Teacher absences: Are they excessive and do they hurt students?
Most discussions about school attendance focus on students. Now, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to talk about teachers.
Duncan has made teacher attendance one of the measures to determine which low-achieving schools receive federal improvement funds. So, for the first time, the federal government will collect data on how many days teachers miss classes each year.
The reason is simple: Research shows that students suffer a small, but significant decline in academic performance as a result of teacher absences.
In addition, the nation’s public schools pay a big price — as much as $4 billion a year according to the National Center for Education Statistics — to hire substitutes to fill in for absent staff.
When he was CEO of Chicago public schools, Duncan was dismayed to discover that the system was spending more than $10 million a year on substitute teachers. He tangled with the teacher unions when he added teacher attendance data to school scorecards.
“This is important to parents,” Duncan said at the time. “There’s never been a spotlight on this, and that’s a mistake. I think it’s like any workplace. When people feel good about the work, people want to be there. This is not only important for student learning, it’s important to school culture.”
As one of the leading researchers on the impact of teacher absences on achievement, Raegen T. Miller, associate director for education research at the Center for American Progress, applauds the new emphasis on teacher attendance.
Patterns of high absences within a school can be a marker of deeper problems. “Controlling for age and other factors, there are still wildly different patterns that tell you about the professional culture in the school building. The Department of Education really gets this,” says Miller.
In his research, Miller found that public school teachers are absent between nine and 10 days per year on average.
Between kindergarten and 12th grade, that means a student is taught by someone other than the regularly assigned teacher for the equivalent of two-thirds of a school year, he says.
Every 10 absences lowers mathematics achievement by the same amount as having a teacher with one year to two years of experience instead of a teacher with three years to five years of experience, says Miller.
In his analysis, Miller found that most teacher absences — 56 percent — were discretionary, meaning they were either short-term sick days or personal days.
Those days often fell on Mondays, Fridays and before vacation breaks, suggesting that teachers were deliberate in the days they chose to stay home from work. (Nondiscretionary absences would include a family death, long-term illnesses or jury duty.)
That’s led Miller to advocate for public disclosure of teacher absences so that the public is aware of patterns within schools, patterns that may undermine student achievement.
Miller also says states should look at leave policies that may be overly generous or that encourage teachers to take off time.
“There is no question that a ton of resources are devoted to paying teachers when they are not there,” Miller says. “In some states, the statute provides for 10 days a year. In other states, it is nearly twice as much.” (Georgia gives 12.5 days per year.)
Many leave policies reflect political concessions.
“In years where there is no money for a raise, just to get people to go away from the table, the administration is likely to throw people another sick day . Or it may be the Legislature throwing out another day rather than more money,’’ says Miller. “But when teachers get paid leave for 10 percent of the school year, it’s probably excessive.”
Miller advises local systems to consider incentives to reduce teacher absences.
Teacher absence rates are about three times those of managerial and professional employees, a fact that teachers attribute to the health risks of working with children. Because the profession remains largely female, Miller says absences are often linked to child care needs.
Because teacher attendance data is not published, there’s little information about how often teachers miss school in Georgia. An exception is Cobb County where a school system official recently studied the question.
For her graduate work at Kennesaw State University, Mary Finlayson, investigations manager for the Cobb system’s human resources department, examined absences in the county and the impact on students.
Her 37-page study, “The Impact of Teacher Absenteeism on Student Performance: The Case of the Cobb County School District,” contains these findings:
-While the national average is 10 days, Cobb teachers are out of the classroom an average of 14 days per year.
-Cobb spent $8.5 million to hire substitutes to fill in for 6,800 classroom teachers and clinic nurses in the 2008-2009 school year. The system had only budgeted $4.6 million for subs.
-Students in lower-income areas experienced more teacher absences.
An analysis of third-grade CRCT scores in Cobb supported the national research that higher teacher absenteeism led to lower math scores.
In her report, Finlayson echoes the conclusions of most national researchers:
“From experience, I have learned that if employee attendance is allowed to become a problem in a school, it will affect other employees who also begin to take time off work. There needs to be an awareness of how pervasive this problem might be and consistency among all schools about what is expected from teachers and staff.”
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211 comments Add your comment
adam conn
November 29th, 2009
7:06 am
Hello Maureen. I have not missed a day of teaching in almost five years and have accrued close to 1200 hours of sick leave. I arrive an hour before required time and leave an hour after the day has ended. So basically, a consequence for being absent yet never once in five years a simple pat on the back for being there day in and day out. It is the only profession where one cannot wake up on the wrong side of the bed and just turn off the alarm clock and get a few more hours’ sleep. Please stop picking on teachers. It is easy and fuin to do when no longer in the classroom.
Singing to the Choir
November 29th, 2009
7:47 am
I see that they addressed sick days but what about training and teacher collaboration which goes on during the instructional time? Cobb County has quite a lot of that. And now very few Cobb schools use subs, instead they use parent volunteers to come in and cover the classes for free. These parents do not have any type of screening nor do they need to have a high school diploma or equivalent. The PTA in East Cobb is very supportive of this process. I think the important issue is to look into why teachers are absent. In Cobb you will find more are absent for some sort of training and now that they use parent volunteers how do you track it?
Bonnie
November 29th, 2009
7:49 am
I have to agree somewhat with Adam. Teachers miss days because they are stressed, tired, or have sick children and there is no one to stay at home with the kids. They also miss days because of trainings or other professional development. The administrators of schools are partly responsible for allowing too many distractions take teachers away from the classroom. They also allow too many assessments to eat up powerful and important instructional time. I do agree teachers take too much time off, but that is because, in part, they are not supported in the ways they need to be right now. They need a great deal of support for their instruction and other factors that go into teaching these days. Low-income schools are not supported; they are trashed in the media and therefore become places that high-impact students or teachers or administrators do not want to be around. It is a vicious cycle. There are many dedicated teachers out there, but I must say this year I have seen more stress-related illnesses taking their toll upon many that were relatively healthy. Teacher stress also takes its toll on students, who get sicker and for longer periods of time. Overall, I think our schools are trying but they are test driven into illness.
catlady
November 29th, 2009
7:59 am
When I or my family is sick, it is NOT discretionary! What IS discretionary is being sent to every kind of “workshop” for every cure du jour our central office can get a kickback on! It isn’t the training that is the problem; it’s that many teachers have ten or more days of it per year, and there are quite a few teachers chosen for this school-wide. I have only been gone one and a half days so far for workshops, with at least 4 more to go. But math and reading sucks up hundreds of teacher-days per year in our system. (This is not including the after school, during our now limited teacher planning days, and during planning time). Let teachers teach instead of justifying our “coaches’” and “administrators’” pay. If you identify a teacher who has problems, send that teacher for remediation. Quit wasting our time taking a bite of this or that (like one strategy from Singapore math, for Goodness Sakes)
In addition, teachers, like others, have to occasionally conduct business during business hours on business days.
Finally, I agree about the health of the school reflected in some teacher absences. When you hear your colleagues discussing how to become disabled to get out of teaching at your school, you KNOW you have a serious problem!
Rebecca H
November 29th, 2009
8:02 am
This article literally sickens me! I spend up to 14 hours a day at school doing all that is required and beyond and now I can’t even take off if I get sick?! What is this?!! We are already underpaid and not respected. I work so hard and bust my you know what every single day. I don’t get to have a bad day. Every day I have to have my game face on 100%. Teachers work around gazillions of germs each and every day, and now we are being made into villains for taking off sick?? Would it make you feel better if we all came to work sick and infected the entire staff and student body?? Seriously this attack on teachers has got to stop. No wonder Georgia is always at the bottom of the education barrel. The way these people here treat their teachers would deter most sane people away from the profession all together. The parents don’t honor education and take the initiative for their own children and the population as a whole has a very negative attitude towards educators. Keep on attacking teachers and putting us down. Keep on with the budget cuts that lower our pay that was already on a destitute level. See where it gets you. You guessed it …with more and more talented educators leaving the field and Georgia continuing to drop to the bottom!!
Florida Teacher
November 29th, 2009
8:02 am
After 11 years in the Ga, I left 55 sick days there with no compensation for those days. Do I wish now I had taken more days so as not to give those days to the state? Yes!! Or I wish I had missed 5 less so they would count toward retirement.
