Every teacher is entitled to a duty-free lunch and planning and preparation time. Except for a few minor changes made in the 1995 rewrite of the Texas Education Code, the statutes have essentially remained the same since enactment.

Duty-free lunch – Texas Education Code, Sec. 21.405
By law, each classroom teacher and full-time librarian gets at least a 30-minute lunch period “free from all duties and responsibilities connected with the instruction and supervision of students.” According to a Texas Attorney General opinion, the term “duty” would include a directive that teachers remain on campus during lunch, because it would relate to student instruction or supervision. Districts cannot require teachers to stay on campus during their 30-minute lunch even if the campus is “closed” for students.

The law provides exceptions—personnel shortages, extreme economic conditions or unavoidable/unforeseen circumstances—which give districts the right to require teachers to supervise lunches, but not more than one time per week.

The rules adopted by the commissioner of education set the bar very high before these exceptions apply. Scheduling problems do not create unforeseen circumstances. They exist when an epidemic, illness, or natural or man-made disaster leaves no one available to do the duty. An extreme economic condition exists when hiring a person to supervise lunch would cause the district to raise taxes to the extent that the district might face a tax roll-back election. A personnel shortage exists only after all available nonteaching personnel—superintendent and business manager included—have been assigned to the duty and the district has diligently recruited community volunteers to help.

Planning and preparation time – Texas Education Code, Sec. 21.404
The law entitles every teacher to planning and preparation time, during which the district can require the teacher to engage in no activity other than parent-teacher conferences, evaluating student work, and planning. Teachers must have at least 450 minutes of planning time every two weeks in increments of not less than 45 minutes within the instructional day.

Examples:

* A teacher could have five 90-minute conference periods within a two-week period, instead of a 45-minute conference period each day. A district can provide 50-minute blocks of planning time daily, and exceed the minimum requirement, but it could not provide 50 minutes one day and 40 minutes the next.
* A district cannot schedule a 7:45 a.m.-3:15 p.m. instructional day, and then give teachers 3:15 p.m.-4:00 p.m. to plan after the students leave.

Conference period cases often involve requirements for group planning or staff development during planning periods. According to the commissioner of education, if a district gives teachers no more than the statutory minimum planning time, the district cannot ask teachers to engage in group-planning during one of those planning periods.

Example:

* A district that schedules 50-minute planning periods every day could ask teachers to plan as a group one day every two weeks, but the district could not take one planning period for group planning and another for staff development.

Web posted: 07/31/07