Teaching Assistant Probationary Period Suffers a Setback

In the May 2005 Elmsford Edge we reported that the Commissioner had ruled that a teaching assistant who had received tenure in one school district and subsequently takes a teaching position needs to serve only a two-year probationary. This made sense because it follows the laws and regulations for tenured teachers who accept a teaching position in another school district needing to serve only two-year probation. So much for logic!

In a recent case out of Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES, the Supreme Court of Albany County annulled the earlier ruling by the Commissioner. The Court found the statue does not authorize the two-year term of probation for teachers whose prior grant of tenure was a teaching assistant.

Source Elmsford Edge, October 2006.