Just like students have the right to an IEP, you as a teacher have the right to workplace accommodations under the Ontario Human Rights Code and your Collective Agreement (L-A.8.1).

If you are seeking accommodations or are unsure if your plan is properly implemented, please email me or schedule a call BEFORE submitting any medical documentation. Under Article C6.1(g)(ii), required medical information focuses strictly on your limitations, restrictions, and disability-related needs while omitting a diagnosis. You have the right to be safe and supported at work. 

Experienced teachers complete an Annual Learning Plan (ALP) every school year under the local Teacher Performance Appraisal framework (L-D.4.0). Keep these core points in mind: 

Please note the following key points regarding ALPs:

• • The ALP is entirely teacher-authored and teacher-directed. The goals that you include in your ALP are your goals. 

  • Select realistic professional growth goals that account for your professional, personal, financial, and health-related circumstances.

  • There is no minimum or maximum number of goals required on your ALP.

  • While you may choose to include school and board improvement goals, you cannot be required to include such initiatives. 

  • Extracurricular objectives do not belong on your ALP as extracurricular activities are strictly voluntary (L-D.22.1).

  • In years when you are not undergoing formal evaluation, either you or your principal can request a meeting to discuss the learning plan.

  • The principal acts in a consultative and review capacity, meaning your ALP does not require principal approval.

If a principal demands specific goals or you encounter pressure, reach out to me for support.

For the "Other Comments" section, ETFO and ETT recommend using this language:

"This plan will be implemented barring any unforeseen circumstances during the school year. I trust that the TDSB and school administration will support my ALP by providing the appropriate release time, resources and funding to assist my professional growth."

The fastest way to get support from ETFO is by calling the provincial office for a same-day response. You can find ETFO's contact information here. When you reach the main line, ask to speak to the Professional Relations Services (PRS) staff member on duty. While staff rotate daily, you will receive a call back the same day (or early the next day) in order of priority.

If you want ETFO provincial to coordinate with me for local interventions or additional support, make sure to provide the name of your local, your school, and your Executive Officer (Julius). In your Collective Agreement (L-A.7.3), you are entitled to be represented and assisted by your union throughout any formal workplace process.

The impact of the pandemic, integration with out support and chronic underfunding has resulted in a rise in physical violence in schools. A pattern of physical violence involving a student should always require a formal safety plan.

Safety plans often include expectations around Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) training, which involves physical intervention techniques and renewal every two years. You are only required to take CPI training if it is specified as a requirement for your assignment or safety plan protocol, subject to medical exemptions.

ETFO's position is that every member maintains the right to decide whether to participate in the physical action components of training. Engaging in physical interventions with students carries significant liability, and you are never obligated to compromise your personal safety.

Your Collective Agreement (C.9.00) indicates that you have the right to utilize your professional judgement when conducting diagnostic assessments. Your professional judgement is the cornerstone of assessment and evaluation. While your Principal is permitted to over insights and options, you have the right to:

1. Determine which diagnostic tool to use from the board pre-approved list.

2. Determine the frequency of diagnostic assessments.

3. Determine the timing of diagnostic assessments.

While your principal is permitted to request the results of your diagnostic assessments, you are not obligated to format or total those results according to their personal preferences unless release time is provided.

If you are experiencing undue pressure that contradicts your professional judgement, or have questions regarding diagnostic assessments, please contact me. To better understand your professional judgement as it relates to diagnostic assessment, please see ETFO's Professional Judgement Guidelines for Diagnostic Assessment. 

Although most workers understand that their employer has a responsibility to provide a safe workplace, it hasn’t always been so. The laws designed to keep Ontarians safe at work have not always existed, and they were almost always established in response to workers being injured, made ill, or dying on the job.

Workers in Ontario are protected by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which gives them:

1. The right to know about health and safety hazards and their controls.

2. The right to participate in health and safety processes.

3. The right to refuse work that could affect their health and safety and that of others.

Your Collective Agreement and board policies complement these legal rights by establishing Joint Health and Safety Committees and formalizing how workplace hazards are reported and resolved at the school level.

For more information on how to enforce your Health and Safety rights, please see this ETFO Health and Safety website as well as the processes specific to our board. 

Ontario lacks a legislated maximum workplace temperature (source), but under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, principals have an obligation to mitigate health and safety risks. If you are dealing with high classroom temperatures, consider the following steps:

• Notify your principal in writing about the impact of the heat on your workspace, and follow up any verbal conversations with an email to maintain a clear paper trail.

