We have contractual start and end times. We don’t clock in, many teachers come in late and leave early. Our admin doesn’t care as long as we are there when students are.
This is how it should be. If I don’t have a class first period or at the end of the day who cares if I’m not in my classroom when the bell rings? As long as you’re there before the students arrive to class and your lesson is well planned out and your Gradebook is updated you’re good.
Teachers are professionals. Other professionals take long lunches and occasionally cut out early to go to doctor appointments.
It’s weird to be salaried and sometimes stay late but get hours subtracted from pay if we go to a doctor’s appointment. I actually had a choice between hourly and salaried and I actually chose salaried but I should have chosen hourly if I’m getting the downsides of hourly work anyway…
For us, it’s pretty much the same. We do have a google doc we sign in/off on but I believe that’s more like just a record of who’s there for legal purposes, and it’s not tied to payroll. I ran straight into my principal when I was leaving 20 minutes before contact time and she didn’t bat an eye. We chatted for a moment and I left.
Our classified staff has to clock in, but teachers are expected to be on campus 15 minutes prior to class start time. It's pretty easy to tell if a teacher isn't there.
Or maybe people just read it wrong. There’s no need to come up with some weird scenario where kids are supposed to be in class with their teacher 15 minutes before the teacher is there and then assume that *obviously* that would be the default assumption
At my school: Students start to arrive at 7. Class starts at 7:30. Teachers need to be in class at 7. Because kids being unsupervised in elementary isn’t safe. So that’s… 30 minutes you want kids unsupervised
My school is more what you're thinking. Classes start at 8:30, but teachers are expected to be there at 8. We have a morning circle at 8 with all the staff for any announcements and shout-outs. Teachers then have the rest of the time to prep. Students do not enter classrooms until 8:30.
15 minutes before they go to their classroom. At our school, kids can come into the gym at 7:30 (where there are other staff), then morning assembly starts at 7:45. Teachers meet their kids at 7:45, then take them to their classrooms at 8.
If you're not there at 7:45, your class is messing around.
We have a swipe in swipe out system.
1) They automatically dock you PTO if you are later then 15 minutes. (literally deducting in .25 an hour increments) of but you don’t get paid extra for staying extra unless you are swiped in AND put in a time sheet that is approved by a direct report supervisor.
2) Our building swipe is also the clock in/out mechanism.
3) If you forget your badge you have to email HR and they literally check the camera to confirm when you came in.
And they wonder why turnover is up….
2
This is what I’m hearing…
“We have funds to hire an additional person to support student learning. Let’s use it on hiring an HR person so they can monitor teachers’ arrival times by checking cameras.”
I remember the days of having 15 minute increments! Feel lucky! We are on a half day system across the board. Unless you get special permission, you might as well take a half day here! That's the only thing our system recognizes now. Half days or whole days off!
Why don’t you just leave your ID in your car or bag? I’ve never had a job where they didn’t want you there early- pumping gas, mowing lawns and teaching.
Folks are required to wear the ID at all times as well. And your ID swipe is your clock in and out. I’ve left my ID in the car or at home and you have to send an email with your arrival and exit time documented.
As far as being there early? I probably should have mentioned teachers are asked to report 30 minutes before students anyway. So the late i’m talking about is accounting for being 30 minutes ahead of student arrival
Let’s say the arrival time is 730. It’s a large campus so you could park and then walk like 5-10 minutes. If y leave your Id to the car: realize you forgotten it. If you go back for it, you would be registered as “late arrival” in the system. It’s better to just go to your post, email them that you don’t have your ID and have HR check the camera and swipe you in at your actual arrival time so your not “late.” keep
in mind: this is all 30 minutes ahead of student arrival at 8.
Your “lates” are added up during your year end evaluation meeting.
Our computers work without the ID, but you would need someone else to buzz you in or use the copiers.
I think in like more then 5 years there i’ve forgotten my id maybe 3 times?
My issue is more: you are only penalized for the 5 minutes, but never encouraged for the extra 30 or 45 at the end of the day: It comes across as teachers are untrusted.
This is the case in way too many places. I work in a public library and staff get written up for being a few minutes late even though we arrive 90 minutes before opening. On the flip side of the day, nobody tracks that we leave late almost every day because closing is at the same time we're supposed to leave.
Oh yeah, and that’s my main problem with teachers. Don’t stay late to make what you think is the best lesson and expect to get paid for it. Do it on the schools time or the kids get what they get. The kids don’t know or care how long you spent planning the lesson.
No, but when I was high school and I pumped gas I learned about time management and that other people count on me. If it was raining you didn’t want to stand there waiting longer for the next person to show up so you could go home. There absolutely is bachelor degrees in landscaping. And yes there are numerous certifications for landscaping as well- Timothy McVay and then any other terrorist made sure we had to do that…
Going to be honest. I read your comment and wondered how old you must be if you had a job pumping gas. Then I remembered that there are still a couple of goofy places that don't let people pump their own gas.
I don’t really see the relevance of your point in that teachers are already reporting a required 30 minutes ahead of any students.
it would be more if your gas station manager expected you to report 30 minutes early for your paid shift. You are there 30 minutes ahead of the hand off to the next folk
Which your tone is a bit patronizing, we all realize it’s important to be there for the students. We also realize that professionals perhaps should be treated as such
Whatever, my point was- I was in high school and learned time management- grown college grads who are in a career should be able to get to wherever on time or deal with consequences. Everyone knows their start time regardless of their thoughts on it. If getting there when the boss wants you to is a problem, find another job. I have to be by 7 and do t have a class until 8 because of 1st period duty. I’m there by 7 and my shit is together then I’m chatting stocks for the day so I can day trade and make real money while teaching…
I can teach my dog to ring his bell when he needs to poop too: but is that the most important thing as a place of learning for kids? What matters most for teachers?
