Earlier this month, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) held a long-awaited webinar in its House Bill (HB) 1605 series, Planning and Non-Instructional Duties of Teachers. The webinar provides an overview of the new statutory protections of planning time for classroom teachers and guidance on the supplemental duty agreement with a teacher, which is scheduled to be implemented in the 2024-2025 academic year.
Regular Hotline readers will be familiar with our extensive coverage of this bill and subsequent rulemaking by the State Board of Education (SBOE) for the review and adoption of instructional materials for Texas classrooms. However, HB 1605 was an expansive bill and in addition to upending the SBOE process, there were actually a few provisions of the bill that should be good for teachers, specifically changes to Texas Education Code §11.164 and §21.4045, related to teacher planning time and the non-instructional duties of teachers:
- The changes to TEC §11.164 are intended to limit extra or duplicative paperwork for teachers. In essence, teachers may not be required to produce unit or weekly lesson plans if the district has adopted instructional materials that contain these plans.
- Amendments to §21.4045 protect planning time and insert a requirement for a supplemental agreement in certain circumstances. Teachers cannot be required to use their bi-weekly planning time to create or select initial instructional materials in foundation area subjects. Districts must provide additional time during the school day or enter into a supplemental duty agreement with the teacher.
The recorded webinar provides helpful examples of scenarios where this does or does not apply. We encourage teachers to watch this webinar and seek guidance from their local union or the Associate Membership Program service department if this duty comes up in your 2024-2025 contract.
Reminder: The SBOE has chosen to first review K-8 English language arts and reading, K-6 Spanish language arts and reading, and K-12 mathematics. The application is now open to be a part of this inaugural IMRA review. We encourage our members with the relevant experience to apply; IMRA quality reviewers will be compensated.