Teachers: evaluation, autonomy and the one-year cap out of the classroom

This is the list of rights the Department of Education must respect for whoever teaches in public school, and which the law itself requires be put in front of the teacher at three moments: published prominently and clearly on the agency’s website, distributed at the first meeting at the start of every school year, and included in the packet Human Resources gives new teachers. It is useful mainly for two things: naming by letter the right being breached, and knowing there are time caps where before there was only waiting.

Every public school teacher, whether permanent, transitory, probationary, substitute, by contract or professional services or any other category. Article 2 writes the broad scope on purpose and names those usually left off these lists: teachers, instructors, professors or guides teaching in alternative, adult or veterans programs, in correctional or penal institutions, or in pilot, special or innovative Department of Education projects. There is nothing to apply for and nowhere to register: the rights apply by law. Article 4 extends the obligations beyond the Department of Education: it also reaches other public agencies and instrumentalities where public school teachers work.

• Being a public school teacher in any appointment or contracting category. The law requires no prior procedure for the rights to apply.Verified against the official source
• For reasonable accommodation: that the medical condition or disability have been timely reported and evidenced, under applicable regulations and laws.Verified against the official source

• The copy of the Bill of Rights the Department must give you: in the Human Resources packet if you are new, and distributed at the first meeting at the start of each school year.
• The evaluation notice. The law sets it to be notified on or before five (5) calendar days, with the results reported afterwards.

1. 1

   Step 1: The one-year cap on precautionary measures

   Item (dd) is the one that most changes a real situation. It recognizes the right to due process of law in every disciplinary proceeding the teacher is subjected to, and adds that the administration must take the precautionary measures necessary so their professional career is not affected without an adjudication against them and while appellate forums remain to review the administrative decision. And then it sets the limit, which is what to quote verbatim: this includes the right not to be isolated or temporarily transferred from the job as a precautionary measure for a term exceeding one (1) calendar year. If you have been out of the classroom more than a year over an unfinished investigation, that is the item.

2. 2

   Step 2: Mediation before the complaint

   Item (ee) creates a step many people do not know exists: that a mediation process be guaranteed when the intention to file a complaint against the teacher arises, creating a Mediation Committee among the teacher, the principal and/or immediate supervisor, union representation — if the teacher so requests — and the complaining party. The law sets one condition: provided this poses no potential risk to students’ rights and physical and moral integrity. Note the moment: the right arises when the intention to file the complaint arises, not after it is filed. And note that union representation enters if you ask for it.

3. 3

   Step 3: The evaluation and its five days

   Item (j) recognizes the right to be evaluated objectively, impartially and fairly, with the evaluation notified on or before five (5) calendar days and the results reported afterwards. They are two distinct moments and should not be confused: the five calendar days’ prior notice, and the communication of results after. Nearby lives another right of the same family, item (u): that the merit principle be respected in administrative human resources decisions, and that those principles and rules be clearly contained in the agency’s Personnel Regulation.

4. 4

   Step 4: Pedagogical autonomy, with its five faculties

   Item (i) is the article’s most detailed. It recognizes the right to have teaching staff’s pedagogical autonomy respected, with one general condition: provided they cover the course content and use ethical pedagogical methods and procedures within the legal, contractual and regulatory framework of the position they hold. And it lists five faculties. Adapting the course syllabus to their students’ sociocultural and geographic profile, after consulting it with their supervisors. Adopting the pedagogical methodology and/or procedures that, in their professional judgment, are most pertinent to the student and best spark their pupils’ interest and curiosity in the content to be taught. Modifying pedagogical strategies to give individualized attention to students with disabilities, according to the student’s performance level, specific learning problems, high-achieving students or those with special abilities. Organizing groups of pupils to carry out studies or special projects related to their courses. And using each curriculum map as a guide and not a rigid system, integrating books, teaching and learning strategy or methodology, provided federal funds are not put at risk. That last caveat is in the text and it is honest to know it.

5. 5

   Step 5: Safety, the building and the staff who must accompany you

   Four items cover the physical environment and backup. Item (c) recognizes the right to an institutional climate favorable to the educational process that offers safety and protects the physical, emotional and moral integrity of all members of the school community. Item (d) requires the building, the campus areas or the surroundings where you work to be free of architectural barriers preventing you from moving about, and the infrastructure to be kept in good condition so it poses no danger to physical integrity. Item (m) is the security staff one: that they be available and accessible to intervene in situations where a student’s conduct poses a danger to your physical, emotional or moral integrity, or to that of your pupils, coworkers or the school community, provided this does not conflict with students’ rights. And item (n) settles the difficult meeting: that your supervisors, social workers, counselors and/or any professional related to conduct and crisis management accompany you to meetings with parents, guardians, tutors or legal custodians when you believe this will help maintain a peaceful and rational dialogue; the law excepts the case of students with disabilities, which will follow federal provisions and applicable special laws.

