A clearly biased study published last month by the Charter friendly Thomas Fordham Institute found that public school teachers took off an average of 8 sick and or personal days each school year, compared to the average worker taking off 3.5 days a year. The report failed to point out that stress in the classroom is a major factor in teacher absenteeism and teachers are usually surrounded by sick students/ In addition, many a classroom teacher needs an occasional mental health day after dealing with up to 150 student personalities daily.
The report, while ignoring stress as a cause, blamed the high teacher absenteeism on their union's collective bargaining contract that gives the teacher an average of thirteen sick and personal days that a public school teacher gets every school year.
The author of the report, David Griffin, wrote a summary in the flypaper and called it the "Public Schools Billion-Hour Teacher Absenteeism Problem"and came up with a list of proposals to correct the teacher absenteeism issue. They are as follows:
- Reduce the amount of paid sick and personal days to between 8 and 10 from the average of thirteen days,
- Eliminate "carrying over" sick and personal days. In other words, use it or lose it at the end of the school year.
- Have a qualified substitute teacher available.
- Include chronic teacher absenteeism as a factor in the school's quality review report.
- Eliminate union restrictions on all charter schools
Interestingly, the report shows that 28.3% of all public school teachers took eleven or more sick and personal days in a school year and were listed as "chronic absenteeism". Moreover, the Fordham report showed that charter school teachers were less likely to be "chronically absent". Maybe that's because many of these charter school teachers are quite young., and quit or were fired during the school year. Finally, the report states that chronic student and teacher absenteeism are correlated and he believes that teacher absenteeism should be included in evaluating schools.
Besides ignoring the stress factor, the report did not address the high teacher turnover in charter schools or the fact that many charter school teachers are not certified in the subject they are teaching in. The bottom line, the report fails to account for stress and ignores the high teacher turnover and lack of certification issues associated with charter schools.and that makes me question the validity of the Fordham report.
You know what? I missed literally 2 days last year, as well as the year before that. You know why? I am banking my days in my CAR so if I really need them due to injury or serious sickness I will have them. The other reason which is more important is that I plan to cash out my days at retirement. Look at it this way, if you have 200 days saved up in your CAR you are allowed to cash out half of them. That is 100 days. There are 180 or so school days in a year so that is literally more than half a years salary that you can cash out. Assuming you retire at max salary, you will get a cash out of around $75,000 if my math is correct. That is a lot of money. Anybody know any teachers that maxed out their CAR and cashed it in? (And for those who think it is impossible to save up 200 days in your CAR, I have 120 saved up right now. Still got some time left till retirement to get my goal of 200)
ReplyDeleteA plan needs to be created to get all these brilliant people into a rough class for five years and no, they can't quit at the end of the month. They have to stick it out. Am sure their point of view will change. Otherwise, it's a lot of hot air.
ReplyDeletebeing an atr for the nyshitty doe for over 6 yrs I would use up my time the 1st and 2nd year. then I got a letter about being absent. I figured let me call the schools I was at in the beginning of the year go down the line and tell each payroll secretary "hey I was marked absent on such and such a day and I was there". I would get back around 3-4 days per year. one year I got 6 days back. most payroll secretaries are idiots and stressed and cared less.
ReplyDelete@5:39...this is one of the reasons why folks don't think highly of educators--they think we are scammers. Also,why must you name call? SMH
DeleteCongratulations, you ripped off the DOE which means you ripped off the taxpayers. Way to go pal. Hope you are proud. You give ATR's a bad name.
ReplyDeleteBryant Principal Namita Dwarka is sooo skanky, she went to a family reunion looking for a boyfriend.
ReplyDeleteMaxed out CAR days at top salary would probably not be 75 grand. Anybody know what a ballpark figure would be for someone with 200 days who gets to cash out 100 at top salary at retirement? Inquiring minds want to know!
ReplyDeleteAt the end of this contract 1 day is about $600.
ReplyDeleteHow come no one mentions that teachers are surrounded by sick kids. Their parents send them to school. Teachers get sick. How many lawyers have sick kids surrounding them every day?
@6:30 your just mad because you didn't think of it first. the atr's already have a bad name the doe made sure of that. the tax payers get humped for 100 million a year because of atr's and your going to cry for a few lousy days. you must also be a graduate of the nyshitty school system!!
ReplyDeleteHey 5:39,
ReplyDeleteI've been marked absent several times when I was working. Once I was even docked a day's pay when I called in sick with a doctor's note.
I had to get my phone records to prove it and jump through hoops to verify my attendance. Your an asshole to post something like that.
Teachers Get Sick, from stress and pathogens from students all over the world coming into NYC. Also the way the DOE treats educators, Mental Health days need to be taken...The Job is Horrendous!
ReplyDeleteI am 11 years in the DOE and have over 80 CAR days. I plan on working only 6-8 more years (retire at 55 or 57), so I may get around 140 days. At half the days paid, I calculated a payout of about 15-18k after taxes.
ReplyDeleteAt my school, they FORCE us to bring a doctor's note for any sick days. Against the contract, you say? That's life now and the Admins will target you at the drop of a hat. With that said, for myself, the only reason I never take off is because the days carry over and I will get a payout at the end. So the writer wants to take away carry over? It will make absences increase, because what incentive is there NOT to use them, if they disappear?