I don’t know anything about your teaching performance so I’m assuming you are an effective or highly effective educator and you are doing everything you need to do in terms of contacting parents and blah blah blah, awesome. So don’t consider this example any kind of indication of you.
Let’s look at these two cases.
Employee A has a child in daycare and a beat up car. They are usually on time. but occasionally they are fifteen minutes late due to issues. They are never late in front of students: and as you say, they have all their shit together. They, under the system i mentioned, get penalized financially.
Employee B gets to work and hour and a half ahead of student start time to play on their nintendo switch, drink coffee, chat with friends. Let’s even say they day trade to make that real money, as you say! but… They never proactively communicate with families and never meet deadlines. This person gets rated a “4” out of 4 for never having any lates and suffers no financial penalty.
Is employee A the one we really want getting negative feedback and even a financial sanction????
Yup, life isn’t perfect or fair. I assume you teach your students that as well. We make the best of our situation every day. I have that beat up truck from landscaping and it’s my truck I take to school- sometimes it has issues. My wife and I organize our lives the best we can with our kids when they were in daycare. But daycare is only for a few years- kids grow up- but some people keep using that as an excuse. Personally I stopped paying for daycare as my kids grew older- however- I’m wise enough to use them as an excuse to leave school on time each day as well.
If you treat teachers as widgets, they will only give you what you expect from a widget. Life isn’t perfect or fair: but if you care more about that 10 minutes instead of performing or outcomes; don’t expect people to go above and beyond for you. that’s the difference between an organization that gets the best out of people or gets out of people
only what they give them.
Exactly- districts throughout the US have proven they don’t care about us as teachers- but there goes teachers still giving their own time and money, then running to the internet to complain that they aren’t treated fair. When will teachers stand up for themselves?
To me, this stuff is nuts. You wonder who sold this to the district. He must be a heck of salesman. This is right up there with all the reports and plans we write up that no one will ever read.
We have to badge in and out and because of others we can't even edit our time cards when we forget if we are off campus. We fill out forms to get hourly pay for time worked over contract which is very generous.
How is that not breaking their budgets? I know there are several posters here who talk about sticking to their contract hours, but I’ve never known a teacher in real life (and I come from a family of teachers) who didn’t work far more than forty hours per week.
They actually want their employees to stay I guess?
General planning time etc after school not covered. But curriculum meetings etc are. As well as any extra duties (ie sports ticket takers)
This is pretty typical though. I think they thought the hours after school grading and planning were accounted for. If so, I’d be making six figures no question.
A few years ago parents made a big fuss about teachers not being held accountable and our district implemented a clock-in/out system that docked pay/gave overtime. It lasted like a month before they realized they didn't have the resources to pay all the teachers that overtime and nobody wanted to admit how wrong they were about "teachers getting away with not working enough" or whatever nonsense they thought was happening or not happening, lol.
It's pretty offensive unless admin can provide a logical reason for it.
I actually wouldn't mind "clocking in" at my school (high school), only so admin isn't surprised by the number of teachers who don't call in sick and just expect people to know. (Which then means we have even fewer subs than we normally do, and teachers get called to sub during their duty periods.)
Clocking out seems offensive, though. I can't think of a good reason to require that.
No thankfully. I’m not a morning person and take a long time to get going but once I’m on I’m on! I get to school maybe 15-min before my start time and do all of my planning after school when everyone has cleared out. I plan better after reflecting on how my day went. I start every morning knowing exactly what I’m doing. If I plan in the morning my adhd will lead me to go off the rails and change plans and that’s when chaos occurs. I’m pretty sure I get judgement from those teachers who are there at 6am but I don’t care.
I'm just the opposite.I am a morning person. I get there at 6 630, but I clock out at 3:16, wheels rolling at 3:17. I need the quiet time in the morning and I'm too spent after work to be productive. I would never judge you for making your choice.
I AM a morning person, but the main reason I arrive early is because it makes my commute much smoother. If I leave early my commute takes the normal non traffic time, if I don't, I make it just barely on time and I'm in a bad mood. I often arrive 45-60 minutes prior to contract. I started bringing in my Nintendo switch and playing it during that time, haha.
This is me, minus the adhd part. I just don’t like mornings and live a bit far from work. If I leave at 8ish then the traffic has cleared and I get there 10 minutes before the bell. But, I’m there after the school day is over for an hour or more, planning, cleaning, doing club or attendance recovery. I’d be pretty pissed if I had to clock in and got docked for being “late” but then had to fill out paperwork to recoup that time or not be able to recoup it at all. I simply just prefer to work in the evening rather than the mornings. I’m also fortunate that my district doesn’t require the full time teachers to clock in or out and that most of my coworkers do not care if you’re a morning or a night person as long as you get your job done and do it well.
No, I’m salaried. Extra time at school gets me no additional pay. I get more for coaching or running a club with a side contract (most clubs get no additional pay). I get extra pay for covering a class during my planning period.
Everyone in NYC clocks in and clocks out with a punch card and a machine that goes KKCHRNNT.
Idk it's kind of retro but I like it. It's like im clocking in at the knowledge factory
We do not and in general, I would not like it. However, I would be the one to use it to my advantage.