Here is my Florida district there were perfect attendance bonuses accrued by the 9 weeks with each bonus slighter learger each nine weeks. However, in an effort to cut down expenses, my district did away with the bonuses this year. I had perfect attendance 30 of the 36 nine weeks I have been here. This means one year when I battled cancer I only missed 4 1/2 days and had 4 surgeries (one was over Christmas—yes I said the word—break) and 33 treatment of radiation!! We are not allowed to take less than a 1/2 day.
I agree with adam conn, that teaching is the only profession where you can decide at the last minute not to show up and students not suffer. When I am out, it takes me about 4 hours to make plans for 1 day so that there is a script for the sub to follow so that my students wouldn’t suffer. Unfortunately, sometimes subs think they know more than you and do their own thing.
Years ago when I had jury duty, I spent my after hours making plans where other people just called the boss and said they wouldn’t be there. I have only used my emergency plans twice in 19 years of teaching: one was the death of my father and the other was this Sept. when I was admitted to the hospital with chest pains. For the past two weeks I have not left school before 7 pm and I have stayed as late as 10 pm.
catlady
November 29th, 2009
8:05 am
In addition, in most professions (other than health, education, and money-handling), people are not exposed day after day to the viral and bacterial load teachers have to deal with. So many sick kids who should be home! I blamed working parents for it before, but now with so many not working, I blame laziness and NCLB for having these sick kids at school making others sick. As a journalist, how many times in your job have you been vomited on?
catlady
November 29th, 2009
8:07 am
Lost 8 am post.
Becca Champion
November 29th, 2009
8:08 am
Way to go Bonnie, you nailed it on the head!!!! Most people have no idea of what it is really like in the classroom and there is little to no support for teachers in this test driven society! Just like in any profession, if someone is abusing the attendance policy, then “man up” and address it. Quit trying to take down the whole lot.
Sherman Dorn
November 29th, 2009
8:16 am
I’m going to bet that like many compassionate employers, the Center for American Progress grants Miller and her colleagues at least 8 hours of various forms of leave accrued for every two weeks of work… or 10% of the time she works. Maureen, can you call Raegan Miller or CAP up and ask that to see if she’s being inconsistent?
sped teacher bibb
November 29th, 2009
8:23 am
FYI-Many of the missed days are for “required” training. Often the math and science departments will have a system wide work shop on the same day. Great planning-huh! If you have two subs each section for an entire system you might as well lock the doors as little if any learning is going to take place that day.
We should however monitor those who choose to abuse sick leave.
Leigh
November 29th, 2009
8:24 am
Guess which profession has the greatest number of kidney/IT infections — teaching. If we would get back to basics in the classroom, when the teacher is absent, the substitute would simply continue to teach the class. There would be no lattice multiplication, or other useless ‘new’ ideas. Our kids can’t spell, yet we are spending less time on it. Our students are overweight, yet we are cutting out recess and PE. Anyone else see a problem here. When a teacher is absent, school doesn’t have to be free day. Learning can still take place.
ajani
November 29th, 2009
8:29 am
As a teacher I had perfect attendance. I had over 800 hours of sick leave time. The reward for a years perfect attendance… 40 hours of bonus time that could only be used after I used my 800 hours. Why would you reward someone with something they clearly don’t use. I went to my cousins wedding which fell on a holiday weekend and was docked a days pay for missing a day either before or after a holiday. This docked day was recalculated before summer and lowered my summer pays. One day cost way more than I get paid a day and of course human resources had a formula that should why. With swine flu they tell us to stay home if we are sick but then we get scolded for being absent. My solution, I will now come to school sick get every kid sick and make it so the parent has to stay home.
Voice of Reason
November 29th, 2009
8:38 am
I recently retired after 30 years of teaching. During that time I missed 31 days and accrued 2 years toward retirement benefits. This study is long overdue. I am usually the first to go to bat for teachers, but I saw many teachers abuse the system. For the most part there is no way that adequate teaching is going on in a substitute-filled classroom.
mom_247
November 29th, 2009
8:39 am
Hate to break the news to you, but these days teachers are afraid to miss days due to illness and/or sick kids for fear that it will be used against them at their review time. Schools are cutting back on teacher training days also, again due to the economy.
mom_247
November 29th, 2009
8:42 am
I forgot – these teachers who don’t dare to take any time off also work more than a 50-60 hour week, and grade papers late into the night. Not getting a good night’s sleep and being under stress also tend to make you sick. Teachers, thank you for each and everything you do, and apologies for the totally undeserved bad press this study is giving you.
Rick
November 29th, 2009
8:44 am
I agree wholeheartedly, Maureen. Let’s keep teachers in the classroom. The legislators and admins can start with the “furlough days” in which almost every teacher gives up pay and works anyway. After repaying us for several of those this year and promising to never do it again, we’ll promise to take less of our fairly earned leave. Deal?
ScienceTeacher671
November 29th, 2009
8:57 am
Sometimes doctor’s appointments can’t be scheduled except during school hours. If you work in the private sector, you can usually take “comp time” and avoid taking a sick day, but teaching doesn’t work that way. Even if you only miss your planning time or get a coworker to watch your class, the district will frequently require you to take a day or partial day of sick leave since you are leaving campus.
It is true that some teachers will take “mental health days” or sometimes days to catch up on grading – we’re supposed to have “planning days” for that, but usually on those days we instead have meetings out the wazoo. If you have small children, you usually end up taking your days when they are sick.
There’s no immediate reward for having perfect attendance, either. Some districts used to pay a bonus for teachers who didn’t miss any time, but I haven’t heard of anyone doing that lately.
Ann Denis
November 29th, 2009
8:58 am
I am a Cobb County School teacher. Mary Finlayson’s research was not properly completed. As a student, she should have researched how many of those days were due to training. Our teachers take four days for curriculum planning during the year. This year I was hit with the flu for four days with a doctors note. Yes, we have teachers who abuse the system. We do have one teacher who is out twice a month and schedules doctors appts during the day. It is up to administration to talk with those people who are absent. Cobb County should stop allowing curriculum planning during the day! People do not realize that teachers planning periods are utilized by administration, we DO NOT have teacher work days, we have to correct all our papers after hours, and report cards and progress reports are done after hours. Our pay way cut this year and our benefits went up. Mary should have done a better job with her research to show most absences are due to training!
SouthernGal
November 29th, 2009
8:58 am
Why are sick hours carried over? Very few companies allow employees to accrue sick or vacation time. It must be used in the year it was earned or lost.
wow!
November 29th, 2009
9:01 am
What about a study that shows what furlough days does to teacher morale…and how underpaying them may be linked to student performance…and a study about how totally crappy parents who don’t play any part in raising their kids affects student’s learning? Come on and wake up! The system is broken! Focusing on things like this will do nothing but create a punitive work environment. “Create teacher incentives for good attendance?” You know that will NOT be the case…it will be, “How can we punish these teachers for missing?” I think it’s time for teacher’s to strike…then do a study on that, why don’t you?
Jacks Mum
November 29th, 2009
9:02 am
I realize that teachers do work very hard, and that they have to work at night to grade papers, however, they reap the perks of several “breaks” and holidays. Please do not lose sight of the fact that your choice of a career is stressful, is time consuming during the school year, yet provides you with more time off than any other profession that includes pay during your breaks.
When you are sick, you are sick…but when you are sick and tired, please consider the children. They are in need of you, their teachers to bring it 110% every school day, so that they can learn everything they can! Teaching is a calling not a job.
Jacks Mum
November 29th, 2009
9:03 am
Southern Gal – because they are unionized…please see comments from WOW!. WOW! you need to go and find a job, because teaching is NOT your calling.
flipper
November 29th, 2009
9:08 am
Mom247, sorry, but missing 14 days out of 190 is just too many. That’s nearly one day ever two weeks. I work 50-60 hours per week too, but we only get 8 sick/personal days in an entire year.. not just 9 months.
WOW...just wow!
November 29th, 2009
9:10 am
Hey, catlady…..u forgot to mention that if a teacher were to wear a mask to fight off the germs (like health professionals) and/or gloves (like many people dealing with $), they would be ostracized for infringing on rights of the kids. The administrators and parents would be extremely offended if Ms. Catlady came to class with a mask and rubber gloves, but obviously you better come in and help the sick kids who come to school regardless!
WOW!
