Know Your Rights: Preparing for Next School Year!
The end of the school year is when many discussions and plans are made for the following school year. Here are a few contractual rights for SDEA members to keep in mind during those conversations and decisions at each school site, and resources to help enforce our rights!
You have a right to participate in important decisions.
SDEA members have a powerful and unique right to have a voice in the decisions that impact their working conditions through Site Governance Teams (SGTs). SGTs empower educators to collaborate with their entire school community to make decisions like schedules, instructional changes, before and after school programming, and more.
You have a right to site plans that include your voice.
The SDEA Contract says that within ten days of reporting to work at the beginning of the year, members should be given a copy of the existing School Safety Plan and Site Restorative Discipline Plan. Starting the year with everyone on the same page prepares school communities for emergencies and for effective collaboration on student discipline, and because you have a union, you get to have a voice in the decisions about those plans!
The School Safety Plan should be developed by your supervisor with the input of unit members, and the Site Restorative Discipline Plan should be reviewed annually and developed with the Site Governance Team.
- Read more about the right to School Safety Plans in 11.6 and the right to Restorative Discipline Plans in 11.7.
- Did you know there’s a state law that requires lockdown drills to be more trauma-informed? Since California passed AB 1858, schools should not be doing surprise lockdown drills.
- Know Your Rights: Restorative Justice
- Know Your Rights: Student Discipline
- Know Your Rights: Shared Decision-Making
You have a right to preparation time.
To effectively do your job as an educator, you need time to prepare! Our union contract outlines our rights to prep time, in your daily schedule, and also during non-instructional days at the beginning and end of the school year. Every unit member has the right to prep time – that includes prep time teachers, non-classroom teachers, and even Visiting Teachers! Your prep time is protected so you can use it to actually prepare. While any unit member can be asked to cover a class in an emergency, that coverage needs to be equitable and is paid if you cover more than one hour in a school year.
As your school discusses next year’s schedule, schedule decisions must respect the rights of all members. That’s why elementary schools should have a Preparation Time and Enrichment Advisory Committee (PTEAC) to collaborate on an equitable schedule.
- Modified days need to be protected for prep, especially before report cards are due – check out Section 8.6.6.!
- Know Your Rights: Preparation Days
- Know Your Rights: Secondary Preparation Time
- Know Your Rights: Elementary Preparation Time
- FAQs re: Elementary Prep Time
- Know Your Rights: Class Coverage
- Know Your Rights: Visiting Teachers
You have a right to bathroom breaks.
This has always been a basic worker right, but our recently ratified contract clarified that each school is now required to create a plan for emergency student supervision coverage when educators need to use the restroom. (This means that violations are enforceable under the grievance procedure instead of filing a Labor Code complaint!)
- Check out the newly added 8.9.3!
You have a right to a reasonable number of meetings.
As plans for next year start to fill up calendars, remember that you have a contractual right to a reasonable number of meetings within the “balance of the 40-hour work week” (your work time that is not instructional time.) The SDEA contract also sets limits on IEP scheduling to balance educators’ time with family needs. Additionally, our newest contract says that staff needs to get a full-year meeting schedule by September 30th, with reasonable notice for changes and exceptions for prior commitments.
- Check out the newly added 8.5.3.2.!
- Know Your Rights: Limits on Meetings
- Know Your Rights: IEP Meetings
You have a right to elect your union representatives.
Our union is a democracy, which means YOU decide who represents you! Union Representatives represent members when issues come up, but the primary duty of a union representative is that of connection. Reps help unify and organize SDEA members within their site and program, and they help connect their site or program to bigger picture solidarity across our large union.
Each year, sites and programs elect Association Representatives, Council Representatives, and Alternates, depending on the size of the site. SDEA members recently elected officers and board members, and there is a Run-Off Election coming up for several positions (including President and Vice President.) To keep elections fair, they are run by someone not running.
- Know Your Rights: Union Representation
- Flowchart: What do I do if I have an issue at work?
- AR/CR/Alternate site election materials are available for download to elect next year’s reps this April
- For the Run-Off Election, Members will get electronic ballots through Simply Voting to vote Mon., April 13 – Fri., April 17. See full timeline, details, and a voter guide.
- See SDEA’s Standing Rules and other Governance Documents.
See lots more resources about your rights on SDEA’s Contract Resources page, and about how our newly ratified contract has changed on the 2025-2027 Contract Resources Page.