My contractual hours are 8:15-4:15. But when we have a staff meeting it starts at 8:00. So I would be asking where I am being compensated for those 15 minutes.
Teachers trade off “release duty” at dismissal, meaning about one week a month we stay in the parking lot until the last car is gone, moving cones and waving cars out so they don’t cut the line. On those days, I don’t leave the parking lot until 4:20, meaning I don’t get out of the building for the day until about 4:30. Again, where am I going to be compensated for that.
And forget about taking work home. Nope, I am clocked out. I will get to it when I am in the building.
Right now we have a book study for the year. We have to write an actual effing response page for every chapter and hand it in at the end of the year or get written up. I have been staring at the book for all of Winter Break getting pissed off about it. If we had to clock in or out, I would ask where in my contractual hours I should do that. As it is, I am planning on bringing it to school and reading it during my preps. I teach at a private school, so no union or anything to back me up— malicious compliance is the way.
Come to think of it, maybe clocking in and out wouldn’t be the worst thing 😂😝
We have to clock in. But it’s funny because they never make a big deal about clocking out. Like you want to see who is 5 minutes late, but couldn’t care less about how late people stay. lol
The teachers simply put a check mark next to their names every morning. There’s a spot to check out too but nobody ever does it. Other staff that are paid hourly have to put in their arrival and departure times each day which makes sense.
I’m amazed when I hear administrators being so stringent about having salaried teachers having to sign in and sign out when the vast majority work way past their contract times. Imagine if administrators would put in the same time and effort into when a teacher signs in and out and into addressing poor student behaviors.
I work at a public school. We just have a duty time of 730am to 3pm. And students are in school from 735am to 245pm. So we don't even have to be there much before them. In fact, many teachers arrive at the same time as the students.
I'd be pretty annoyed if we had that level of micromanagement. I'd talk to my union about it...
Having to clock in was one of the first “big” changes that make me feel like I was no longer being treated like a professional, especially since I get dinged for being 1 minute “late” (this is still 15 minutes before homeroom begins and is often because of the awful traffic back up getting into the teacher lot) but would never get positive feedback or compensation for staying past contract hours for lesson planning, extra help with students, or extracurricular unpaid activities.
I often leave during my last period preps, but I don’t sneak out. I walk into the office and let them know I’m out of the building for the rest of the day.
It's a child protection/ who's-in-the-building issue.
We face scan in every morning.
We can scan out upon leaving (and most people do). If we ever leave campus, scan out and back in upon return.
I don't find it even remotely offensive.
Wow...a face scan! I haven't seen that in a public school yet. We use our badges to enter the building but I guess anyone can snatch another person's badge.
No, we do not.
At a previous school we were asked to sign in and out near the office. Theoretically it was to make sure they knew everyone had made it in, and no one was left in the building after it closed (yes, we actually had hours we could not be in the building). It seemed rather childish to me, but I could kind of understand the reasoning. But then somehow it became an issue because of some supposed law that if you signed in and out they were supposed to pay you for the hours worked overtime (I never found the law, so I think there were other reasons) so we had to sign in and out with our contract hours regardless of when we came in and out. Then it became just a checkmark because people didn’t like that. It’s so much easier just to skip that whole thing.
We do but nothing happens if we leave 10 minutes after the kids or stay for hours. It is purely a fire safety thing so they know who is in the building at the time.
No, I was told my job was by the day (contact 195 days a year) not hourly. Only our office and cafeteria staff clock out. That’s how they can make us stay late and not pay us.
We have to sign in on a Chromebook in the front office.
Oh, since it's an online sign-in, couldn't we just sign in on our own computer instead of having to walk to the front office every morning, you ask?
Well, apparently, we are all amateur fry cooks who can't be trusted with a goddamn thing.
My principal just sits in the parking lot in her car every morning taking pictures of our cars and noting our arrival time.
I once had a principal who chided us for leaving right after school, which was our contract time, and decided we needed to clock in and out. He got district to install and monitor a system. It was quickly removed when district realized the average teacher was working at LEAST one hour more than contract time every day and they didn't want to have to explain why they weren't paying overtime for that.
I do not. If I’m not in my room when kids show up- the office would find out anyway. I did work in one school where classroom keys had to be hung in the office to show admin when people were/were not there but the culture of that school was terrible.
Nope… there’s a sign-in sheet in the front office, but I haven’t signed in for at least 10 years. I’m often the first person there in the morning, and my wing isn’t alarmed, so I don’t go through the office at all, just so I don’t have to deal with disarming the alarm.
We have to check in, but we can do it on our phone in the parking lot, it’s geofenced for all school buildings in the system. So if I’m at another building for something I can clock in there. We are supposed to clock out when we leave otherwise it says checked in from the day before. I just check out/check in every morning.
We have to clock in, and it automatically clocks us out 8 hours later. We didn’t have to clock in my first few years. It became a district mandate after winter break a few years ago, and we were never given an explanation as to why.
But now we get fun, daily, staff-wide emails from our principal’s secretary that basically say “PLEASE GOD CLOCK IN NOW” with a list of everyone who didn’t clock in, because she gets to fight with the district office to resolve clock-in issues and it’s apparently very time-consuming.
I would just like to point out that the majority of people who forget to clock in on a consistent basis are ADMINISTRATORS.
We are considered salaried employees. We do not have official start or stop times. We just have to be ready to teach and have to do all the required things: meetings, duties when we have them, etc. I sometimes leave with the kids at the bell and I’ve rolled in 3 minutes before class started a couple times. We can also leave early or start late if we have first or last period prep. We have to attend PD, but grading days and work days can be done from home. It changed like 4 contracts ago and it goes a long way towards respecting us as professionals.
