Relates to retaining quality teachers when teaching positions are eliminated in city school districts in cities with a population of one million or more; repealer

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1: Title.

Section 2: A technical change to section 2588 of the education law to change "more than one million inhabitants" to "one million inhabitants or more".

Section 3: requires the city school district and its employee collective bargaining agents to establish a procedure governing the abolishment or reduction of teaching or supervisory positions citywide pursuant to article 14 of the civil service law. An employee's length of service can no longer be the sole factor in determining which positions to abolish. In addition, this section ensures that high need schools (schools with greater than 90 percent eligibility for free and reduced price lunch) do not bear a disproportionate share of workforce reductions. In the absence of a collective bargaining agreement governing staff reduction a default layoff mechanism for New York City governs any citywide layoff in the following manner:

* Seniority is no longer the sole basis for any layoff decision.

* The district will first make layoff decisions on a citywide basis, based on specific categories of teachers. Per the provisions of this bill, until such time as the City district and the union collectively bargain a layoff procedure, these category-based layoffs would still be made by license area (English, carpentry, common branch elementary, etc

* Under this bill there are nine categories established which constitutes a subset of staff which would in the first instance be laid off until the citywide layoff number is achieved. Staff that fall into multiple categories would be laid off first and then layoffs would proceed through each individual category until such

time as the citywide layoff number is achieved. Unless the entire license is eliminated, the following teachers would be laid off first within any given license area:

o A - School-based personnel with at least one rating of "unsatisfactory" in the five academic years preceding the year in which layoffs would take effect;

o B - A finding of guilt on 3020-a charges without termination in the last five years;

o C - Status as school-based personnel without a permanent position for six months or more as of the start of the school year in which layoffs will occur;

o D - Any teacher or supervisor convicted of a qualifying criminal offense in the past five years. "Qualifying criminal offense shall mean:

(1) any felony, any class A misdemeanor, or any class B misdemeanor under articles one hundred twenty, one hundred thirty, one hundred thirty five, one hundred forty, one hundred fifty five, two hundred twenty, two hundred thirty, two hundred forty five, two hundred sixty, two hundred sixty three or two hundred sixty five of the Penal Law, or a felony or misdemeanor under sections one thousand one hundred ninety two and one thousand one hundred ninety three of the Vehicle and Traffic Law; or

(2) Any offense in any other jurisdiction for which a sentence to a term of imprisonment of one year or of more than one year was authorized and is authorized in this state irrespective of whether such sentence was imposed, or

(3) Any offense in any other jurisdiction the commission of which constitutes the substantial equivalent of any offense under articles one hundred twenty, one hundred thirty, one hundred thirty five, one hundred forty, one hundred fifty five, two hundred twenty, two hundred thirty, two hundred forty five, two hundred sixty, two hundred sixty three or two hundred sixty five of the Penal Law or a felony or misdemeanor under sections one thousand one hundred ninety two and one thousand one hundred ninety three of the Vehicle and Traffic Law.

o E - A finding of excessive or improper lateness or absenteeism without adequate cause or improper use of leave time by a time and attendance arbitrator in the last five years;

o F - Investigations by the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI), the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), or the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) that led to substantiated allegations of misconduct in the last five years;

o G - School based personnel who failed to fulfill all requirements for state certification as of August 31 of the year in which layoffs will be enacted;

o H - Teachers in grades 4-8 who for two years or more ranked in the bottom thirty percent of all teachers in student test scores progress as measured by the City school district's value added assessment except for teachers who are licensed to teach special education or special needs children. Value added assessments shall control for factors including but not limited to the student status or whole class average in the following categories: previous academic outcomes, free and reduced priced lunch status, English language learner status, special education status, previous absences and suspensions, grade level retention, summer school participation, years attending the current school, ethnicity, gender and class size; and

o I - Teachers granted an extension regarding tenure in the year preceding city wide layoff.

* When the number of employees laid off by way of the above process is less than the number of total layoffs required, the Regents will promulgate regulations by that date governing the layoffs of any additional teachers, beyond those laid off in the above process. Such regulations must ensure that an employee's length of service is not the sole factor in determining a layoff and that an employee's salary is not a factor in layoff decisions. These additional layoffs need not be made by license category.

* In the event the Regents do not promulgate regulations within 75 days of the first day of school, building principals will make additional layoff decisions pursuant to guidance put forth by the Chancellor. The principal shall make the decisions after considering the recommendations of school based committee comprised of teachers, administrators and parents.

* In schools where 90 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunch, layoffs made subsequent to the categories-based layoff process shall not exceed a percentage of the overall number of positions in the school that represents half of the average percentage laid off made subsequent to the categories-based process in schools citywide. This excludes employees in the categories outlined above or employees laid off because of the system-wide elimination of a license area. This requirement would apply to any mechanism that is collectively bargained, promulgated by the Regents or set forth by the Chancellor and implemented by principals.

* When schools remove positions for any reason, absent a citywide layoff condition, the sale basis for such decisions will not be employee length of service. This bill requires such a process to be collectively bargained, pursuant to education law 3012-c. In the event it is not collectively bargained by 90 days before the start of the school year, decisions are to be made using all above categories. In the event the number of positions needed to be removed exceeds the number in these categories, the Regents are to promulgate regulations. In the event that by 75 days before the start of the school year, the Regents have not promulgated regulations, principals are to make the decision per guidance issued by the Chancellor. Such regulations or guidance must ensure that employee length of service is not the sale factor in layoff decisions and that salary is not a factor in layoff decisions.

Section 4: requires employee rights to return to vacant positions to be collectively bargained. In the absence of a collective bargaining agreement when layoffs are made the following process shall apply:

Whenever a teaching or supervisory position is abolished pursuant to the Regents or chancellor and should a vacancy occur in the same position at the same school or administrative office within one year of the date when the position was abolished, the principal, or the chancellor or his or her designee, shall offer the position to the person who held the position before it was abolished. If the person rejects the offer, or fails to respond to the offer within thirty days, the person shall no longer have a right to return to the position. If more than one position was abolished in the same license area at the same school or administrative office, and there are fewer vacancies in the same license area than persons whose positions were abolished, the principal, or the chancellor, shall have the discretion to determine which person should be offered the position first. Teachers or supervisors laid off pursuant to the nine categories outlined above shall have no rights to return to a vacant position pursuant.

Section 5: repeals paragraph 7 of section 2588 of the education law which is replaced by language in Section 4.

Section 6: Severability.

Section 7: Effective date.

Justification

This bill will allow high quality teachers to remain in the classroom during years when citywide layoffs are required.

Prior legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None to the State.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.