6. 6

   Step 6: Materials, leave, pay and crises

   Item (w) requires that you be provided the work materials directly necessary to teach the course contents, and includes — without limitation — course books, notebooks, teacher’s guides, curriculum maps, standards and expectations for the grades and courses you teach, and the pedagogical and technological resources and materials necessary for the subject. Item (x) names the delay: that the delivery of teaching materials necessary for the teaching methodology not be capriciously, arbitrarily or unjustifiably delayed, including those for special and innovative projects. Item (o) is diligent pay for the work performed, per the parameters of the contract or the position or appointment. Item (t) is using the leave you are entitled to in a timely manner, per the Teaching Personnel Regulation and other applicable laws. And item (cc) addresses what happens when something breaks: that emergency mechanisms and protocols exist to handle emotional or traumatic crisis situations the teacher may suffer in performing their duties, which may include support from psychologists or trained health professionals, substitution of the teacher while the emergency is attended to, and mediation and restorative practice mechanisms.

7. 7

   Step 7: Reputation, civil liability and personnel complaints

   Item (aa) requires the Department to protect, reasonably and within the powers it exercises, the teacher’s reputation and honor against frivolous and unfounded attacks on their person or professional ethics — provided this poses no potential risk to the rights and physical and moral integrity of students and the school community — and includes two concrete agency duties: interviewing the teacher accused of improper, illegal or unethical action, and conducting diligent and timely investigations so informed and fair decisions can be made. Item (v) protects the wallet: not incurring personal civil liability for lawful acts or omissions performed as part of their functions, duties or responsibilities delegated to or inherent in School Council members; and the law clarifies what falls outside that protection: acts or omissions incurred outside the scope of those responsibilities, or that intentionally or negligently harm the physical, emotional or moral integrity of staff, students and their parents, guardians or legal custodians. And item (z) gives the route: raising complaints and appeals on personnel matters, and having them handled objectively, fairly and impartially by the Department’s Appeals Office or its equivalent, under applicable regulations.

8. 8

   Step 8: The interpretive rule, and its limit

   Article 7 says this law must be interpreted in the way most objective, clear and beneficial to the teacher, and that in case of conflict between its provisions and those of any other law, whichever proves more favorable to the teacher shall prevail. But it does not end there, and the second half must be known because it is what sets the limit: provided this poses no potential risk to students’ rights and physical and moral integrity, or conflicts with the State’s parens patriae duty for children’s wellbeing and safety, or with the hermeneutic rule contained in the Disability Bill of Rights and its application to students with disabilities, or with federal and local rights recognized to more vulnerable protected populations such as students with disabilities. That caveat reappears throughout the articles — in items (m), (n), (aa) and (ee) — and it is the text’s architecture: teachers’ rights are not read above students’.

9. 9

   Step 9: Where it must be published

   Article 5 is useful because it turns "I did not know it existed" into a verifiable breach. The regulations adopted, modified or amended, and the Bill of Rights itself, must be published prominently and clearly on the agency’s website, and additionally have a copy available at the Regional Educational Offices (OREs), as well as at the human resources office and the legal division and/or complaints office of the Department’s Central Level. The Bill shall be distributed at the first meeting at the start of every school year. And Article 6 adds: the Department must include a copy of this Bill in the packet of documents the Human Resources Division provides to new teachers as they prepare to begin work. Article 4 gave the Department and the other public agencies and instrumentalities where teachers work ninety (90) days from the law’s approval to adopt the regulations or make the necessary amendments; that term ran in 2021, so what is enforceable today is the result.

Before the Department of Education itself: item (z) gives the route of raising complaints and appeals on personnel matters and having them handled objectively, fairly and impartially by the Department’s Appeals Office or its equivalent, under applicable regulations. For the specific case of a complaint about to be filed against the teacher, item (ee) creates the Mediation Committee among the teacher, the principal and/or immediate supervisor, union representation if the teacher requests it, and the complaining party. Article 4 extends this law’s obligations to other public agencies and instrumentalities where public system teachers work. What we do not publish: the address, phone number or form of the Appeals Office, or the procedure and terms of a personnel complaint, because Act 160-2020 does not set them — it defers to applicable regulations — and we did not read those regulations.

• Accepting more than a year out of the classroom as a precautionary measure: item (dd) expressly prohibits it.
• Believing the bill only covers permanent teachers: Article 2 includes transitory, probationary, substitute and contract or professional services teachers.
• Not requesting the Mediation Committee when the intention to file a complaint against you arises.
• Not requesting union representation on that committee: the law includes it "if so requested".
• Going alone to a difficult parent meeting: item (n) entitles you to be accompanied by supervisors, social workers or counselors.
• Buying the course materials: item (w) requires that they be provided to you.
• Reading Article 7 for its first half only and learning the second when it is cited back at you.
• Citing the right without the letter: this bill is used by naming the item.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico

  Educación

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Department of Education

  DEPR

  de.pr.gov