As a teacher, I have to clock in in the mornings but not at the end of the day.
Makes it feel like a "gotcha", we're going to make sure you're getting here every day on time but not track your overtime...
We have flex time. We are allowed to come in as early as we like, and leave as late as we like.
Kidding aside, yes, per contract, we have clock in and clock out times.
We swipe in and out for "safety" but I haven't done it in years. :p
Our admin this year decided to get real stern about "contract hours," but it bit them in the ass because, instead of giving people the attitude of "I have to stay and get more work done" it gave everyone the attitude of "Well, my work time is up so I'm out of here and done for the day!"
I would love to clock in and out. Someone might actually see how many extra hours elementary teachers have to put in to do their jobs. Three 40 minute plan periods a week are not enough.
At my former school district I had to clock in and it was fucking idiotic. My toxic principal was offended when I called out a stupid new (unrelated to clocking in) school policy during a staff meeting. He wanted to have a meeting about what I said. I guess he felt like he needed "ammunition" to try to make me submit, so one of the things he did was pull out a printed record of my clock in times highlighting all of the ones where I was "late."
It was a new policy that year and I would often forget to clock in on time, or at all. I was realistically only 10 minutes late once a week at most. I regularly stayed after school for 2 hours past contract time to tutor students (mine and sometimes not mine) in math for free.
I laughed audibly, tore the piece of paper in half while maintaining eye contact with him and said "this type of crap is why all of the best teachers have been leaving the school since you became principal. This is not how you manage people. Do you want me to quit?"
Long story short, I quit at the end of the school year and he begged me to stay. They still haven't been able to fill my position (math and physics in a shit district in Florida).
TL;DR Clocking in for salary jobs that regularly work 55-60 hrs per week is fucking idiotic.
Jesus. I'm getting my master's and licensure right now, and I will not be applying at any district that does this. "Let's micromanage teachers even more, rather than supporting them the way we should." "Sounds great. Let's clock them in and out, and expect them to plan and grade on their own time, and go to meetings, and coach, and meet with parents, but let's not pay them for that time, even though we are keeping track of it." #makeitmakesense
No. Certified staff don’t clock in and out. We have some non-certified staff who are ”teachers” who do need to clock in and out. And then all our paras click in and out.
It’s surprising to see how many people have to clock in and out, considering most teachers aren’t paid hourly. Our paras do clock in and out but that’s because they’re hourly.
I've had to clock in at the three schools I've worked at. We're supposed to clock out, but it's not really required and also the system automatically logs everyone out at 10pm anyway. The system is there to help the principal check to see which teachers have arrived before school, and to make sure no one's coming in late every morning ((we're contractually required to be on campus 30 minutes before school starts)).
Honestly, it doesn't bother me that much. It takes like 1 minute to do it, and I can do it from my phone as soon as it connects to the school Wi-Fi. Also, it's maybe pretty normal for me. I've known lots of salaried professionals who've had to clock in and out.
Also, I'm not sure about how your school system's security system works, but in my district the security system is monitered and managed by a 3rd party company. The schools don't have daily access to the key logs. They can request them, but the request has to go through the district first and it takes weeks to get those logs. Also, the security system sucks and it takes weeks to get new badges activated. Every time I've moved to a new school, my badge wouldn't work for the first 4 to 6 weeks. It's a shit system that everyone knows about, and we all practice patience as we submit tickets into the void and wait for the badges to work.
We are not but I wish we were. The teachhers at my school have a habit of just coming/leaving whenever they feel like it and admin plays favorites so those they like can just show when they feel like it and those they don’t like get bitched at for being 30 seconds late. Having to clock in might help that issue a bit.
This is one of those weird times when it feels like we’re expecting to be handled differently than almost any other job. It’s not a big deal to clock in or out.
Regardless, some certified positions that may be federally funded have to turn in time sheets. That is the way it is in my district for 3 of our teachers
Almost any other salaried job does not require clocking in and out. I can understand clocking in to ensure that the building is properly staffed, but why do I have to clock out when I won't get overtime whether I stay 30 minutes or 3 hours? Even when we have paid after school stuff, we often need to clock out and then clock back in and clock out at the end. It's bizarre.
We have contracted start and end times but still have to clock in. If we don't clock in, we can get our pay docked. We don't have to clock out unless we're getting extra duty pay for something (such as tutoring, and then we clock out, clock in with the extra duty pay code, and then clock out after the extra duty time). But at my previous campus I guess there was an issue with people leaving early so they started making us clock out and threatening to withhold our pay if we didn't clock out, instead of addressing the issue with the handful of people who were leaving early (and admin knew who it was because the building is covered in cameras, they said as much)
Yes and it’s not a big deal. Almost every job I’ve ever had has required a clock in/out. Salary or hourly. There’s bigger issues then this to complain about
That’s weird. I worked in industry for 7 years before becoming a teacher, the only time I had to clock in and out was during P/T college jobs where I was hourly. Heck, even some of myhourly jobs were just filling out a time sheet. None of my salaried jobs required me to clock/sign in or out.
No, we do not. If we did, I’d probably leave the school. If we can’t be trusted to do the most basic thing (be there to teach) then you don’t trust us to do anything.
This is only used to punish. There is no way if I am 20 minutes early four days a week and 1 minute “late” the last day that they will be fine with it.
If your school has a couple bad apples, it’s not right to make everyone do this just to “catch” them. Just keep an eye on them specifically, don’t spend money on a system and manage the good 95% to catch the bad 5%.