• Submit a Health and Safety Near Miss form immediately to ensure your health and safety representative can assist with required next steps.

• Complete an Employee's Report of Accident or Injury form if you experience heat-related illness or injury.

• Discuss short-term solutions with your principal, such as adding cooling fans, temporarily modifying your schedule, or moving your class to an air-conditioned space.

• Explore long-term solutions, including classroom relocation or repairing building systems.

If you are unsure how to approach your principal, reach out for support in drafting an email or documenting interactions effectively. Connect with your school health and safety representative for expert guidance, and review the board's 2024 Hot Weather Guidelines. By actively working to ensure your workplace temperature is safe for you, you help secure a safe learning environment for your students. Our working conditions are our students' learning conditions. 

When it comes to kindergarten class sizes, specific protocols remain in place for the entire school year, even after reorganization. Specifically, if your class has 15 or fewer students, a DECE is not assigned, but once your class list reaches 16 students at any point in the year, a DECE must be placed in the classroom.

If your kindergarten class size changes during the school year or you suspect these staffing ratios are not being maintained, please reach out.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) requires a minimum temperature of 18 degrees celsius in any indoor space that you or your students occupy during your work day. However, the enforcement of your rights relies on your willingness to exercise your rights. 

If you are dealing with classroom temperatures below 18 degrees celsius, please consider the following best practices: 

• Let your Principal know (in writing) that the low temperature will have an impact on you. Principals have an obligation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to mitigate potential health and safety risks to workers. 

• Complete a Health and Safety Near Miss form immediately to report the low temperatures officially. This form is crucial to ensure your Health and Safety rep is able to follow through with the required next steps with admin, and facilities. 

• Possible short-term solutions that your Principal may offer include (but are not limited to): adding heating fans, modifying your schedule on a temporary basis, and/or modifying the location of your classroom on a temporary basis to ensure increased access to warmer spaces.

• Possible long-term solutions that your Principal may offer include (but are not limited to): retrofitting or relocating your classroom to ensure the temperature does not impact your health negatively, receiving approvals for emergency over-time to ensure your school's boiler is repaired and/or checked. 

Your health matters greatly, and there is no benefit in suffering in silence. 

If you are unsure of how to approach your Principal, please consider reaching out to me for support in drafting an email, or clarifying how to document interactions effectively as it would be inappropriate for any ETT member to be directing the job duties of another bargaining unit.

If you are looking to explore specific solutions, or encountering difficulties in exercising your legal right to safe work environment, please consider reaching out to your Health and Safety rep for timely intervention. Health and Safety reps are knowledgeable in supporting you as your exercise your rights under OHSA.

Please know that by actively seeking to ensure your workplace is safe for you, you are not being difficult. We know that as teachers we are committed to advocating for the best learning conditions for our students. We are deserving of the same kind of inclusion (and safety!) in our working conditions. 

In Ontario, teachers are entitled to one break in the school day: a 40-minute uninterrupted, continuous lunch period free from all teaching and non-teaching duties (L-D.1.1). While meetings can occasionally be called to cover operational needs, they must strictly comply with the Collective Agreement. This makes it important to exercise your professional autonomy when deciding how to direct your valuable lunch time.

While monthly staff meetings can occur over lunch where staff consensus indicates this is the preferred time (L-D.18.0) , the same cannot be said for any other types of meetings. Some examples include lunch and learns, division meetings, placement meetings, assembly meetings, and graduation meetings.

I realize with how tight the school day is and with all the changes, curriculum-wise especially, that it can feel like you have to attend. I get that pressure, especially when it is paired with the desire to bring our best teacher selves to our classrooms, colleagues, and broader school community. However, a tired teacher is rarely the best version of any teacher, nor does it lend itself to growing the incredible teaching and learning that you are leading and facilitating every day.

Some of the alternatives that have worked in our family of schools to honour your well-being and support your continued professional development as a committed educator include:

• Offering teachers the opportunity to get their 40-minute uninterrupted lunch break at another time during the school day.

• Hiring a smaller team of occasional teachers so that classes can be grouped for a morning or afternoon of group activities.

• Releasing the Division lead for the day so that teachers can be partnered over their preps, noting that missed prep must still be paid back (L-D.15.5).

