The information below was sent in an email to all school social workers and psychologists in Nov. 2016 in regards to work time:

I want to clarify some information about lunchtime and the length of our workday.

Our workday is six hours 50 minutes exclusive of lunch and can begin no earlier than 8 a.m. and end no later than 4 p.m. Social workers and psychologists in single-session schools end the workday no later than 3:45 p.m. For example, a half-hour lunch with a workday starting at 8 a.m. results in the day ending at 3:20 p.m. The only exception is if a clinician needs to start the day earlier than 8 a.m. to arrive on time to an afternoon per-session site. This must be requested.

You are entitled to a lunch of at least 30 minutes and no longer than the length of a period in your school. Clinicians can request their time preference to start the day and length and time of their lunch period; a denial of any request must be received in writing. Clinicians follow the standard time-keeping practices of their school and need to punch in/out only for per-session purposes. We are not part of the repurposed time and work our normal hours while other staff may have variable hours.

Social workers and psychologists in single-session schools where everyone reports at the same time do not have to attend faculty conference and department meetings. In lieu of them, we are required to attend two additional parent-teacher conferences. You should report to the payroll school with regard to these evenings. This does not apply to District 75 and District 79 schools or multi-session schools unless there was a school-based option to repurpose time in the school day.

The parent-teacher conference evenings for single-session schools are as follows:

• • September: Social workers and psychologists attend the full three hours.
  • November: Social workers and psychologists attend the first two hours and 10 minutes.
  • March: Social workers and psychologists attend the full three hours.
  • May: Social workers and psychologists attend the first two hours and 10 minutes.

All school-based support team psychologists have 20 hours of per session available to them per year for case management. Supervisors are the only individuals who may approve scheduling requests, and these requests should not be unreasonably denied.

If you need to come in early or stay late, ask your supervisor to approve your per-session request. If needed, ask your supervisor to approve work on SESIS outside your workday and to pay you for your time. Please note: If you work on SESIS without permission, you might not get paid for your time.

If you have any questions regarding our workday schedule or repurposed time, please email me at asingh@uft.org.