November 29th, 2009
9:32 am
Um, Jacks Mum. I do have a job…and it is NOT teaching (thank god!) But, I live with a teacher…every day of the year. I know exactly what responsiblities she shoulders, how little she is paid and how incredibly UN-supportive administrators and parents are to her quest to try to bring some sense and order into a room full of ill-behaved and ill-raised, disrespectful children. It’s remarkable to me that people still continue to try to pass the buck on to teachers…parents blame teachers, administrators blame teachers, and parents blame teachers…for everything…when in reality, it’s the students actions that determine success or failure. I had many bad teachers while I was growing up, but that didn’t prevent me from getting A’s in my classes, or going on to college, or becoming a physician. And, if teaching is a “calling” not a job, then why don’t we treat them with that reverence, instead of like it is a job?
It would appear that you do NOT know what is really going on in the school systems around our area today, I, however, do. I realize that teaching is not my calling because I would tell the administrators, and parents to get out of the class room, and I would discipline my students and teach them to behave and respect like their parents should be at home. This is not what is wanted in education right now…we want our children to be perfect without discipline, without having to study, or take homework home, and to be able to play on their cell phones for the entire class period! GIVE ME A BREAK, lady! WAKE UP!!!
Old School
November 29th, 2009
9:34 am
I was written up and the letter placed in my personnel file when my sub chose to ignore my very detailed lesson plans and even sent a kid TO HER HOME to bring back movies. Those plans were detailed down to exactly what each student was expected to work on, complete, and turn in and what specific lab chore was to be completed by each at the end of class. Because I knew who the sub was to be and because lab cleanup was a daily part of class, AND because I had clearly explained my expectations to each of my classes, I thought I could take my vocational club students to a state conference and return to no surprises. Wrong. My lab was wrecked and, in spite of my being 200 miles away in Atlanta for the conference, I was held accountable. My uber-detailed lesson plans with the subs handwritten notes of “we had such fun” and “your students are delightful,” were pretty much dismissed when I was called on the carpet.
Folks, we instructors have no control over how a sub fills in for us, no matter why we are out of our classes. Given that kind of disdain by administrators, is it any wonder some might take a “mental health” day?
And just fyi, I’ve accumulated several years worth of sick leave days but will realize nothing from them because I’m half-way through my 36th year. I have always arrived at school by 6:30 a.m. and typically leave around 4:00 p.m. or later. I even spent 3 hours this past Friday in my lab preparing for my students and our countywide evaluation teams’ visits.
My career. My choice.
elaine
November 29th, 2009
9:36 am
I am so glad that someone is finally looking into absences of teachers. We only have 190 workdays a year anyway and when we miss it does really hurt. There are many dedicated hardworking teachers but there are certainly those that work the system. And, yes, the teacher workdays or in-service days are ridiculous as most teachers would tell you that they had rather be in the classroom. Most schools have cut back on these this year but only due to budget restraints. Otherwise, we would be paying for a sub at least once a month for every teacher in the schools for such days!
Teachers are not under paid. Look at the benefits, look at the number of days of year that are worked and quit whining people! Heck we even have a contract for a whole year’s work which is amazing these days! We get salary increases, usually every year and paid more with more education, superlatives, etc. When we are observed, we have advance notice and can prepare our lesson accordingly. We have wonderful holiday leave and the list goes on. Oh, and aren’t most people exposed to germs and how many teachers get donations of germ-x for their classrooms, etc. Yes, it can be stressful dealing with so many students/parents and putting up with administration and red tape at times but aren’t most jobs stressful or difficult at times?
Most jobs you can earn a maximum of sick leave over the years. Not so with the education system as you earn about 1 to 1.5 days a month leave and it carries on forever. I know some teachers who over the years accumulated a lot of sick leave or short term leave and now that they are close to retirement take a day off just to go get a blood pressure check, etc. Maybe more tracking of “sick” or short term leave should be implemented or maybe the amount of sick leave that can be accumulated should have a maximum per year.
Let’s look at what we have to be thankful for besides, there are a lot of unemployed teachers out there that would love to be in our shoes!
I say let them do studies on how to improve the system. After all, it’s all of our tax dollars that pay for the excessive use of subs! While you are at it, study how to cut back on some of the unneeded positions in the county offices.
Gwinnett Parent
November 29th, 2009
9:36 am
Last year my daughter’s teacher was out the day after Labor Day, and missed several days afterwards. We received a letter 2 weeks later informing us of a permanent sub. The original teacher came back in October. The kids had to stay in for recess a few times, because the class was not meeting their skills requirement. I visited the class a few times and noticed that there was always a different teacher. It got to the point that my daughter did not know who was teaching her class. In November we received another letter informing us of another permanent sub. Her school has a policy of getting a permanent sub. after 10 days of consecutive absences. I called the school requesting that my daughter be transferred to a class with a teacher that stays and was told that my kid just had to deal with it. Finally they decided to split the class up after Thanksgiving. My daughter did not start learning new material until February of that year. Her reading skills also started to decline. However, she started kindergarten able to read on a 1st grade level, which helped her because there was no one there to teach class. It is great that she comes from a nice stable home with 2 college degreed parents and a mom with a flexible schedule. Not every kid in her class had this luxury. However, her school expects kindergarteners to do word problems and a meet other skill requirements. It’s hard to imagine how the kids meet these requirements when there is no one there to teach them.
Stop Picking on Them
November 29th, 2009
9:37 am
Pay teachers what they are worth and then you have a right to complain about the things they do. Until then, stop picking on them!!!
Echo
November 29th, 2009
9:39 am
Someone mentioned sick days not getting carried over in the “business world” of work. From what I have seen employees also get paid for those unused days, I have about 80 days (I have lost over 60 when I transferred districts a couple of years ago) and I will use them to retire early if I make it that long. If I don’t make it to retirement, I will simply lose all those days.
I would bet that if someone did another study on missed days in other professions/jobs they would have similar findings on the days missed (Mondays, fridays, around or on holidays)…so why just go after teachers?
d
November 29th, 2009
9:44 am
Jacks Mum…. those paychecks we get over the summer are only for money we earned during the school year, just prorated over 12 months. We are not paid for summer unless we teach summer school. Teachers are paid for 190 days a year. We earn 10 hours a month of sick time for every month we work (so we don’t earn that over the summer). There is no such thing as a “paid vacation” if you are a teacher.
Sickteacher
November 29th, 2009
9:46 am
I tried to be dedicated this year. I came to school sick. Now look at me. A month later, I relapsed again and spent this entire Thanksgiving break in bed with a high fever. I’ll be up tomorrow to face the kids and still weak. But do I hear a thanks? I’ll stand before the kids and try to teach and they will whip out the cell phones, turn their backs, and little do they know how sick I feel, but God forbid I call in and risk losing my job and let’s pray my own child doesn’t catch this bug!
d
November 29th, 2009
9:48 am
Oh, and I forgot, while we’re linking achievement to teacher absences, what do I do about the student who has missed 40 days so far this semester (and I have more than one of those). At some point we need to start withholding credit from students who don’t come to school.
Bio Teacher
November 29th, 2009
9:57 am
flipper, you obviously do not know what you are talking about! Teachers are in class continuing to learn during summer vacation and/or programs for recertification as well as improving class room skills. They work on plans during all breaks and deal with uninformed and ill-mannered parents EVERY WHERE they go. They deal with admin. that is out of touch and do not care. It is a 12 month a year job that is thankless and unpaid, that is why I will not return to secondary or middle education.
Jim
November 29th, 2009
10:07 am
I worked in business for 18 years before becoming a teacher. I have taught 10 years and have maximum sick leave accrued, and lose days every year. Other than planning, I am confined to the classroom. I am told don’t sit at your desk, be up teaching or monitoring. I can’t walk out of the room to go to the bathroom if I have an upset stomach. Once at work, I can’t leave unless I find a substitute, which I can’t do from the classroom. This requries me to take sick leave sometimes when I would otherwise come in to work.
DigALittleDeeper
November 29th, 2009
10:10 am
My daughter’s math teacher, in 8th grade, was out sick at least 3 or 4 days a month. I felt sorry for her, because I knew she was truly sick. However, I knew it would come back to hunt my daughter, who is a “B” to “A-” student in math. There were so many topics that were not covered in detail, that is being pushed into the light. She’s in Algebra this year and the math teacher is always saying they should have covered the current topics in 8th grade. I’m just thankful that he is an excellent math teacher and has the patience to recover things my daughter missed in 8th grade.