In the meantime, I want to be super clear: you cannot be disciplined or cautioned for choosing to engage in your only legal break, which is a 40-minute uninterrupted lunch. This is a vital right and is so important to ensuring your continued well-being. If you feel you are experiencing undue scrutiny or reprisal due to this, please let me know right away so we can discuss the appropriate next steps.

How can you address this issue? In this matter, I strongly encourage you to take the initiative to connect with your principal via email or in person to let them know that you will not be available for meetings over lunch (followed up with an email). Given that you can technically waive your right to a 40-minute uninterrupted lunch in order to attend meetings, it is your responsibility to set the boundary regarding your availability over lunch. 

Even when setting a boundary, it important to maintain a respectful tone when communicating with your principal. If you need support phrasing your request or would appreciate additional assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Welcome to permanent teaching! Whether you are joining us straight from teachers' college or bringing years of valuable occasional and long-term occasional experience with you, stepping into a permanent contract is a major milestone.

I strongly recommend reviewing the Welcome to ETFO manual to learn more about your union and the resources available to you.

As a permanent teacher, you benefit from hard-won workplace rights secured through your Collective Agreement, including critical protections around evaluation timelines, working conditions, and professional autonomy. If you encounter any challenges, you can connect with your school steward, reach out to me directly, or consult ETFO's Professional Relations Services (PRS) bulletins for support. There are no silly questions!

To access the half-day of lieu time on Interview PA days (normally, Fridays), you must demonstrate that you provided caregivers with the opportunity to schedule an interview outside of the instructional day. Acceptable evidence includes email exchanges, a Google Form, or a parent communication log.

ETFO's position is that teachers should not be required to conduct formal interviews after all three reporting periods. Instead, you use your professional judgment to meet with parents when learning concerns arise outside of regular interview timelines. You are not required to schedule a meeting with every single caregiver, provided you can demonstrate that the opportunity was clearly offered. If you made availability known, kept written documentation, and no parent or caregiver requested an interview, you have successfully met the requirement to access your Friday afternoon lieu time.

What should I do if my Principal expects something else? If your principal pushes expectations that conflict with these guidelines, follow up with an "As per our conversation" email to create a written record, and consider copying or blind copying me on the message. Having this paper trail ready gives us a solid base if a formal grievance becomes necessary.

Should I be planning for prep payback? Please do not plan for prep payback. While occasional teachers are entitled to lesson plans when covering a sick day, that requirement does not apply to prep payback. Occasional teachers often ask whether they are stepping in for a sick day or prep payback so they can choose what work to take on. If you do not leave plans, occasional teachers are Ontario Certified Teachers who can support the class using their professional skills through games, outdoor activities, or ready-to-go learning tasks.

What happens if your prep time is missed? Under Article L-D.15.5 of your Collective Agreement, if you lose your preparation time because you are required to cover for an unseen teacher absence, that prep time must be made up as soon as administratively feasible, no later than 30 school days after the loss, and strictly within the same school year. Additionally, the Board must provide you with at least 24 hours of notice before rescheduling your preparation time, unless you mutually agree to a shorter timeframe.

Are all prep subjects expected to be reported on? Yes. Every prep subject must be reported on through either curriculum subject expectations or learning skill expectations. Unreportable prep assignments violate your Collective Agreement.

How do I join ETT's prep payback grievance? ETT maintains a rolling policy grievance regarding missed preparation time. It is essential to log any missed preps using the Board-established tracking mechanism so you can be included in the grievance remedy. Preps that remain missed and unpaid past the 30-school-day window should be recorded immediately. If you cannot locate the tracker for your school, please contact me without delay.

ETT offers a Member’s Professional Development Fund to support your ongoing learning. Note, funds are limited each school year, so early applications are strongly encouraged.

Key Guidelines:

• Members can claim up to $150 every two years (calculated from the date the application is received).

• Applications and proof of full payment (receipt showing the conference, workshop, or seminar title) must be submitted after completing the course or workshop.

• AQ courses are eligible for funding, though standard credit courses are not.

If you believe you meet the above criteria, please contact the ETT Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth So (eso@ett.on.ca) to request a copy of the application form.

Report cards are formal communications of a student progress with their caregivers. As long as your comments and assigned grades are in alignment with Growing Success, and curriculum expectations, you have a reasonable right to rely on your professional judgement. 

If you have questions about reporting and professional judgment, review ETFO's resources on Reporting and Evaluation and their series on Professional Judgement for more in-depth guidance.

