When Is The Deadline To Make Changes

Teachers can make changes to their TRS enrollment status up until 8/31. Schools will often set deadlines before this to prevent a rush of paperwork. However, you can still work with your benefit administrator up until 8/31 deadline. You can use this form to document your changes and make life a little easier on your benefit administrator.

It’s important to note that you can drop family members from your TRS plan at any time, but you’ll want to make sure they have a qualifying reason within 60 days to enroll in a non-TRS plan. Family members currently on TRS will qualify since their TRS plan is technically ending 8/22. Check out other qualifying events or send us an email and we can help.

Attract The Best Employees

In the current market, the most qualified substitute talent will be more likely to work at districts which offer top wages and benefits. Despite the significant expenditure, quality staffing has an expected return on investment, since personnel forms the foundation for your schools and their mission.

Health Insurance For Substitute Teachers

Substitute teachers are crucial to ensure our classrooms can continue to educate students when a teacher is ill, out on vacation, or otherwise unavailable to teach their students. But do substitute teachers get health insurance? Rarely. If you work as a sub and need medical insurance coverage, contact us for the most affordable plans available.

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Employment Insurance And Teachers

Important notice for teachers and support staff

You will not be issued a 16-digit reference code. Please complete your application without using a reference code.

If you are a teacher you may be paid Employment Insurance benefits. However, because of contractual arrangements in the teaching profession there are some variations to the EI rules. This means that:

• if you are a teacher under a continuing contract in pre-elementary, elementary, intermediate, secondary, including technical and vocational schools, you cannot be paid regular benefits during non-teaching periods, even though you are unemployed, unless your contract ends. However, you may be paid maternity, parental, compassionate care, the Family caregiver benefit for children or the Family caregiver benefit for adults
• if you are a teacher above the secondary school levelat universities, community colleges and CEGEPsthe same rules for regular benefits will apply as other claimants
• if you are a casual or substitute teacher you can be paid regular benefits during non-teaching periods

Can Substitute Teachers Get Health Insurance

• Asked June 10, 2014 in

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What School Districts Need To Know About The Affordable Care Act And Substitutes

Its official: the new healthcare reform is not going away. Not only was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act upheld by the Supreme Court last spring, but the IRS also released the regulations with some rules specifically for educational organizations like school districts.

The preparations are beginning now for many school districts who are realizing the far-reaching effects of the mandate on part-time employees including substitute teachers.

Keep reading to learn some of the key points of the Affordable Care Act and why now is a crucial time to prepare.

Disclaimer

Frontline Technologies does not provide tax or legal advice. The regulations are constantly changing and we encourage you to consult your tax or legal counsel for advice specific to your district.

Childcare Reimbursement & Workshops

Some benefits are more unusual, but appealing nonetheless. Things like a free lunch from the school cafeteria or reimbursement of transportation expenses offer financial incentives to substitute teachers. Onsite childcare provides convenience for those with very young children. Tuition reimbursement or inclusion in district-wide workshops encourages substitutes to build their professional credentials. And employee discount programs offer the added financial bonus of cost savings on goods and services.

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Substitute Educators Meet A Vital Need

As a substitute educator you know you face one of the most challenging jobs in education today. You are expected to step into an unknown class, often in an unknown building, on very short notice, and pick up ongoing lessons without the benefit of knowing exactly where a teacher left off or what material students have already covered.

Districts expect you to arrive prepared and professional. Students hope that lessons will be interesting and fun. And as an outsider to this particular class, you’ll need savvy classroom management skills to successfully motivate students.

It’s a tall order, and often you’re expected to deliver without the professional support given to full-time teachers through district programs and courses. As a result, substitute educators face key issues that include:

• Professional wages, including increases to offset inflation.
• Due process involving workplace discipline and personnel decisions.
• Access to training and professional development.
• Adequate health insurance when working a long-term or high-frequency schedule.
• Better communication with a school’s permanent staff.

Clark County Substitute Teachers Pursue Better Pay Benefits

Starting pay of $90 per day, or about $12.50 an hour, is not a living wage, they say after being left out of pay raises given to teachers and other staff last year.

Facing a Monday deadline for semester grades, Clark County teachers like Fernando Valenzuela have been spending big chunks of their winter break grading final papers and exams. But as a long-term substitute teacher, Valenzuela wont be paid for the work he put in over the last two weeks.

Valenzuela says the lack of holiday pay is just one shortcoming of working for the Clark County School District, arguing that he and his fellow substitutes perform the same duties as full-time classroom teachers, but for less pay and without benefits like health insurance.

He recently presented these concerns at a School Board meeting and launched an online petition in an effort to rally support for changes, including a pay raise for substitute teachers. While full-time teachers, administrators and staff at CCSD received 3 percent raises last year under a contract that also included provisions for additional pay hikes, substitute teachers note they havent seen one in more than a decade.

