Teacher Absenteeism (Revised)

Concern was expressed with regard to my earlier comment that I would support making teacher absenteeism data publicly accessible.  This point needs to be clarified.

My Response

This was, interestingly, the first issue of concern brought to me by constituents and it was raised by more than one person and from more than one perspective.  To clarify my position, I am quite concerned about the recent trends in teacher absenteeism.  I am concerned from several perspectives: first, the impact on classroom function and student learning; second, what it is a reflection of from the teachers' perspective; and third, the impact on budget.  The first and third points are relatively straight forward - if a teacher is not in the classroom, learning is impacted.  It is that simple regardless of the quality of  the temporary replacement teacher in place.  And, simply, it costs money to pay supply teachers.  The middle point is more troublesome because I don't think we know what is truly going on here. 

I have heard considerable speculation that this increase in absenteeism is due, in large part, to the use-it or lose-it element of the teacher contract pertaining to sick days.  There may be truth to that.  If that is the case and that is what has been negotiated into their contracts, there is little to be done and we best prepare our budgets to reflect what would happen if every teacher took every sick day that they were contractually permitted to.  I am, however, concerned that the picture is much more complicated than that.  In particular, I am very concerned that some of what we are seeing is due to legitimate increases in required sick time due to job stress and pressures.  I would like to know from the teachers themselves whether they feel adequately supported in their roles in a society that is changing so rapidly and where accountability and administrative pressures seem to be growing concerns across many professions.  

Concern was expressed with regard to my earlier comment that I would support making teacher absenteeism data publicly accessible.  This point needs to be clarified.

First of all, my last intention is to shame anyone.  I guess I am just data driven at heart coming from a researcher's perspective.  In my mind, you cannot understand the problem without documenting the phenomenon first.  You need to roll around in the numbers to understand what is going on.  My intention is to get to the bottom of the problem not to shame or push anyone into being at work when they should be focusing on their wellness especially given my background in the world of health and wellness and my own history of physical illness and overcoming medical adversity.  The issue was brought to my attention by a constituent who asked specifically about whether I would support posting that information.  It had not dawned on me one way of another that it would be of interest as an entity in and of itself. 

My response was based on the assumption that as a publicly funded body, we would have no choice but to provide those numbers if they were requested.  I would think that Access to Information would open that wide up and so my response was based on that assumption.  If it is going to be accessible, then it is better to be transparent and forthcoming as an organization and explain that we are following this data and that we are exploring the issue in hopes of making our schools a work-place that is known for its concern about its staff - our school board should be a shining example of health and wellness for our students and all staff.  Having the bar any lower on any scale is unacceptable.  We should rank up in the top places of employment in the province!   I will definitely follow-up on whether we would be behooved to provide the data if it were requested; if it is not, then we can use the data internally as a basis for understanding what is going on.  I do think we need to get to the bottom of this; teacher absenteeism does impact classroom productivity and the financial bottom line.  We have to recognize that what we are seeing is a trend with the number of days of absenteeism significantly increasing - gender issues should not impact that trend as this has always been a female-dominant profession; however, I would not want teachers to feel that they were being targeted based on gender issues because that is far from the truth.  In fact, it may be as far from the truth as possible - as a single mother for more than a decade, I know the importance of mom being at her best and if our work place is causing stress that is having a negative impact on the ability of these incredible women to be mothers as well, this problem is even a bigger can of worms! I do not think we should be feeding these numbers to the press on a weekly basis or posting them like a report card on the Board website; but, if the public asks to see them, we may not have any choice.  I would suggest that they exist with other measures of accountability and public information such as minutes, budget and EQAO results.  They also do not have to be provided as individual data with names, the issue isn't who has been absent.  The issue is that there have been absences and why as well as what the Board has done to deal with the situation to make sure that classrooms are minimally impacted.  For example, what steps have been taken to replace a teacher who has been pulled out of the classroom for a planned absence such as a secondment or a long-term health leave - has an effort been made to ensure that a stable classroom replacement has been secured as opposed to a series of temporary teachers.  The functioning of the classroom and student success has to remain the goal of this endeavour - learning is our raison d'être.   I am proposing that there is an actual study of this issue including both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.  In fact, I wish I sat in a position to conduct that research myself.