I’m happy to say that this year has been great and we haven’t had a problem with excessive absentees of any of her highschool teachers. My daughter is taking both Physics and Chemistry this school year and if these teachers are absent, she would be screwed.
Also, I’ve been sick and had an operation just last week, so I do understand that being sick is not something we can control. But, we need subs who can at least teach the subjects they are covering.
Teacher
November 29th, 2009
10:10 am
What a stupid story.
Guess what? I teach 1st grade. I am sneezed on, coughed on and thrown up on all year. How many office workers have 22 kids doing all of that right into their faces all day long. I tend to catch strep at least once a year, several bad colds and other viruses.
Then there are my own two children. YES, I stay home if they are sick. Do you want me sending them to school sick?
Teacherforlife
November 29th, 2009
10:11 am
JacksMom – We’re not paid during our breaks – our salary (based on 10 months employment) is split into 12 payments in order to make it easier for us to budget. For me, teaching is a calling, but I don’t think it’s unfair of me to expect society to pay me fairly for it. After all, society benefits greatly from having an educated populace. I also have noticed that as the stress upon teachers grows, absences grow – stress has been shown to increase illness. My stress comes from higher health costs, furlough days (lowering my salary), and no retirement or social security paid (for this year). Basically, I have taken a huge pay cut, am expected to “do more with less”, and now am expected to improve my attendance. In my entire career, I have missed many more days for professional learning than I have for being sick. Perhaps school systems should look at a new model for professional learning in order to keep teachers in the classroom.
Part of the Pack
November 29th, 2009
10:13 am
Jack’s Mum, Just for clarificaion teachers in Georgia are NOT unionized. I wish you and many others could get a good look into just how my so called time off is spent. This is my time to work on new lessons, find new resources, look at current research, and do all the other things I simply do not have time to do during the year. I came to teaching late in life. I worked for many years in the private sector, and I would dare say that I work more hours with that time off than I did working a full years schedule. Now I love what I do and no one makes me do this. I KNOW that, but I also know it is what is best for the students, and that is why I do what I do. The complaint I think most teachers have is that we do all this, and yet we are the only profession that is constantly told what an awful job we are doing. Everyone seems to think the understand what educators do, but that is simply not the case. Please realize that there is a whole lot more that goes on behind the scenes than parents and law makers ever see!
oldtimer
November 29th, 2009
10:14 am
G. parent: That teacher may have cancer, heart disease, etc. They may have had a dying parent or child. You just don’t say. No school system will give long term leave without proper consideration. I was one out for three weeks with flu and complications then one at a time both my kids had chicken pox. My husband used up most of his vacation time taking care of me. I was too sick to move and ended up in the hospital. I also took my six weeks when I had my children. When I retired I had two additonal years of sick time added to my pay.
Be careful judging teachers. They have families, get sick, and have to move just like others. All they have to use are personnal leave, 3 days, or sick days. Not everything can be done in the summer.
Veteran Teacher
November 29th, 2009
10:15 am
Oh my.. we get paid during our breaks? I hate to break it to you but we are paid to TEACH.. all those “breaks” that get covered with PAY are simply each school system’s way of breaking up the total salary to help cover time off. It is not extra… it is just less money from our monthly pay that comes back to us during those “breaks”. Sure, they could take that money out and put it back into the actual months that we are affectively teaching but then how many people are really good at budgeting during the summer to have enough money for bills and living expenses? Don’t blame us for taking needed time off throughout the school year and then threaten us because part of our salary is paid to us during breaks. I am another of those who are at school when the building is being opened daily and one of the last to leave (with the principal) on most days. I have enough sick days built up to take almost a year of school off. They certainly do come in handy when needed.
QueenBea
November 29th, 2009
10:16 am
In 2007, I told my administration that I did not want to attend any more trainings. During the 2006-2007 school year, I missed 26 days due to trainings.Because I was head of the leadership team, I had to attend a lot of training. I was only out two days for sick leave–so you do the math. I have over 100 days of sick leave and if I were to go to another school district, I would lose 55 of those days–is that fair..This may be a reason that teachers use their sick leave.It does not matter how many studies you do, you cannot make teachers come to work if they do not want to come.
Sick of paying for illegals
November 29th, 2009
10:20 am
One reason why teachers are constantly sent yo another training, another worthless seminar, another boring workshop, etc,etc, is because they are government schools and the government doesn’t have a clue what it takes to educate our children. They just send down mandates and requirements that kill the budget and exhaust the teachers, who are trying to jump through all the hoops the government requires of them. Imagine what our healthcare is going to be like when our government takes over our healthcare!
Teacherforlife
November 29th, 2009
10:23 am
Part of the Pack – Do you think that the lack of respect is because children are so undervalued in our society – and consequently those who work with children, as well as their work, is undervalued? Or could it be because work that earns or produces money is valued in our society, and teachers do neither – consequently, teaching is not respected?
drew (former teacher)
November 29th, 2009
10:24 am
Yes…some teachers abuse sick leave.
Yes…some teachers are extremely dedicated and hardly ever miss work.
The fact is, the vast majority of teachers are very dedicated and professional. Then you’ve got a small minority of teachers who think it’s perfectly OK to abuse sick leave. I worked with one teacher who viewed sick leave as compensation…just like their paycheck. As soon as this teacher earned a day’s leave, he’d be out sick. My experience was that the worst teachers were usually the same ones abusing sick leave.
Oh, and the main reason sick leave is allowed to rollover is that without rollover, you’d see a lot of teachers “using up” their sick leave, so as not to lose it.
Proud teacher!
November 29th, 2009
10:26 am
I understand now why our profession is so widely criticized. We whine too much oppose to addressing the issue. The issue is about teacher abseteeism. The other issue is should districts track this information. I have no sympathy for fellow teachers that are missing work for no good reason. In my opinion, I think districts should track this information. I am not worried because I do not miss a lot of days of work.
Address the issues- educators!- it may be helpful to the profession.
Children first?
November 29th, 2009
10:39 am
Wow,
Wow, how do you and your wife approach disciplining your children at home. You can not convince me that your angels are perfect at home. You have to discipline your children at home. Now imagine your imperfect child walking into a classroom with other imperfect children and the teacher hating the job for all the reasons you mentioned above. God help us!
Joy in Teaching
November 29th, 2009
10:41 am
I’ve been teaching for 23 years. For the first 15 or so years, I was seldom out unless I had a stomach thing going on, couldn’t speak due to laryngitis, had a fever higher than 102, or had a death in the immediate family. I lost all sorts of days in the beginning because they wouldn’t allow teachers to accumulate over a certain amount of days.
I admit that I’ve taken off more days since No Child Left Behind became law. Why? Because the stress is killing me. Administrators have gotten more spineless and parents have become more demanding. And the kids? Well, to be honest, many of them have become less capable because the curriculum has been dumbed down to the point to where they can’t even do the basics any more. And teachers aren’t encouraged to go beyond that because it could affect AYP.
In the last 8 years, I’ve gone on blood pressure pills as well as an anti depressant. (Neither of which runs in my family and I am physically fit otherwise.) Last year, I actually had an anxiety attack during class and my doctor said, “Either take a few days off or I’ll put you in the hospital and force you to do so.” I took a few days off and some parents complained. Apparently, there are some who would rather a teacher drop dead in the classroom instead of being absent. Stress is eating me alive. Lately, I’ve actually thought about retiring early at 25 years rather than 30 years because I really am tired of jeapardizing my health for this job that I used to love.
Want to really do a study, Maureen? Do a study on teacher absences since No Child Left Behind came along. You’d be amazed at the difference.
No Real World Experience
November 29th, 2009
10:43 am
Why not pay teachers the amount that would go to a substitute if they are not absent.
College Professor
November 29th, 2009
10:44 am
The permanent absences of parents are far more detrimental to student learning than the infrequent absences of teachers.
Cobb Teacher
November 29th, 2009
10:45 am
So this study explains our new attendance policy…interesting…
I’m am sure that the “average of 14 days” includes two things that should be noted: first, training, and second, maternity leave. Why am I sure that those must be included? Because at 14 days, this would mean the average teacher taking off is taking off one and a half days without pay, and I’m just not seeing that or believing that in this economy.