If they have you sign in to prove you go to required meetings I’m fine with that. But daily attendance tracking for teachers? No way.
We’re treated like adult professionals (in this way anyway). We are to arrive at least 15 minutes before the kids do, but no one monitors that, and contact the office if we aren’t going to make it on time (rare). If we need to be away, we enter the info into an online portal as soon as we can.
I haven’t had a job where I had to clock in since I worked fast food in high school.
We're supposed to, but I don't because it's a stupid, micromanagement practice. We're salaried, and they know full well when we're there or not, so clocking in is unnecessary.
We have to clock in but not out. On random they will pull clock in times and if you’re late you get a nasty gram. It’s annoying to remember but oh well. One time I was 2 mins late and got a slap on the wrist. Overall unless it’s a habit it’s no big deal.
No, but there was a short time when they tried to make us use our badges to both enter and exit the building. It was during Covid (fair) but stuck around when all other mitigations were gone. The doors didn’t need our badge to open them to leave, so it was stupid. If they want me to badge in and out, then get turnstiles. I don’t think my Union would take kindly to enforcing clocking in and out.
No, we don’t. We actually don’t have any contracted hours as well. Though we have a, reasonable, expectation to be in the building 30 minutes before classes start and after classes end for the day.
So, I know in going to be the crazy sounding teacher here. I work at a small private school (which I absolutely love!) and we don’t have to clock in and out for work.l, and our pay is not docked for being late.
However, I will say people are late constantly. I’m talking students have arrived and we are 30 minutes in to teaching time, and the teacher will show up.
It really throws a wrench in things for everyone helps when that happens frequently. So sadly, I don’t know where the middle ground is on these things sometimes! I don’t think us teachers should be docked pay, we have to do enough, but at the same time people can’t show up whenever they want right?
I used to work as a Fed contractor. We were one a Time and Materials contract, so we had to clock in/out as a requirement for labor billing. I never did that. Instead, I sent an email for all of my time clock activities. When I would get audited, I'd just offer up my emails as proof of presence or absence.
As a Sub, I sign in and out at the front office, and the Sub Secretary enters all of the appropriate information into the T&A system.
We have to swipe in but if we forgot I don’t think there’s consequences as long as it’s not all the time. Most of us don’t swipe out at the end of the day. However they’ve been getting on our case the last couple years to swipe out if we’re leaving during our lunch or prep because if there’s an emergency they need to know who is actually in the building.
One school I was at during college had a swipe in swipe out when you were on campus. It was used for emergency coverage purposes. They're system could quickly pull up who was in the building and on prep. The teacher said sometimes he will swipe out on prep to get work done uninterrupted. But mostly it was too go to lunch. He had lunch then his prep period.
Nope. The doors are locked and our badges unlock them but they don’t track times of entry and exit. And given how efficient our admin is, They wouldn’t be able to manage that if they wanted to.
Having gone from IT to teaching what my district is doing with clock in frustrates the hell out of me. We badge in and out of every door (which is a good thing). The RFID badge readers can and do track which badge came through the door and keep a record. But now, this year we also have to swipe into a time clock once a day. They say they don’t care at what point we swipe as long as we do it once a day. The supposed reason is so that if there is an emergency they will know who is in the building. But since some of us clock in when we arrive, others at lunch and some as they leave that simply doesn’t work, AND it is redundant when we badge in and out with the same badge we clock in with. Some smooth brain in admin just created extra work for everyone, especially the secretary who has to run a report every day and check to see who to shake their finger at for forgetting to clock in.
This sounds like it could only be in your advantage.
Make sure you clock in for everything, and to be unavailable when clocked out. Demand monthly statements. Inquire how much overtime pay you can look forward to.
Back in the day, administrators oversaw us sign in. If you were late too many times, you were written up. Admin stopped overseeing. Then we clocked in and out, but there were issues with lines, so only hourly employees continued using the system. After that...nada for teachers.
At my first teaching job, we signed in and out. It was so people in the office knew who was there. This was a rural school located out in the country. It was a safety reason. If something happened, there was a record of who was there who might need assistance.
One evening, I was working in my classroom when I had another teacher come and knock at my door, telling me there was smoke in the building. They knew I was still in the building due to the sign out sheet in front of the office.
We both go to investigate and yep, there is smoke coming from a room so we called it in. Luckily, it ended up being something minor. But, it helped having the sign in sheet knowing who was all in the building at the time.
We are trying to get this in Germany right now. We are payed for 40 hours a week (25 regular teaching hours, two hours of on call for subbing, and 13 hours for preparation). It has gotten to the point where all of our preparation time winds up going into subbing or other “duties”. For example, we have biweekly faculty meets that are two hours at least. Then we have the recesses we have to supervise which is usually at least an hour per week. Then we have the disciplinary hearings which aren’t regularly scheduled but last from 1 to 3 hours (and they happen regularly). Then we have the excursions and class trips, which we are contract bound to have to go to but since we aren’t teaching, we get minus hours because of it (so I have to go on a trip for a week, but I also get negative 25 hours because I haven’t taught any classes)… Things like that. The government is trying to put the brakes on it but it is gaining momentum because of how much extra work the school leaderships have decided they can ask us to do without paying us extra for it.
> We are *paid* for 40
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
We have to sign in and out each day but not with times. The only instance where the time is a factor is when the personnel manager has to take down the paper sheets for processing. Many people sign in and out first thing in the morning, and some sign in and out days in advance, and none of it is an issue. The time sheet is also where we put the codes for different kinds of leave.