In many schools across our ward, there is a pattern of misuse and abuse of the MART role. This voluntary position should require little to no paperwork, and any associated duties must be accounted for within your regular workday using release time rather than your preparation time. Previous versions of the TDSB's Special Education Plan defined the role as:

"This is a voluntary role for a Special Education and Inclusion teacher within each elementary school, designed to provide support to students and staff. Ongoing professional learning opportunities prepare the Special Education and Inclusion teacher to build capacity with staff by offering Special Education and Inclusion programming expertise and resources in the school."

Some administrators have used this position to offload administrative tasks that fall under their own legal responsibilities, leaving teachers unprotected when taking on this work. If this is happening to you, please connect with me right away so we can resolve the issue promptly.

Staff meetings are defined in your Collective Agreement (L - D.18.0.). They must:

• Be held no more than once per month (on average);

• Run for no more than 75 minutes in length;

• Begin within 5 minutes of the end-of-day bell or the time it takes to walk from the furthest classroom on the school site, with any excess time counting against the 75-minute maximum;

• Include an agenda where drafts are provided at least one day prior and items submitted by ETT members to their principal at least two days prior are included; and,

• Be conducted u sing a speakers' list, meeting minutes, and clear, co-created meeting strategies.

When determining staff meeting dates, at the beginning of the school year, the Principal is obligated to convene a meeting to schedule them using consensus, and the full schedule must be offered within one week of this date. 

If you are part-time teacher in the AM, you cannot be obligated to return to your AM school for an after-school staff meeting. However, you are expected to connect with another teacher or your Principal at your AM school to ensure you are up to date on the meeting information. 

If staff meetings at your school deviate from the Collective Agreement, please let me know without delay. You deserve to have your hard-won Collective Agreement rights respected.

Supervision requires a direct line of sight. Legally, if you cannot see the students under your care, you are not supervising them.

Please exercise caution when your view is blocked during supervisory duties. Common examples include:

• Monitoring students working in the hallway from inside your classroom.

• Moving between two separate classrooms while covering a colleague's washroom break.

For outdoor duty, walk around frequently to keep your assigned area in view. While accidents can still happen, evidence showing gaps in supervision or a late arrival can create serious liability issues. 

If you are unsure about a supervision practice at your school, please reach out to me for direct support.

Your schedule should reflect these Collective Agreement entitlements:

• A normal daily instructional program of 300 minutes, excluding recesses and transition intervals between classes (L-D.16.1).

• A 40-minute uninterrupted, continuous lunch period free from all teaching and non-teaching duties each school day (L-D.1.1).

• 240 minutes of preparation time per five-day cycle (or 480 minutes per ten-day cycle), scheduled with the objective of blocks of 30 consecutive minutes or more where feasible (L-D.15.1, L-D.15.4).

• If preparation time is missed due to an emergency or covering an unforeseen teacher absence, it must be made up within 30 school days, and you must receive at least 24 hours of notice for the rescheduled time (L-D.15.5).

• A maximum of 80 minutes of assigned supervision within each period of five instructional days (L-D.17.2).

• Assigned supervision duties restricted to yard duty, hall duty, bus duty, lunchroom duty, and scheduled intervals between classes (L-D.17.1).

• On-site presence outside of instructional time is limited to 15 minutes before the start of the instructional day and 5 minutes before the end of lunch.

• Assigned after-school dismissal duties (such as end-of-day yard or exit monitoring) count as assigned supervision and must be fully accounted for within your 80-minute supervision schedule.

• At the end of the day, you cannot be required to remain on-site after the bell once your students are safely dismissed. If a parent or guardian is late, promptly bring any remaining children to the office, as you are not obligated to wait outside of your working hours. The only exceptions requiring you to stay past dismissal are scheduled supervision or a monthly staff meeting.

Note, if you work a part-time schedule, your preparation time is adjusted proportionally to match the percentage of a full-time contract you hold (L-D.15.3). 

If you notice any gaps, discrepancies, or errors in your schedule, please reach out for support on next steps.

There continues to be an increase in unqualified individuals being placed in classrooms as emergency coverage and supervision. 

When this happens, teachers often feel pressured to alter their lesson plans to accommodate non-OCT personnel. You are not responsible for modifying your plans in these situations. Please reach out if the excessive use of emergency coverage affects your ability to report on a required subject area, or interferes with your ability to access your scheduled prep time. 

If you encounter concerning conduct or language from an emergency coverage provider, report it to administration promptly using Health and Safety forms or contact me directly for support.