incompetent teacher -- what can parents do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt that person would be in place yet, but that is a good point. Do you know if there is a person?

It depends.

If the teacher really had a medical emergency, probably not. It takes a while to find a qualified LTS and even longer to vet and process a new hire.

If the teacher was discretely removed under the cover story of a medical emergency, there is more likely to be a seamless transition to a good LTS who has a background in Social Studies.

You might get lucky and catch an already contracted teacher returning from extended maternity leave.

[Anonymous]

I would never ever again want to replace a teacher who quit under pressure or was removed for incompetence mid year. It is too hard to bring the students up to speed if they are more than a week behind or learned things incorrectly. The parents are either suspicious because they got burnt once or they think you are "The Miracleworker".

[Anonymous]

If it is a short term medical leave who do they hire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it is a short term medical leave who do they hire?

How short term?

Anything less than 4 days doesn't require approval. I've arranged my own 4-day sub and had surgeries this way.

5 or more days requires approval and generally leave is granted in short chunks requiring repeat doctor's visits and re certification that you can't return to full duty. The exception is maternity leave, which is granted as the full 6 weeks (paid if you have sick days saved, unpaid if you don't).

FMLA's 12 weeks is implemented by MCPS as 60 duty days. Non-school days such as Winter and Spring Break don't count.

I have used 59-60 days 3 times. Twice I knew I'd be out for 30-60 days and pre-arranged a long term sub that was approved by my principal and dept head. The third time was acute. I kept thinking I'd return in a week. ERSC kept refusing to clear me for duty because I had medical restrictions (had to sit, needed a bathroom break every hour --imagine the nerve of a teacher wanting to guarantee bathroom use). However, they wouldn't give more than a week off at a time so I had continuously book new subs. My poor students never had the same sub for longer than 5 days. Parents were furious. The same thing happened with a fellow teacher who broke her leg badly later that same year. ERSC handles the issue of less than full duty clearance badly IMO.

If the impaired Social Studies teacher is only gone say 2 weeks, that's considered a short term sub job.

If she is gone longer but less than 60 days, it will be a long-term sub most likely.

If she is gone more than 60 days, her principal can release her position and hire someone new. The impaired teacher then becomes an involuntary transfer to another MCPS school.

[Anonymous]

Wow that is complicated! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump.

Did you child come home with news on this today? Mine did - if it is the same class.

This is OP. I haven't heard any news. I wonder if we're talking about the same class/teacher.

For my kid, anyway, the teacher was in the classroom all week with no additional supports (resource teacher or what have you).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bump.

Did you child come home with news on this today? Mine did - if it is the same class.

This is OP. I haven't heard any news. I wonder if we're talking about the same class/teacher.

For my kid, anyway, the teacher was in the classroom all week with no additional supports (resource teacher or what have you).

OP,
Has your DC's teacher EVER had support in the classroom or is that just the other OP?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Yes, there have been other teachers in the classroom (week of 9/28, in particular), but none at all last week.

[Anonymous]

She was there last week, but won't be going forward for a while.

[Anonymous]

We had a teacher who repeatedly fell asleep in class in upper elementary, the kids began a count of how many times it happened. Did not get a single piece of work home. Not one in 180 days. No amount of complaining could get rid of him. Be thankful this is MS and not her entire day.

[Anonymous]

pp here, the sad reality that it is.

[Anonymous]

She doesn't have any good teachers?

[Anonymous]

I guess the plan was to replace someone incompetent with someone older and more incompetent. This new guy is a notoriously bad LT sub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had one year in middle school where a new teacher was hired who just clearly was not competent to teach the subject. Not a bad person, just a terrible teacher. We tried to use it as a teachable moment for our kid that for the rest of her life there would be people – college roommate, fellow cubicle worker, future boss, significant other of best friend, what have you – that would be almost unbearable to deal with and that learning how to be around people who don't bring much to the table and are annoying as hell is part of figuring out how to maneuver through life. By middle school, a child needs to be able to start grasping how to deal with that concept. It really dawned on my kid that year that she could learn to make the best of it and find ways to handle it, even if it meant she didn't learn a whole helluva lot in the subject that year (and yes, we did make an effort to fill in the gaps wherever we could).

That being said, it's a whole other ball of wax if a teacher is bullying or abusive – that's when you raise hell, but that's another thread.

This. When I disliked a teacher, my dad's response was, well, you're going to LGA e to learn to work with dumb or incompetent or mean people your whole life, may as well start now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess the plan was to replace someone incompetent with someone older and more incompetent. This new guy is a notoriously bad LT sub.

Sorry to hear that, OP. It was always a risk though.