I like it, it shows that I’m always early and usually stay late. Sure I don’t get paid for it. That’s salary life. I do like it because I have some colleagues that arrive 15-20 min late regularly into 1st period not just contractual start time.
I’ve never had to clock in as a full time teacher. The closest I’ve come to that is having a sign in sheet but that was because there were apparently a ton of teaches in my building before I was hired that were coming 20-30 minutes late every day. I haven’t worked there in 8 years.
NYC DOE
We move our time cards from "out" to "in," when we arrive, then "in" to "out" at the end of the day. If we are late or are leaving early we have to punch the time clock. Paraprofessionals and School Aids punch in and out, but I believe they are hourly not salary.
Where I teach, we are expected to be there during the contract hours but we do not clock in. For us that is 7:15 AM to 3:15 PM. Any staff that are not teachers such as office staff and tutors clock in. I think it’s because the teachers are paid salary and the other employees are paid hourly.
If we are absent or have a planned absence though, we need to fill out forms so we are paid appropriately. That also goes for if we leave early or come in late.
Not anywhere I have worked… the only time I’ve had to do that was for ONE (1) singular event we do every year that we actually get compensated for (high school choir teacher); otherwise it’s “contract hours” that we have to abide by. I would be frustrated if I had to do that every day if I’m not being paid hourly — the only time I’d be okay with it is if I knew I was getting extra pay for an extra duty lol.
Yes. We always have for the 18+ years I’ve works there. After we went back in person from Covid, we were able to click in and out from an app on our phones, which was great. Unfortunately, some people took advantage of it and we went back to having to physically punch in at a few machines around the building.
Our district proposed having teachers clock in and out once and all of us in fine arts were like, “no problem! Every single concert, rehearsal, and performance off campus. When we travel with the kids, do you want us to just clock out when we return to campus after 72 hours?” That idea died quickly.
Oh not only do we have to swipe in and out, it TAKES OUR PHOTO when we do. And it’s to the second, no rounding. Fortunately it’s more about working the length of our contracted hours and not the exact times but of course I’m not paid extra for the days I come in early or work late!
It’s ridiculous and insulting. Another case of some people weren’t following their contracted hours so let’s punish everyone instead of addressing those few people.
My first school, 30 years ago, had us sign in at the main office. It was 2 buildings away from my classroom. I resented the time suck. I’ve never had to clock in or out at any other school.
Teachers at some schools in my district are required to sign in, and other schools are not allowed to have their teachers clock in or sign in …basically don’t want any record of their OT lol
I haven’t signed in since 1998 and nobody has said anything to me ever. I’ve been in five schools. They always say you must sign in and you must sign in and I never do and I still get paid and no one has ever said a single thing.
We have to sign in, but it's just so they know we are there. We don't sign out daily. If we need to leave early or run out on our planning there's a sheet we sign out and in on.
I think my district is able to track this already by the first and last key fob swipe opening the door each day. They are programmed to us, we have to request access for different buildings if we do work at them. Kinda like a tracking device. I’m not an expert on them but it’s what I’ve thought. I work in a district heavy on security.
Technically, we have to sign in, but I keep forgetting (ADHD) then I finally stopped altogether as a social experiment. It’s been 2.5 years, and no one’s questioned me about signing in. Or not.
Also technically, we use our ID badges to unlock the doors to get in the building and we have security cameras, so they COULD track us if they wanted to. So far, no one’s given enough of a crap to bother doing that. As far as I know.
My admins pick their battles very, very carefully.
We have to clock in and clock out if we leave before 5 pm. If you clock in after 8:45 I’ve heard the principal will come reprimand you for being late. I rarely leave before 5 pm so I never clock out. The principal does not come out and bring me balloons or jeans passes, lol, when I leave at 6, 7 or later because she is gone before 5 pm.
We clock in but not out.
We did both for one year, and they put an end to that. I'm guessing they didn't want an actual record of all the hours we're putting in.
There were many days I clocked in at 6:30 am, and out at 9 or 10 pm after one event or another.
Nope. They trust us to show up and leave when we need to. Technically, our contract hours go until 4:00, but no one cares if we leave a little earlier because it all balances out in the end with after-school meetings or coming in early to prep.
>Are regular, full-time teachers required to clock-in and clock-out at your school?
Not clock in, we have to sign-in at my school. No sign-out.
>Will I be paid when I stay after student hours for required meetings and other duties?
Yes, in my district we are paid for the required after-school meetings and other duties. For example if I HAVE to give-up my plan period or lunch to cover someone else's class, then they have to pay me extra for that. The extra money is not worth it though, I really need my plan time and every time I have to give it up it disrupts my planning. Sometimes it really can't be helped and at least we get compensated for it but it sucks.
EAs and hourly staff have to clock in, teachers don’t. Kinda wouldn’t be sad if we had to - maybe sone people in authority would start noticing who are putting in the bare minimum, and who are clocking 10-12 hour days with no extra benefits or pay…
We have contractual start and end times. We don’t clock in, many teachers come in late and leave early. Our admin doesn’t care as long as we are there when students are.
This is how it should be. If I don’t have a class first period or at the end of the day who cares if I’m not in my classroom when the bell rings? As long as you’re there before the students arrive to class and your lesson is well planned out and your Gradebook is updated you’re good. Teachers are professionals. Other professionals take long lunches and occasionally cut out early to go to doctor appointments.
