Can teachers apply for unemployment benefits through NYS Department of Labor?
I'm a substitute teacher in upstate NY and my assignments have completely dried up this semester. Between budget cuts and fewer teachers calling out sick, I haven't had work in over 6 weeks. My friend said teachers can't get unemployment but I'm not sure if that applies to subs too? I've been paying into the system through my paychecks so it seems like I should be eligible. Has anyone else in education successfully filed with NYS Department of Labor? Really need to know if it's worth applying or if I'll just get denied.
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Liam Sullivan
Teachers CAN apply for unemployment in NY, but there are specific rules. Regular full-time teachers usually can't collect during summer break or between school years if they have reasonable assurance of returning. Substitute teachers are different though - you're typically eligible if you don't have that reasonable assurance of continued work. Since you're a sub with no guaranteed assignments, you should definitely apply. The NYS Department of Labor will review your case individually.
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Mei Chen
•That's really helpful! I was worried I'd be wasting my time. Do you know if they count the sporadic sub work I did earlier this year for the base period calculation?
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Amara Okafor
I'm a para-educator and filed last year when my hours got cut to basically nothing. The key thing is proving you don't have reasonable assurance of work. Keep documentation of how your sub assignments have decreased - screenshots of the sub system showing no available jobs, emails from schools, etc. NYS Department of Labor approved my claim after about 3 weeks of adjudication.
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CosmicCommander
•How did you prove the lack of reasonable assurance? I'm in a similar boat with my aide position being eliminated mid-year.
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Giovanni Colombo
ugh the whole reasonable assurance thing is so confusing!! I tried calling NYS Department of Labor like 20 times to ask about this exact situation and could never get through. The automated system just keeps hanging up after being on hold forever. Has anyone found a way to actually talk to someone there about education employment questions???
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Fatima Al-Qasimi
•I had the same problem with getting through to NYS Department of Labor! I ended up using this service called Claimyr that calls for you and gets you connected to an actual agent. You can check it out at claimyr.com - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. It was super easy and I finally got my questions answered about my teaching situation.
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Dylan Cooper
My sister teaches 3rd grade and she definitely couldn't get unemployment between school years even though technically she was 'unemployed' for 2 months. But substitute teaching is totally different - you're more like an on-call worker than a regular employee with a contract.
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Sofia Ramirez
The NYS Department of Labor website has a whole section about this but it's confusing as hell. Something about 'between terms' vs 'during terms' and whether you have a contract or not. I think the bottom line is if you're not getting paid and have no guarantee of future work, you should be able to file. Worst case they deny it and you appeal.
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Mei Chen
•Yeah I looked at their website but couldn't make sense of it either. I think I'll just apply and see what happens. Thanks everyone!
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Olivia Harris
I was in almost the exact same situation as a substitute teacher last year! The key difference between regular teachers and subs is that we don't have contracts guaranteeing future employment. I successfully got unemployment benefits from NYS Department of Labor after documenting that my sub assignments had completely dried up. Make sure to apply online through their website and be prepared to provide pay stubs from your previous sub work. They'll use your earnings from the past year to calculate your benefit amount. The whole process took about 4-6 weeks for me, but it was definitely worth it. Don't let anyone tell you subs can't get unemployment - we absolutely can when work isn't available!
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