4,500 substitutes

District officials said long-term substitute teachers are currently filling 664 teacher vacancies but did not respond to an interview request sent Friday about substitutes scheduling and pay.

Cheyenne said she sees teacher shortages and overworked substitutes as national issues that go hand-in-hand.

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Student Instruction Time Preserved

FSSD Director of Schools David Snowden said the new partnership will help the district become more efficient in the process to fill teacher absences.

“If this doesn’t work, we won’t continue,” Snowden said.

“But you can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect different results,” he said. “We have learned over the past few years that we just couldn’t fill the number of sub positions that we needed.”

Snowden said one absence could greatly hinder students’ instructional time.

“Paraprofessionals were being pulled from their instructional responsibilities to take over as substitute teachers, and teachers were having to double up in classrooms. The instruction would not be the same quality because of the number of children in the classroom.

“We needed to change so that this did not interrupt our high quality of instruction.”

Snowden said he is not sure if the benefit of insurance will make the sub positions at FSSD more attractive, but he is hopeful that with the help of StaffEZ, more subs will be available.

“We dont know for sure If having the opportunity to secure health insurance will help recruit and retain substitutes, but it is a benefit that was not offered prior to our partnership with StaffEZ,” Snowden said.

“We are optimistic that the benefit will increase the pool of subs.”

What Can I Do

We’d love to help you! We’ve designed a first-of-its-kind website just for teachers that allows you to compare all of your options – TRS and private plans in your area – side by side. We’ll even factor in your district’s contribution amount, help you search for your doctors and prescriptions, and make it really simple to figure out which plans or combination of plans will provide the best coverage for you and your family. We don’t charge any fees for the use of our teacher site and our advice is data-driven and objective.

We think teachers deserve better!

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What If A Student Is Bad For A Substitute

You Got a Bad Sub Report.Now What?

• Write letters of apology.
• Dont wait for an absence to lay out your expectations.
• But dont feel like you had to give a disclaimer in order to give a consequence.
• Get the parents involved.
• Suss out the main perpetrators with student statements.
• Names matter!
• Focus on the positive.

Healthcare & Emergency Coverage

The most sought after benefits include healthcare insurance and a retirement savings plan, but compensation packages may also include prescription drug coverage, life insurance, and a short term disability plan. In some cases, employee assistance plans offer interventions for personal or work-related problems.

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Do Substitutes Get Insurance

Yes and no. Some substitute teachers draw ZERO benefits. These unions have been able to attain a myrid of benefits for their substitute teachers. Benefits such as the accumulation of sick time, the right to consult legal counsel, and the opportunity to receive health, dental, and vision insurance.

Substitute Teachers In School Districts: How To Handle The Ppaca Mandate To Offer Health Insurance To Employees Working 30 Hours Per Week

A major ACA mandate that will affects schools districts nationwide is the requirement for large employers to provide health coverage to all full-time employees. In the eyes of the new law, all employees who work at least 30 hours per week for more than 120 days per year are considered full-time.

This mandate concerns school districts in particular because most employ substitute teachers, many of whom are not currently offered health insurance. Employers who do not offer these employees coverage should direct their attention to the ACA requirement and work to create a compliance plan.

Please note that if you employ fewer than 50 full-time workers, as defined by the ACA, the mandate doesnt apply to your organization and there is no need to worry about this requirement.

What action should you take and when?The deadline for compliance is January 1, 2014 and the obligation to offer coverage begins 90 days after a full-time employees hire date. UPDATE: The date has been postponed to January 1, 2015.

The first step to addressing the mandate is calculating how many hours your substitute teachers work each week to determine whether they qualify as full-time employees, as defined by the ACA .If you find that the substitute employees typically work fewer than 30 hours per week, you may consider putting requirements in place to ensure that this standard is maintained.

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Retired Teacher Health Insurance

Often public health insurance for retired teachers is not sufficient to cover their medical costs. In fact, many states do not even have a sufficient plan to cover the health costs of retired teachers. Thats why at American HealthPro, we provide a dependable teacher retirement insurance program that will end your post-retirement worries for good.

Whether youre looking for medical coverage, vision, or dental insurance for retired teachers, We can help. Contact American HealthPro today for a quote.

How Long Does It Take To Get A Teaching Certificate In Ny

Like most states, New York requires that all state teachers hold a bachelor’s degree, complete a New York teacher certification program, and pass the required content examinations. Upon meeting the requirements for certification, an applicant may be issued an initial certificate, which is valid for five years.

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Uncertified Teacher Subs Entitled To Full Benefits Doe Settles Uft Grievance

• Save

Long-term uncertified substitute Teachers will now be paid onthe regular Teacher payroll, giving them full health insurance andwelfare benefits, after a lengthy crusade by the United Federationof Teachers.