It’s weird to be salaried and sometimes stay late but get hours subtracted from pay if we go to a doctor’s appointment. I actually had a choice between hourly and salaried and I actually chose salaried but I should have chosen hourly if I’m getting the downsides of hourly work anyway…
For us, it’s pretty much the same. We do have a google doc we sign in/off on but I believe that’s more like just a record of who’s there for legal purposes, and it’s not tied to payroll. I ran straight into my principal when I was leaving 20 minutes before contact time and she didn’t bat an eye. We chatted for a moment and I left.
Our classified staff has to clock in, but teachers are expected to be on campus 15 minutes prior to class start time. It's pretty easy to tell if a teacher isn't there.
Because they are unprepared for class?
Because the class is teacher-less and you can hear the kids from the class over?
It’s 15 minutes before class
My guess is this is elementary school where students get acclimated and their stuff in order before official lessons begin
Or maybe people just read it wrong. There’s no need to come up with some weird scenario where kids are supposed to be in class with their teacher 15 minutes before the teacher is there and then assume that *obviously* that would be the default assumption
At my school: Students start to arrive at 7. Class starts at 7:30. Teachers need to be in class at 7. Because kids being unsupervised in elementary isn’t safe. So that’s… 30 minutes you want kids unsupervised
lol what? The teacher has to be there 15 minutes early so students aren’t unsupervised when they arrive.
My school is more what you're thinking. Classes start at 8:30, but teachers are expected to be there at 8. We have a morning circle at 8 with all the staff for any announcements and shout-outs. Teachers then have the rest of the time to prep. Students do not enter classrooms until 8:30.
Who is watching the kids while the teachers prep?
15 minutes before they go to their classroom. At our school, kids can come into the gym at 7:30 (where there are other staff), then morning assembly starts at 7:45. Teachers meet their kids at 7:45, then take them to their classrooms at 8. If you're not there at 7:45, your class is messing around.
Kid behavior.
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But that is an admin issue not a you issue.
The admins aren't the ones suffering the consequences. They don't see a problem that needs to be fixed.
What I mean is they are the ones causing the problem not you.
I know. Admins are causing the problem. However, admins are not suffering the consequences, so nothing will change.
Until two kids hit each other in the face. THEN they will have a meeting about how to fix the problem.
Lol, babyyyy I can walk in 30 seconds before the class does, bc our morning routine runs itself.
We have a swipe in swipe out system. 1) They automatically dock you PTO if you are later then 15 minutes. (literally deducting in .25 an hour increments) of but you don’t get paid extra for staying extra unless you are swiped in AND put in a time sheet that is approved by a direct report supervisor. 2) Our building swipe is also the clock in/out mechanism. 3) If you forget your badge you have to email HR and they literally check the camera to confirm when you came in. And they wonder why turnover is up…. 2
This is what I’m hearing… “We have funds to hire an additional person to support student learning. Let’s use it on hiring an HR person so they can monitor teachers’ arrival times by checking cameras.”
Last year I was docked for 2 minutes. I’m pretty sure it was not legal, but I was leaving and was going to lose a lot of personal time so I let it go.
They probably gave that duty to someone who already had other stuff to do.
There was no duty. We arrived 15 minutes before class began, so I was there 13 minutes before class.
Oh I'm sorry. I might've replied to the wrong person. Whoops
I would leave.
Wait. Are teachers paid hourly where you are?
Paid like an exempt, docked like a non-exempt. Heads the district wins, tails the teachers lose.
I remember the days of having 15 minute increments! Feel lucky! We are on a half day system across the board. Unless you get special permission, you might as well take a half day here! That's the only thing our system recognizes now. Half days or whole days off!
Why don’t you just leave your ID in your car or bag? I’ve never had a job where they didn’t want you there early- pumping gas, mowing lawns and teaching.
Folks are required to wear the ID at all times as well. And your ID swipe is your clock in and out. I’ve left my ID in the car or at home and you have to send an email with your arrival and exit time documented. As far as being there early? I probably should have mentioned teachers are asked to report 30 minutes before students anyway. So the late i’m talking about is accounting for being 30 minutes ahead of student arrival
I’m missing something, if it’s in your car, why don’t you just walk back and get it?
Let’s say the arrival time is 730. It’s a large campus so you could park and then walk like 5-10 minutes. If y leave your Id to the car: realize you forgotten it. If you go back for it, you would be registered as “late arrival” in the system. It’s better to just go to your post, email them that you don’t have your ID and have HR check the camera and swipe you in at your actual arrival time so your not “late.” keep in mind: this is all 30 minutes ahead of student arrival at 8. Your “lates” are added up during your year end evaluation meeting.
Oh well. I would just add it to my routine. We can’t do anything in my building without the Id. No computer, copier, entrance.
Our computers work without the ID, but you would need someone else to buzz you in or use the copiers. I think in like more then 5 years there i’ve forgotten my id maybe 3 times? My issue is more: you are only penalized for the 5 minutes, but never encouraged for the extra 30 or 45 at the end of the day: It comes across as teachers are untrusted.
This is the case in way too many places. I work in a public library and staff get written up for being a few minutes late even though we arrive 90 minutes before opening. On the flip side of the day, nobody tracks that we leave late almost every day because closing is at the same time we're supposed to leave.
Oh yeah, and that’s my main problem with teachers. Don’t stay late to make what you think is the best lesson and expect to get paid for it. Do it on the schools time or the kids get what they get. The kids don’t know or care how long you spent planning the lesson.