We have had a few textbook adoptions and trainings on the new standards and new textbooks materials the last couple years, and teachers chosen for those are out, but it doesn’t come out of their own leave time. Some of that could be done over the summer (and often is – but not for free – either stipends or PLUs), but some of it requires the teacher to be able to go back to a classroom and use what they have learned.
Anyone who has a baby is going to be out for doctor’s appointments leading up to and maternity leave after the birth. A teacher only gets to take paid maternity leave for the number of days she has – dads get to take some time, too, under the FMLA. The majority of teachers are women – enough said.
I think the study is important though, because it does raise some good questions about the necessity of in-school training, the physical and mental stresses of being a teacher, and attendance rates at “challenging” schools.
Jacks Mum – we are not unionized here in Georgia – please stop promoting that inaccuracy.
Southern Gal – The carrying over of sick leave/PTO/vacation days is actually MORE common than not. I have worked in several private sector jobs, both large and small companies and they all accrued time off. My husband’s job does as well, and an informal survey of my family members (from states as varied as Nevada to New Hampshire and jobs ranging from large corporation to the United States military) showed the majority of their PTO also accrued. The one exception separated sick leave from vacation days – vacation days accrued, but sick days did not – however the person would be paid for any unpaid sick days at the end of the year. Maybe you need to work for another company?
Kelly
November 29th, 2009
10:57 am
As a very happy teacher for 8 years I was stunned when 2 teens walked into my room/trailer and began fighting. One had the equivalent of a cafeteria knife. I am 5 ft tall and weigh 115 lbs. These guys were 180 lbs+. They were returned to my room and 1 didn’t even belong there. After confronting the admin assis. I was told my main job was to make sure the kids were not smoking pot out behind the trailers. All those years of training, college, Masters degree, 8 different certifications and it came down to making sure no one was smoking and selling pot next to my trailer. I quit and have not taught in the public schools for 3 yrs although I retain a HQ teaching status due to my excessive certifications and training hrs. Ha! Sick leave! When’s the last time you had a knife fight in your cubicle?
Kristin
November 29th, 2009
10:57 am
I wonder if you or the study took/will take into consideration the fact that the large majority of teachers are women…women who are mothers and primary care givers of their own children. As a teacher, my sick days were saved to stay home when my children were sick. They were also used for maternity leave…which requires teachers to use sick days.
J Getright
November 29th, 2009
10:59 am
I am sick and tired of the system blaming teachers!!!!! What’s needed is parental involvement!!!!! Some things kids should know how to do before they start school, like ABCs and 123s… Then you have parents that send kids to school for babysitting services—no involvement in education after the school day!!! Teachers are now expected to be parents, teachers, counselors, etc… Just look at the difference between public schools, charter and private schools and you will OVERWHELMINGLY find that the key to greater success in charter and private schools is PARENT INVOLVEMENT and TEACHER CONTROL (not the administration). Do the REAL RESEARCH!!!!! Don’t look for someone to blame for broken SYSTEMS!! And don’t get it wrong, I am not a teacher because I don’t have time for the lack of parental and administration support!
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
November 29th, 2009
11:22 am
Well, this topic certainly riled the troops! (i.e., the teachers) Those of you getting so exercised about the subject of teacher absenteeism somehow didn’t note that the studies are saying that the *average* of sick days for teachers is 10. As an average, that is outrageous, but human nature being what it is, the figure means that some are not taking any or just a few days, while many are getting a couple extra weeks of vacation at everyone elses’ expense. The teaching employees should get some formulaic reward for unused sick days, but quit putting your martyr’s status on here as a reason to abuse the system.
Psychologist
November 29th, 2009
11:24 am
I began teaching after graduating from college, and I’m not completing my doctoral degree in Psychology. I am in my late 20’s, and I see where the problem lies. The problems arise when teachers continue to work in school systems and school buildings where they are not happy. Research shows that teachers are less likely to get sick and stress where they are in an environment that makes them happy. Primary positive reinforcement may include pay, teacher support, and recognition. At this point, teachers know that students are not going to be angels…BUT thats why teaching is a calling and not just a job. I transferred to a new school this year due to promotion, but I have been more stressed this year more than any other year in the profession. My administrator is great, but the problem lies with teacher absenteeism. My coworkers abuse the system, and the teachers that are present everyday suffer, because they “have to lend an extra hand.” One teacher has been absent for 15 days already, and it is always excuse after excuse. Why is it that he always complain about things not going right, and the students not learning, when he is the one that is absent? This is a problem, and I think that tracking teacher absences and why is a great start to controlling this issue.
Psychologist
November 29th, 2009
11:25 am
I’m now completing my doctoral degree (not..not)
Ann Berry
November 29th, 2009
11:30 am
I would say take a survey of the substitute teachers with open ended questions and see what you get. They, truly, will tell the story. I am not a teacher anymore; I am a data driven mummy led by incompetent people who are also led by incompetence from the top of the order. When this country understands that teachers cannot be “everything to all”, things will take a turn. For now, I am a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, nurse, social worker, custodian, coach, RTI specialist, SPED specialist, interdisiplinary guru, behavior monitor, babysitter, bookkeeper, hall monitor, bathroom monitor, bus monitor, lunchroom monitor, before school facilitator, after school facilitator, and oh, yes….now Friday Academy until 6 pm infringing upon my private time as a private citizen…….are you tired and confused yet?
The biggest gripe from teachers is that they are tired of doing everything half-assed. There is so much to do and so many titles to perform. No one title is ever performed to the best of my ability because there is so much to do. So, when you get overachievers (teachers) time and time again pushed into the corner because there is no time to do the job well…..the result will be taking days off to regroup and refresh. I do not speak that it is right or wrong…..I speak for all educators and ask that you let us teach the curriculum and hire additional staff to do all the other jobs I perform on a daily basis.
What a joke
November 29th, 2009
11:33 am
The problem isn’t teachers calling in sick, it’s that the school systems give the teachers 30+ sick days every year!!!! I am litterally falling over laughing at these teachers thinking they are something special for accumulating 2 years of “sick” days. Come to the real world teacher honey, 5 sick days a year (if you’re lucky!) and they don’t carry forward. And then to require a doctors note if you are “sick” for 2 days or more.
Get rid of the sick days, teachers obviously do not need 30+ days a year to be home sick (in addition to another 4.5 months of paid holidays AND vacation!!!!!!!).
SpaceyG on Twitter
November 29th, 2009
11:33 am
My child’s wonderful teacher took a surprising leave of absence in middle of the term. Now my child has some hideous Wicked Witch of the Teaching West, resurrected from some old teacher dead zone for this personal crisis of someone else’s, as a substitute teacher. For months. Kid’s grades are suddenly dropping for the fist time ever. Not good.
Philosopher
November 29th, 2009
11:34 am
@Proud teacher: well-said… These issues are not unique to teachers… healthcare providers face the same issues…so I understand…”Do I go to work sick and put patients and coworkers at risk or do I stay home and leave patients without adequate care? “I would hope that it is not the norm for teachers to take days off because they feel entitled. Those teachers make make a bad impression on the public…so track it and fire the abusers as they do in any other profession…don’t blame all teachers for the few bad ones. They hurt kids.
@WOW: It is good that you do not teach kids!!! The nasty attitude your portray towards parents and kids is sadly seen a lot in these blogs. Folks who struggle to do the best they can for their kids, and the kids who are the target of this malice, do not need you!
In fact, I had a whole lot more respect for teachers before I read these blogs…tell me again why you remain teachers…why you continue to put up with these parents and children you seem to despise so much. I have seen not a whiff of concern from teachers for the human beings on the other side of any of the issues here, but I have seen a heck of a lot of support from parents for teachers…how very,very sad!
Maureen Downey
November 29th, 2009
11:36 am
Kristin, Dr. Miller notes that the teaching profession is largely women and that the higher-than-other-profession absence rates are likely associated with child care, including sick kids and day care issues.
Maureen
Courtney
November 29th, 2009
11:37 am
A lot of time teachers are out for MANDATORY professional learning which is usually useless and just justification of the jobs done by County office folk. Should teachers be given less sick days? Yes. But the real fat is in the County Office.
Guy
November 29th, 2009
11:39 am
They should have drug test for teachers. I know a girl who teaches 5th grade and she smokes weed every day. I can’t believe she can do that and teach kids.
Real
November 29th, 2009
11:45 am
All the more reason that we continue to pay approx. $7,000 each year in property taxes in Dekalb County yet chose to send our children to private school.
