (at least we don't have mandated "surprise!" appraisals), but does not require it.  This means that overworked and disorganized appraisers, who may intend to stick to an appraisal appointment schedule, simply don't.  Most campuses do give advance notice, although it is common for last minute changes to be made which, in effect, give very little notice.  Other campuses schedule appraisal blocks, where the teacher is told the appraiser will be visiting a certain week, but the exact class period is not known.  Other appraisers may simply walk in and ask "is this a good time?" 

All of these approaches are legal.  Some districts have local policies on how appraisals are scheduled, and the district must follow those.  Otherwise, anything goes (within reason, that is). 

Most appraisers are aware that some class periods lend themselves better to observation than others, and if you are asked whether it is a good time to observe you, be honest. Let the appraiser know your preference.  If you're not asked, do the best class you can and then take the opportunity afterwards to meet with the appraiser and explain what was going on that might have impacted what was observed.

Fundamental Friday - Parents' Access to School

Parents do not have a right to enter schools anytime they wish and to go anywhere they want.  It is up to the district - or campus, if the district has delegated that authority - to set rules for public access to the campus and classrooms.  Some schools have very open policies, encouraging parents to visit at anytime without advance notice, and others have very restrictive rules, allowing little to no classroom access except when specifically invited.  Most schools fall in between. 

Whatever policy on parent visitation is adopted, it should apply to all parents equally, but abuse of the policy or abusive, disruptive, or threatening behavior by a parent can result in special rules being made for that parent.  In extreme cases, parents can be removed from campus and given no right of access at all.

A post from another blog last February talks about a parent who was formally banned from campus and then arrested when she ignored the ban and came onto the property.  A number of commenters knew her personally and mention the apparently long and difficult history she had with the campus.

Banning parents is relatively rare, fortunately, but it can be done, and I find that in almost all the cases there has been a long and troubling history of severely inappropriat or threatening behavior by the parent. 

So what should a classroom teacher who is having problems with a parent do?

Talk to your campus administrator.  If the problem is fairly minor, let the principal know what is going on and ask for support for a policy that sets specific limits on the parents' visits, such as requiring advance notice, or limiting visits to once a week, or to 20 minutes at a time, or to certain times of day - whatever you believe will help the situation.

If the problem continues or is serious from the outset, ask the principal to consider giving the parent rules, or preventing the parent from making classroom visits at all.  You will need the support of the principal to keep the parent from visiting, and only the principal can ban the parent completely from campus.  Your job as a teacher is to make sure the principal has good, accurate information about the situation. 

Fundamental Friday - Even Absent Parents are Parents

A post on "More Humbly Did I Teach," a blog by a Baltimore teacher, brings up a common situation for teachers - which parent should you talk to in a divorced family?

Under federal law, all parents are entitled to access student records of minor children, regardless of any custody arrangement.  There are really only two exceptions to this:
1. Parental rights have been TERMINATED (this is a severe situation and has nothing to do with custody.  When one parent is given sole custody, that does NOT mean that the other parent's parental rights have been terminated)
2. There is a court order that restricts one parent from accessing information.  Such a court order will usually be found in the custody order.

That's it.  Unless a court says in writing that a parent has no right to information, then a parent has a right to information.  Even if the parent has no visitation rights or a restraining order has been issued, the parent has a right to information about their child unless one of the two exceptions above apply. 

As a teacher, if you are in doubt, talk to your campus administrator and follow their instructions. If the campus administrator is in doubt, then they can request a copy of the relevant court documents.

If a parent tells you that you may not communicate with the other parent, ask them to provide the school with a copy of the court order that says so.

Fundamental Friday - Planning Time

Most of the time, classroom teachers in Texas are subject to the scheduling decisions of campus principals.  Most of the time, that is, except for 45 minutes a day. 

State law guarantees classroom teachers a minimum of 450 minutes of planning time every two weeks, in increments no smaller than 45 minutes.  For that period of time, a teacher can be required to stay on campus and work, but what she works on is up to her. She can not be required to attend meetings, or to work on cum folders, or to "help out" in an absent teacher's class. 

The planning time must be within the instructional day, not tacked on after the kids leave. The one exception to that is a primary teacher whose students are released before the rest of the school. 

Teachers can be required to attend meetings or work on specific projects with planning time that is over and above the 450 minutes/2 week minimum requirement.