You also get 2 CAR days for working summer school. I want a big payout at the end. NYC schools are awful places to work (mostly because of small-minded tyrants masquerading as 'admins). By the way, my payroll sec. wants me to donate some of my CAR days to her (she is underwater on hers). Apparently you can do that at a quarter rate for each day. I just laugh and make light of her request and walk away.
In this day and age I would not donate CAR days. Save as many as you can save for unexpected illness. If at the end it works out for you and you've been able to save the days, more power to you. Use the CAR for terminal leave or cash it in.
DeleteIf salary is about 120k, 100 days is $60,000
ReplyDeleteI fail to see how eliminating sick leave carryover would solve problem. Wouldn't everyone with half a brain take ALL sick days every year rather than lose the unused?
Figure 500 each, so 50k is about right
ReplyDeleteThe value of CAR when you go to cash it in at retirement is based on an algorithm. It has to do with the current average median salary. If I remember correctly, the value of one CAR day when you retire is one two hundredths of the system wide median teacher's salary. So take the median salary and divide by 200.
ReplyDeleteThe final payout comes in three installments - one third a year for three years. When I started a retiree got all the days at once.
If the system keeps using new teachers who don't stay too long, the value of the CAR won't increase by much from year to year as it used to.
According to our contract, "you will be reimbursed for 1/2 of the unused days at the rate of 1/200th of your then current yearly salary per reimbursed day".
ReplyDeleteAll I can do is pray I live to get all my retro money, and then go on terminal leave. You have the added perk of staying on payroll for almost an entire semester and REALLY piss off your principal.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the breakdown of people who max out their CAR who take terminal leave vs. cashing the money out? I plan to cash my days out. I have over 120 now and will have 200 by retirement. Terminal leave seems weird. If you are in your last year of work, you don't have to stress about Danielson and drive by observatons. Thoughts?
ReplyDelete8:03- the cash payout is over 3 years and is heavily taxed. By taking terminal leave, you are essentially adding to your years of service. Nobody I work with has taken the cash lately- all terminal leave.
ReplyDeleteTerminal leave is only wise if the time in question takes you to a qualifying event of some kind, namely, either 25 years of service or 30 years of service or 55 years of age or 62 years of age. Otherwise terminal leave is not a good idea because you are only being paid once instead of twice. That is you are not getting your pension at the same time you are being paid for the days
DeleteWhat is the best way to use days in your CAR!
ReplyDelete1) to use them up as regular sick days
2) to get paid for them and collect retirement checks also
3) to take terminal leave
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI would like Chaz to write an article on CAR.
ReplyDeleteWas the financial implications of taking The money,
The days, or terminal leave .
@waitingforsupport - "folks" who uses that word? folks don't think highly of police, politician, reporters, on and on. your president is a name caller so are talk show hosts, administrators on and on. folks think teachers are lots of things but "scammers" isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteBut if terminal leave only adds like around a semester to our time served, how would that benefit us over taking the cash out? The cash out might be 20-30 thousand dollars for the average teacher after taxes, but would adding half a year to our service credit make that big of a positive impact on our pension checks?
ReplyDeleteFYI - The last pension consult I went to I was told you are not paid for your sick days all at once. You get 1 for 2, but It's cut up into thirds and paid out if and only if, you go back to the original school you retired from each year and ask the payroll secretary (nicely of course - they are not idiots as per 5:39- most are hard working professionals) to put the requisite paper work through. I was also told there are MILLIONS of dollars in uncollected sick time from teachers sitting for years and probably forever. I don't know the accuracy of this information, as I was told it during a UFT pension consulation. I believe it to be true.
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:06
ReplyDeleteI did write about it and you can find it here.
http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2016/03/termination-pay-or-terminal-leave-what.html
Taking terminal leave is preferable than taking the money in three separate checks.
Retro checks are in payroll portal.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:34
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info.
If you are sick then just use your sick days.
ReplyDeleteYou're not cheating the system.
For example you have 100 sick days take the
hundred sick days and get paid. Contribute to your
TDA and your retirement up. You get one for one
instead of two for one.
You're not cheating the system,they are yours .
I believe this is the best way.
Hi Chaz,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the info and the site!
How is the retro pay handled re: pensionable income? Does it get added to the approp years so those years see and increase in annual salary for pension computation?
Terminal leave and Terminal Pay: I am around 26 years in, with 200 days in the CAR. Assuming I maintain the 200, my plan is to terminal leave about half a year. I wish it could be a whole year. On that issue, do people sometimes stay on school payroll and burn out the rest of the days [beyond that 100/one semester amount]? I will take the money if i have to, but it looks like a lousy deal.
Sabbaticals: I never took one, but I am close to 28 yrs in. Does that mean I could take 2 full year sabbaticals [one for each 14]? Or a year one and a 6 month one? I have read the rules and it seems so. I am a HS teacher. I know we have to come back 2yrs for a 1, one year for a half.
Thanks!
If you are sick then just use your sick days.
ReplyDeleteYou're not cheating the system.
For example you have 100 sick days take the
hundred sick days and get paid. Contribute to your
TDA and your retirement up. You get one for one
instead of two for one.
You're not cheating the system,they are yours .
I believe this is the best way.
If you cash out your CAR days
ReplyDeleteyou still collect your pension