It seems the entire “Atlanta” public school system failed in schools not serving the neighborhoods in which they are located — add in the teacher’s union (e.g., inability to fire poor teachers), teaching to the lowest common denominator, complaints about teacher’s pay (which is approx 9 months of work) and no discipline in the schools and it’s been downhill since…
John Henry Nations
November 29th, 2009
11:47 am
Non-story on this one Maureen. You are reaching.
Teachers get sick, have sick kids, are on jury duty, wakeup with a hangover and miss work just like the general populace.
If you want to really stir up the pot, ask how many kids are sent to school sick because mommy doesn’t have day care and doesn’t want to be absent from her job.
Now that is a real story with legs.
JHN
WakeUpPeople
November 29th, 2009
11:48 am
Jack’s Mum…I would like to comment on a few things. As others have said, teachers only get paid for 9 months. HR allows may teachers to stretch their pay over 12 months, but teachers are really only paid for 9 months (thus the lower salaries). As a former classroom teacher, I can tell you summers tend to be spent either taking graduate courses (paid for by the teachers, not the school districts) to meet certification requirements and/or working an extra job to supplement the low 9-month salary. I know very few teachers who actually have the summer months “off.” Teachers, like health care workers, are in very close contact with many viruses and therefore tend to perhaps get sick a couple days more than the average employee. (Have we looked at the average absentee rate of health care or day care workers? I bet teachers are directly in line with these close professions). Not to mention that (as someone mentioned before) may teacher have to take days off for mandatory trainings during the school year. Why do we (as a society) hold professors on such a higher pedestal than we do teachers and yet they both are “teachers” working 9 months? I have never heard the media or parents talk about professors in the same way they talk about K-12 teachers. Perhaps one large reason our country does not do as well on international tests is that we continue to act in a way that demonizes the teacher. The top nations (Japan, as one example, is always ranked in the top 3) revere teachers and the education system, but here in the U.S.A. teachers are treated as second class citzens and babysitters. Schools in some areas (those where teachers tend to miss the most days) are like battle zones and yet teachers must come to work every day with a smile on their face. Teachers were trained in teaching pedagogy, yet they now act as counselors on a regular basis and have to worry about things like dealing with gangs and drugs in upper elementary and middle schools. When is the last time the researcher in this article had some threats from gang member parents? Parents fighting middle school students in your classroom? Abused children to report to DFCS? Yes, teaching is a calling and that is precisely why over 50% of teachers leave within the first 5 years (for those who thought it would be a fun “job” with summers off, they learn quickly it is not). Those who have been there over 5 years are there because they love their profession. Let’s start treating it like a profession and engaging in a culture that supports our schools and teachers and we might be able to continually improve our educational system. It is the 21sy century and our schools look the same as they did in the 1950’s! Wake up, America!
irisheyes
November 29th, 2009
11:53 am
“The problem isn’t teachers calling in sick, it’s that the school systems give the teachers 30+ sick days every year!!!! I am litterally falling over laughing at these teachers thinking they are something special for accumulating 2 years of “sick” days. Come to the real world teacher honey, 5 sick days a year (if you’re lucky!) and they don’t carry forward. And then to require a doctors note if you are “sick” for 2 days or more.”
Who said they got 30+ sick days a year??? I get 10 HOURS a month for each of the 10 months of my contract. That’s 100 HOURS a year. Nowhere near 30 days. For those of you in the business world, don’t just talk about your sick days. Include all of the vacation days you get as well. (I know some people don’t, but lots of people do.)
BTW, I’m one of those teachers who used a ton of sick days one year. I had a baby and took the minimum six weeks (two of which were Christmas break, so my kids only had a sub for a little over 3 weeks). Then my baby was diagnosed with a birth defect that needed surgery to correct it. I had to take a day or so a month off to visit the neurosurgeon. Then, my grandfather died in May, so I took two days to go home for his funeral. That year, I was out a total of 20 or so days. But guess what, life happens. People get sick, kids get sick, parents get sick. Plus, add in all of the meetings and conferences, plus SST meetings, IEP eligibility meetings, and professional development, and you have teachers out of the classroom all the time. Trust me, as a teacher, it’s as frustrating to me as it is to parents. I know my kids aren’t getting the best when there’s a sub, but sometimes, things are just out of my control.
BTW, I scheduled my son’s surgery over Spring Break so as not to miss more time.
Courtney
November 29th, 2009
11:55 am
Hey “Guy” – Have you ever heard of the U.S. Constitution? Read it or the book “1984″ and get back with me.
irisheyes
November 29th, 2009
11:56 am
In addition, to answer your question Maureen, yes, teachers absences can hurt students, and they can be excessive. What would be a better question is why they happen. Are the absences because of the teacher or because of the school system? That would tell me if teacher attendance should be included in NCLB or not.
dawggirl
November 29th, 2009
11:58 am
This article is typical of all “reform” that goes into education. Instead of tackling the issue of the small number of teachers who abuse their sick days, the article implies that there needs to be a huge overhaul of all teachers and ALL teachers need to be whipped into shape. Like most of the teachers who responded here, I also rarely miss a day of work and when I do need to miss time I try to carefully plan it around what I have going on in the classroom. I can’t use the restroom when I want or need to, I don’t get paid bonuses or overtime when I certainly work more than 40 hours a week, and there are certainly very few perks to what I do. I teach because I love it, but don’t mistake that dedication for being submissive to the abuse that comes my way. Just because teaching is a “calling and not a job” doesn’t mean that you get to treat me like crap and demand that I thank you for it. If an administrator has a teacher who abuses days off, then deal with that teacher and not the whole staff. If you have a teacher who rarely uses or carefully uses his or her sick days, then show appreciation for that. Do NOT crack down on an entire profession because there are some who behave unprofessionally.
Courtney
November 29th, 2009
11:58 am
Teachers would be out less if people would stop sending their sick children to school; or better yet pick them up when they are called to. A lot of parents refuse to come get their kids if the school calls these days. How sad………..
sickteacher
November 29th, 2009
12:03 pm
I am a teacher in a large county. My first year at my new school, my students missed 40 days of math class due to chorus performances, plays, testing, pep rallies, etc. That was with me present all of those days. I also had 8 days of professional development-which I did not plan, and missed. I am a single parent, and when my child is sick-there is no one else. Also, I would like to add, teachers are exposed to EVERY illness that comes into the building. We cannot use chemical cleaners-even bleach wipes when students are present. I have to wait until the end of the day to dis-infect.
I am sure that some teachers do take advantage of having days off, but we do have families that require our attention, too. If there are no subs already in the building, they have to pay a sub for a half-day, not just the two hours that we need to be gone.
ScienceTeacher671
November 29th, 2009
12:05 pm
When I worked in the private sector, I got paid maternity leave – and it wasn’t based on years of employment, either.
Maureen Downey
November 29th, 2009
12:12 pm
Because the U.S. Congress is debating a mandated sick day law in response to the Swine flu threat, there was testimony last week on the issue.
Nearly 40 percent of private sector workers have no paid sick leave, including 78 percent of hotel workers and 85 percent of food service workers. All told, 50 million American workers have no paid sick time at their jobs.
In one study, 68 percent of employees without paid sick time reported that they have come to work ill.
Maureen
Philosopher
November 29th, 2009
12:16 pm
In the private sector, maternity leave is only paid through sick, vacation days and short term disability insurance, do teachers not have these benefits?
Philosopher
November 29th, 2009
12:17 pm
sick days…correction
Maureen Downey
November 29th, 2009
12:21 pm
I neglected to post the link to the federal School Improvement Program that lists teacher attendance as part of the evaluation process for stimulus funds. For those who are interested:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2009-3/082609d.pdf
Maureen
DigALittleDeeper
November 29th, 2009
12:23 pm
Some of you are just making up excuses for the excessive absentees. There are rules and consequences in place for students who are absent excessively. There should be consequences for teachers who abuse the system and cause harm to students like my daughter, who has only been absent approximately 6 times in the last 10 years. I make sure she dresses appropriately and eats healthy. I do not send her to school sick or hungry. She doesn’t get into trouble and makes ‘A’’s and B’s. If the teacher is absent excessively, it hurts my childs education.