The UFT estimates that hundreds of substitutes will benefit fromthe grievance victory, which could in some circumstances includeretroactive payments as well. UFT Grievance Director Howard Solomondescribed the provisions of the victory as a”double wi” on theunion Web site.

Alleged Pact Violation

The Department of Education in September 2005 decided to switchlong-term uncertified substitutes to”” status, paying them asper-diem workers, which was in violation of thecollective-bargaining agreement. The UFT filed a grievance againstthe DOE in Nov. 2006, while many individual grievances were alsofiled.

The DOE decided to settle the case this summer, but the UFTwaited until the start of the school year in September to begin a90-day period in which it could identify the claimants in the caseand make them known to the DOE.

Mr. Solomon said that the UFT was now on the hunt foruncertified substitutes who were covered by the grievance.”Webelieve it’s hundreds. There’s probably a lot more out there thatwe don’t know about, that aren’t even aware that they’re entitled”he said.”We’re trying to get them to come forward”

Change in Payroll Status

Working While Receiving Benefits

Under the EI Act, if you work and receive regular benefits at the same time, you are entitled to earn a certain amount without having your benefits reduced. You can usually earn up to $50 per week or 25% of your weekly benefit, whichever is higher. Any money earned above that amount will be deducted dollar for dollar from your benefits.

However, since August 12, 2018, a Working While on Claim pilot project is in place which changes the way earnings you receive while on claim affect your weekly EI benefits.

Under this pilot project, once you have served the waiting period, if your earnings are equal to or less than 90% of your weekly earnings that were used to calculate your benefit rate, your benefits will be reduced at a rate of 50% of your earnings. Any earnings that exceed this 90% threshold will be deducted dollar for dollar from your benefits.

Under a previous WWC pilot project, if claimants earned less than $75 or 40 per cent of their weekly EI benefits, whichever was greater, their benefits were not reduced. However, benefits were reduced by every dollar earned above this threshold.

As of August 7, 2016, the option to revert to the previous measures is available to all claimants.

The option to revert to the previous pilot project does not apply to Self-Employment Benefits.

If you are working more than one to two days a week and there is the possibility that you may work more, then the current WWC pilot project may be more beneficial for you.

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Example: Why Trs Isn’t Always The Best For Teachers

Let’s look at an example and run a few simple numbers. Below are the TRS premiums offered for the 2018-2019 school year, straight from the TRS Activecare website and brochure:

These are the gross monthly costs before any contributions from the state or from your school district. This year, the average contribution a teacher will receive is $225/mo for the teacher only. Typically, there is no additional contribution for a spouse or family. Your district may contribute a little more or less, but we’ll use the average $225 for this example.

For a single teacher looking at ActiveCare 1-HD, he or she can expect to pay $367 – $225 = $142/mo. Not bad!

But what if the teacher is married and wants to add his or her spouse on the same plan? The “Employee and Spouse” premium for ActiveCare 1-HD is $1035 – $225 = $810/mo. That’s $668 more each month just to add a spouse!

Similarly for a family of 3 , the “Employee and Family” premium for of ActiveCare 1-HD would be $1,374 – $225 = $1,149/mo for a family of 3. That’s more than $1,000/mo more just to add a spouse and a kid. Sure, health insurance has gotten expensive, but that is insane!

What if instead of adding a spouse and/or children to TRS, you put them on a private plan? The answer is your family could save a lot of money AND get better coverage.

Similarly, our family could find great coverage for the spouse and child for $400-500/mo total instead of an outrageous $1,374/mo on TRS.

Four Benefits Of Being A Long

There are many reasons a school might be seeking a long-term substitute teacher. Maybe they do not have enough teachers, and they need someone to fill-in until they can hire a permanent teacher. Maybe an extended illness has caused a teacher to take several weeks off. Perhaps, the permanent teacher is on maternity leave. No matter the reason for the schools need for a long-term substitute teacher, the idea of being a long-term sub can be intimidating for some people. Fortunately, there are at least four benefits of being a long-term substitute teacher.

Experience

If you have a teaching degree or are working toward one, the experience gained working as a long-term sub can be especially valuable. Often you will create lesson plans, establish your own behavior rules, and gain teaching experience that you would not get from working in a different classroom every day. This will help you better understand how you want to handle things in your own classroom. It can be an especially valuable experience if you are subbing in a classroom where you are teaching the grade level or subject you hope to one day teach.

Relationships

Increased Pay

Long-term substitute teachers generally need to create lesson plans, grade papers, and do other tasks that short-term subs only do on a limited level. Because of this, long-term substitute teachers are often paid more per day.

No Need to Search for a New Job Daily

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