Know your rights

The life of a school extends past regular classroom hours. Students can get extra academic help. They can create senior yearbooks, join debate teams and perform in school plays. They can participate in team sports. Teachers can apply to become instructors, coaches or leaders of these per-session activities that take place either before school, after school, on weekends or holidays, or in the summer.

UFT members have specific rights regarding program preferences and professional activities. Here’s what you should know before you make your requests. Each spring (or each term in some high schools) you may request an assignment for the following school year (or term) on a preference sheet that your principal will hand out.

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, students with disabilities are four times more likely to be suspended than students without disabilities. Yet members consistently report that they have been told that students with disabilities can’t be disciplined. So does the Discipline Code apply to students with disabilities?

With the newest safety issue, the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, seemingly hitting every school, it is a good time to talk about the UFT’s Safety and Health Department, which can work with you and your school if you encounter environmental health and safety hazards.

If you are a paraprofessional, have you ever wondered what your rights are in terms of leave time and absence from work? You earn one sick leave day for every month in which you are in service for at least 16 calendar days. The maximum number of sick leave days earnable in a school year is 10 for September through June.

Accidents, playground scrapes, bloody noses, fights, athletic injuries and violent episodes all have the potential for exposure to a bloodborne pathogen, a micro-organism in blood that can cause disease if it enters your bloodstream.

Your salary is calculated based on your level of education and your years of service. The Department of Education/UFT contract for your title contains a listing of salary schedules that take effect with each negotiated pay increase. These schedules are also posted on the UFT website.

As we enter a new school year, teachers should be aware of their rights regarding instructional materials and class size. Teachers routinely dip into their own pockets to buy the many extras that make learning more exciting for students. On average, classroom, school-based and district teachers spend about $500 a year, according to surveys.

There are times when a school reduces the size of its faculty, such as when it experiences an unexpected drop in student enrollment, loses a budget line or is being closed, redesigned or phased out. This is called “excessing.” It is a displacement, but it is quite different from a layoff or a firing.