I’m a parent and I work 5 days a week, with 7 sick days and 3 weeks vacation(earned over the years). If I’m absent excessively, I will be fired. I do not have a sub to take my place when I am absent, so my work accumulates when I’m out sick or on vacation. There are usually emails and phone calls to respond too as well. I’ve usually missed meetings and have to cath up. I work on a team and I have a specific job to perform that only I am responsible for completing. If I am not there, my teammates catch attitudes and rightfully so. They can’t complete projects, unless my part has been completed. We are responsible for projects internally and externally (customers). Which means we don’t make money, if the customer is unhappy. I’ve learned over the years that our customers do not care if I am sick or dying, they expect deadlines to be met and our service to be rendered if my daughter is out sick or I am in bed dying. I’ve brought workhome on many occassions, including this holiday.
The only thing I have seen in response to this topic are excuses and finger pointing. You people can get no sympathy from this hard working parent. I have a job to perform or I might be one of the unfortunate unemployeed people in this economy.
Germy
November 29th, 2009
12:30 pm
I missed 4 days this year from teaching. The next time I get swine flu would you rather I taught and shared it with your children?
Paula
November 29th, 2009
12:37 pm
Why not have all of the training sessions over the summer break (or other breaks)?
Or switch to paid time off (PTO) instead of sick time? Semanitcs, but it seems like everyone is having heartache over the use of sick time for anything other than “teacher-is-sick-in-bed” time.
Annually, pay an equivalent salary rate for accrued PTO in excess of 20 days so we minimize liabilities on the books. I’d think it’s easier to budget for this than to have lots of teachers with 2 years of sick time accrued. It’s also a more immediate incentive.
Eliminate pensions and go to a 401k/403b instead. This way you can pay them more now instead of waiting until. If they start at 25 years old, working 20-25 years could allow them to retire as early as 50, and then they live to be 85 so we’re paying out 35 years of pension and health benefits. Ridiculous.
Side note — the rest of the world has to use sick time/PTO for maternity leave and sick children, too.
ScienceTeacher671
November 29th, 2009
12:38 pm
When I worked in the private sector, hourly workers did not have sick leave, but salaried workers did, and that is probably still the case in that particular industry, but I can’t say for certain.
@philosopher, teachers don’t get vacation days. They are paid for 190 days of employment (less this year with furlough days). There is the “joke” that smart teachers schedule their pregnancies so they’ll deliver in early June, but nature doesn’t always cooperate with that. Sick days can be used for maternity leave, depending upon how many you have built up. As someone already commented, pregnant teachers have to use some of their sick days for the monthly & then weekly obstetrician appts, because most doctors won’t schedule late in the day and schools won’t let you use “comp time” since the students’ schedule isn’t variable. Short term disability may be an option in some counties but (at least when I was worried about it) wasn’t an option where I worked.
Harris Schnall
November 29th, 2009
12:44 pm
How about looking at the reasons teachers are absent. They are stressed out and often become ill from the abuse they take from principals. http://www.whenteacherstalk.com
Stop Blaming Teachers
November 29th, 2009
12:50 pm
I taught for five years at the secondary level, and rarely took off for being sick. Anyone who has taught a day knows that it is way more of a headache to be absent from school (some substitutes are totally incompetent) than go to school sick. However, I am a single female so I could do this. Most of my colleagues took off to take care of loved ones, or in one case the fabulous English teacher next door to me (one of the best in the school) took off periodically as ordered by her doctor to keep her blood pressure low. As some mentioned, the stress of teaching can be overwhelming.
Georgia doesn’t have unions – stop spreading those lies. But GA is frequently ranked in lower 48th in anything related to education. In this “right to work state,” who is to blame now? Subject of another thread.
@irisheyes, teachers probably have 30+ days of sick leave because in many states maternity can only be taken as part of sick leave. Personally it has always disgusted me that having a child is equivalent to being sick, but that is an indication of our morals in this country. After all, the people that spend the most time with our children are constantly berated and get paid the least while those who produce imaginary products that help no one are billionaires and exalted by society. . . but that also is the subject of thread.
seriously, teaching is a very difficult profession and in general the public is completely ignorant to what happens in schools. Yes it is rewarding, but teachers are not robots, despite adminstration’s best efforts to make them so. Teachers get sick, move, and OMG even have family members who choose to die, get married, or graduate in months other than the summer. Those on the post who are overly concerned with how many days teachers take off should volunteer at their child’s or neighborhood school. That will do way more towards improving education than anything else.
Stop Blaming Teachers
November 29th, 2009
12:51 pm
@irisheyes
sorry didn’t read your entire post. you are on the side of sense
Philosopher
November 29th, 2009
12:56 pm
@Germy…No one here is saying teachers shoud go to work while running fevers or while truly too sick to work…the complaints are about unwarranted absences.
Also, for the record, some good infection control practices would really help you guys out. Teaching kids NOT to sneeze into their hands would be a huge deterrent to you catching illnesses but I see teachers doing it all the time. Bathrooms with hands-free facilities would make tremendous strides into keeping all of you well-(get involved in the building and renovation processes). Handsanitizer available as the kids walk out of the bathrooms is simple and cheap and smart! Put your school nurse to work!…a school nurse who educates and reinforces would be a really big help. Schools are germ heavens and education could make all the difference.
As for bladder and kidney infections…you teachers are not the only ones at risk..With 3 to 5 minutes between classes, a girl cannot get to the bathroom and her locker. Sometimes my daughter goes 9 hours a day without a bathroom break. Her teachers attitude is, “well, we can’t go, either”. Wonderful!!!
Harris Schnall
November 29th, 2009
12:59 pm
Survey results from research….Godldenring Publishing, LLC, 2009 http://www.whenteacherstalk.com
“I have used and/or know other teachers who have used one or more sick days, commonly known as ‘mental health days,’ because of principal-related stress (i.e. problems created by the principal directly, or ones that the principal should have been correcting but was not.”) .True 81% (403)
False 9% (97)
Been There. . . Done, well. . . just done!
November 29th, 2009
1:00 pm
Previous bloggers have addressed the workshops & the “feel-good” sessions of – and I love this comment – days out for attending a professional outing on the “cure du jour,” so I ask this question: is Secretary Duncan REALLY looking at this sub-category of days out, or just making a blanket generalization teacher absences?! If they look CLOSER at teacher absences, I (along with other former/current teachers) would INSIST they remove these days from the analysis! Having noted some remarks about Cobb County’s habit of sending educators to workshops touting the “cure du jour,” I’d also like to address the 2-3 days teachers MAY be out, on average, for dealing with administrative beat-downs (figurative and literal). Yes, knowing about such dictators as Bynum (both, for that matter) as well as other admins. who treat their position as a medieval kingdom where THEIR rule matters, & how THEIR interpretation of how he/she (some of both genders of this type still abound in that district) applies the rules is, of course, THE best way to do it. One educator with whom I talk regularly scheduled a sick day on a Friday one week just after an admin. COMBINED two written behavior referrals on a student in this person’s class into ONE for the purpose (of course, it wasn’t stated this way) of making sure DOUBLE the out-of-school-suspension time was only counted once. Forget the fact this was a “repeat offender” behavior – the two completely different infractions were treated as one! While this may make logistical sense to those not familiar with the workings of any school where behaviorally-challenged students are more prevalent than in other squeaky-clean suburban schools (or in any school, PERIOD), doing this for a “repeater” who gives others (teachers AND students) more problems than any one, normal, school should have to handle is similar to taking a harpoon & gouging the wobbly bubble of teacher morale and synergistic relationships with administrators! If what I’d discussed with this friend is as prevalent as other bloggers’ have noted in replies to other articles, then no wonder some schools deal with higher teacher absence than others! What COULD make a difference here?! Sound administrators who address it with realistic, insightful approaches (and NOT the superficial “touchy-feely”, “let’s hold hands and sing a song together” wastes of time!; yes, THOSE types are in Cobb as well!) to make their site’s environment more enjoyable to the staff as a whole.
One tired American teacher
November 29th, 2009
1:02 pm
I agree with those who say check the days teachers are out for professional learning and collaborative training. Many teachers I know come to school sick or spend the night before their absence trying to find a sub(between nausea or worse). We actually had an assistant superintendent in our system offer we give up our sick days or face having to use our planning time to teach classes for absent colleagues. By the way, that person has never taught in a real classroom. How do these morons ever get into central offices? Until the politicians and the non-eductors who elect these people ever spend a day in our shoes, will they ever understand what we endure. Better yet stop letting Sonny Perdue and the Republican power base use public school teachers as scapegoats for their private school vouchure constitutents. Pay us what we are worth and stop blaming us for lousy parenting and shoody political policy.
You want stress?????
November 29th, 2009
1:02 pm
Enuff about how stressful teaching is. Stress is a minimum wage at a Walmart with no health care. Stress is having two jobs because the factory closed and now you’re deliving pizza at night and cleaning houses in day day. Stress is watching your company layoff two-thirds of the employees and cut your pay by half. I show up every day not knowing if the doors to my compnay are going to be locked and an out of business sign posted. No sick time for me. If I’m sick, I am docked my pay.
Please, no more about how stressful teaching is. You have no idea what the rest of the country is dealing with. You sound like a bunch of whiners.
Been There. . . Done, well. . . just done!
November 29th, 2009
1:10 pm
All right, “You want stress?????”: I despise the calling out of others in a blog (publicly), but I have to address your comments: your situation IS definitely the tragedy of the last 8+ years of this economy grinding down & the U.S. as a whole having to re-work some things – I absolutely hate what has happened to you and others in a similar situation (I JUST recently got a job after lengthly out-of-work time); HOWEVER, the majority of these responses address something Maureen brought up due to – in my humble opinion – a blanket generalization made by a politician on a topic needing DEEPER analysis (something politicians, in general, may be afraid to do). Teaching in Georgia (& other Deep South states) is NOT protected by unions like the UAW, IBEW, etc., the way some professions in the corporate world have been. Does this mean teachers think they’re worse off than everyone else? ABSOLUTELY not – the point is answering why it happens AND how will school districts address it, without branding every absent teacher a “drain on the system”. Besides, you don’t see many (if any at all) responses here blasting individuals who talk about blue-collar positions being eliminated, do you?! I don’t think so. A suggestion would be to re-phrase some of those comments and STOP blasting the general group of teachers!
kenneth
November 29th, 2009
1:24 pm
Enter your comments here
irisheyes
November 29th, 2009
1:27 pm
@Philosopher, speaking of infection control practices, I do have hand sanitizer and kleenex in my room. Of course, guess who provides hand sanitzer for 20+ kids for the entire year? Oh yeah, that’s right. Me. Thankfully, I got kleenex from most of my kids as that was an item on their supply list, but I know that’s also an issue with a lot of people. They don’t want to send it in, thinking the school should supply it. My system doesn’t, so if the parents don’t send it in, I have to buy it. If attendance is going to be included in NCLB, then my system better start buying me all of the items I need to ensure that I can keep germs to a minimum in my room. And, I do teach my kids to sneeze into their arms, but if you’ve been around kids for more than 10 minutes, you know they don’t always remember. I’ve had kids sneeze onto their papers just before they hand them to me. Gross.
kenneth
November 29th, 2009
1:33 pm
Maureen….unless something has changed that I am not aware of, if you get personal days and sick leave then you should be able to take them at your own discretion. My wife is a teacher and she goes in even when she feels sick but if she needs to take a day then she takes a day. Why don’t you write a story about what the real problem is?
The real problem is that we live in a society who expects the government to do everything for them. You don’t have to feed your kid breakfast or lunch because the schools will do it. There is daycare before and after school and all the parents have to do is pick their kid up at some point and take them home and help them with there homework and put them to bed and some of them can’t even do that.
English, Math, and other scores will go up when moms and dads will take time to read to their kids and be involved in there lives. So get over all these fluffy stories about teacher abscences and people bringing Bibles to kids. Maybe you should take a personal day and give us all a break.
RJ
November 29th, 2009
1:40 pm
@Real, there are no “unions” in Georgia. They are simply professional organizations. This is a right to work state. Teachers are terminated often for various reasons. So are administrators. This is why I don’t belong to any of them.
I invite any parent to come into my classroom and witness what I deal with daily. Those that have are amazed. Also, we are payed for 10 months, not 9. Holiday breaks during the school year are payed, at least in the 3 school systems in which I’ve worked.
Teachers are often required to attend training during the school day. In most schoools it is frowned upon to take days off outside of the 3 personal days. I always have a doctor’s excuse when I’m absent. I don’t take “mental health” days. It’s important that I’m at work every day. I have known teachers to sign up for every professional development class offered and the principal signed off on it. The problem really lies with those that schedule these courses during the school day. Also, I spend my summers taking classes necessary for renewing my certification. This is always on my dime. It would be wonderful to have my education payed for like it’s done in the private sector. I’ve had many friends get advanced degrees on their employers dime. We don’t have that luxury.
@Elaine, teachers may be paid for having more degrees, but that also comes at a price. Most teachers I know with several advanced degrees are in debt up to their eyeballs! They owe $100K, which they’ll never earn unless they become an administrator. This is why I stopped at my masters. I refuse to still be paying student loans when I’m 80! Sure, the pay isn’t great, but it surely isn’t equal to what someone in the private sector would be paid. Imagine working for a Fortune 500 company, managing 150 people. Do you really think after say 15 years of working in this position you would only be paid $65K? Of course that’s only if you have at least one advanced degree. If not, you make less than $60K. I wouldn’t call that a great salary. Even for only 10 months of work. I don’t do this job for the time off, I do it because I enjoy it. But I’m not foolish enough to think that I’m well paid. I’ve never seen my husband spend a dime to do his job…oh, he does buy gas to get to work! Does that count?!
BlondeHoney
November 29th, 2009
1:40 pm
Hmmm….I work in the private sector (NYSE symbol T) and my company does not, nor ever had in the 29 years I have been with them, sick days. Don’t know what that is. Every absence, unless it is covered by FMLA, is a summarized absence and the employee is subject to disciplinary action no matter who that employee is; because of that, abuse of sick time is minimal. We can use vacation days when we are sick so our attendance doesn’t suffer; inthat respect, teachers should be thanking their lucky stars that they DO have sick days. Having said that, I believe the root cause of the problem is that teacher’s vacation time is dictated by the school calendar and there is NO room for the type of flexibility that I have of using a vacation day when sick. Also, in EVERY profession there are people who abuse sick time. Those are the people who need to be addressed by disciplinary action, up to termination as we do in my company, no matter what sector, public or private.
EducationCEO
November 29th, 2009
1:47 pm
All I can say is: What the hell? This probablywon’t get published because of the profane word, but, I agree: This sickens me. Why don’t you do a story on teachers’ viewpoint on why they just cannnot get out of the bed some days? It may be a day they dont feel like getting cursed out or belittled by administration in front of their students annd colleagues….or maybe, just maybe, the thought of working under someone is too incompetent to be an administrator has taken its toll on the teachers. Just a thought. And BTW, parents in the classroom as volunteers to cover classes? Oh HTTN! If teachers have to be certified, then so to do parent substitutes! This is absurd!
Northview (Ex) Teacher
November 29th, 2009
1:48 pm
When I left teaching, I never wanted to miss school unless it was absolutely necessary. One morning when I had the stomach flu, I drove to school to make sure that my sub plans were available before driving myself to the emergency clinic. I think that most teachers, in their heart of hearts, would do the same. When I left teaching, I had more than 500 hours of sick time, for which I received nothing.
All this talk about teachers abusing the system strikes me as incredibly one-sided. Please remember that Georgia broke contracts with teachers this year. Teachers agreed to work for a certain sum, and Sonny and the rest of the moron republicans broke the deal. They don’t care about education of children at all, so that leaves teachers in the unfortunate position of needing to get their attention.
I encourage all teachers to take enough sick days this year to make up for the loss of income through Purdue’s so-called furloughs (of course, he would never dare to call a pay cut a pay cut). If every teacher would take enough sick days to make back more than twice than the pay cut, it would get the attention of the tobacco-chewing rednecks that run this state. I have encouraged every teacher I know to take this tactic, and several are doing so. I know that it is passive-aggressive, but teachers in Georgia have few alternatives.
If the State wants to pay less, then the State should get less. This whole idea of more for less comes from the plantation mentality that good-old-boys like Sonny Purdue think is the way things ought to be run down here in Dixie. I wonder how much the loathsome and despicable Ashley Widener would whine if teachers cost her more money than her stupid ideas cost teachers.
Get uppity, teachers! Make them pay.
BlondeHoney
November 29th, 2009
1:49 pm
Blog monster ate my post Maureen