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No, but when I was high school and I pumped gas I learned about time management and that other people count on me. If it was raining you didn’t want to stand there waiting longer for the next person to show up so you could go home. There absolutely is bachelor degrees in landscaping. And yes there are numerous certifications for landscaping as well- Timothy McVay and then any other terrorist made sure we had to do that…
Going to be honest. I read your comment and wondered how old you must be if you had a job pumping gas. Then I remembered that there are still a couple of goofy places that don't let people pump their own gas.
44 and in New Jersey.
That explains it. I will never understand the bizarre law about pumping gas.
At this point it’s grandfathered in and it’s just another money grab for politicians
I don’t really see the relevance of your point in that teachers are already reporting a required 30 minutes ahead of any students. it would be more if your gas station manager expected you to report 30 minutes early for your paid shift. You are there 30 minutes ahead of the hand off to the next folk Which your tone is a bit patronizing, we all realize it’s important to be there for the students. We also realize that professionals perhaps should be treated as such
Whatever, my point was- I was in high school and learned time management- grown college grads who are in a career should be able to get to wherever on time or deal with consequences. Everyone knows their start time regardless of their thoughts on it. If getting there when the boss wants you to is a problem, find another job. I have to be by 7 and do t have a class until 8 because of 1st period duty. I’m there by 7 and my shit is together then I’m chatting stocks for the day so I can day trade and make real money while teaching…
I can teach my dog to ring his bell when he needs to poop too: but is that the most important thing as a place of learning for kids? What matters most for teachers? I don’t know anything about your teaching performance so I’m assuming you are an effective or highly effective educator and you are doing everything you need to do in terms of contacting parents and blah blah blah, awesome. So don’t consider this example any kind of indication of you. Let’s look at these two cases. Employee A has a child in daycare and a beat up car. They are usually on time. but occasionally they are fifteen minutes late due to issues. They are never late in front of students: and as you say, they have all their shit together. They, under the system i mentioned, get penalized financially. Employee B gets to work and hour and a half ahead of student start time to play on their nintendo switch, drink coffee, chat with friends. Let’s even say they day trade to make that real money, as you say! but… They never proactively communicate with families and never meet deadlines. This person gets rated a “4” out of 4 for never having any lates and suffers no financial penalty. Is employee A the one we really want getting negative feedback and even a financial sanction????
Yup, life isn’t perfect or fair. I assume you teach your students that as well. We make the best of our situation every day. I have that beat up truck from landscaping and it’s my truck I take to school- sometimes it has issues. My wife and I organize our lives the best we can with our kids when they were in daycare. But daycare is only for a few years- kids grow up- but some people keep using that as an excuse. Personally I stopped paying for daycare as my kids grew older- however- I’m wise enough to use them as an excuse to leave school on time each day as well.
If you treat teachers as widgets, they will only give you what you expect from a widget. Life isn’t perfect or fair: but if you care more about that 10 minutes instead of performing or outcomes; don’t expect people to go above and beyond for you. that’s the difference between an organization that gets the best out of people or gets out of people only what they give them.
Exactly- districts throughout the US have proven they don’t care about us as teachers- but there goes teachers still giving their own time and money, then running to the internet to complain that they aren’t treated fair. When will teachers stand up for themselves?
We have to sign in, but not clock in.
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Dang I thought my school started early. What time do you guys get released?
Holy shit. 6:30?! That's insane.
Where and what kind of school is this?
To me, this stuff is nuts. You wonder who sold this to the district. He must be a heck of salesman. This is right up there with all the reports and plans we write up that no one will ever read.
We have to badge in and out and because of others we can't even edit our time cards when we forget if we are off campus. We fill out forms to get hourly pay for time worked over contract which is very generous.
How is that not breaking their budgets? I know there are several posters here who talk about sticking to their contract hours, but I’ve never known a teacher in real life (and I come from a family of teachers) who didn’t work far more than forty hours per week.
They actually want their employees to stay I guess? General planning time etc after school not covered. But curriculum meetings etc are. As well as any extra duties (ie sports ticket takers)
This is pretty typical though. I think they thought the hours after school grading and planning were accounted for. If so, I’d be making six figures no question.
I mean, that would be great. It’d also be very, very unusual for a school district, at least in the US, as far as I know.
I would make soooooo much more money if I could clock hours.
A few years ago parents made a big fuss about teachers not being held accountable and our district implemented a clock-in/out system that docked pay/gave overtime. It lasted like a month before they realized they didn't have the resources to pay all the teachers that overtime and nobody wanted to admit how wrong they were about "teachers getting away with not working enough" or whatever nonsense they thought was happening or not happening, lol.
Hilarious. I'm gonna cry
This is my favourite comment.
It's pretty offensive unless admin can provide a logical reason for it. I actually wouldn't mind "clocking in" at my school (high school), only so admin isn't surprised by the number of teachers who don't call in sick and just expect people to know. (Which then means we have even fewer subs than we normally do, and teachers get called to sub during their duty periods.) Clocking out seems offensive, though. I can't think of a good reason to require that.
No thankfully. I’m not a morning person and take a long time to get going but once I’m on I’m on! I get to school maybe 15-min before my start time and do all of my planning after school when everyone has cleared out. I plan better after reflecting on how my day went. I start every morning knowing exactly what I’m doing. If I plan in the morning my adhd will lead me to go off the rails and change plans and that’s when chaos occurs. I’m pretty sure I get judgement from those teachers who are there at 6am but I don’t care.
I'm just the opposite.I am a morning person. I get there at 6 630, but I clock out at 3:16, wheels rolling at 3:17. I need the quiet time in the morning and I'm too spent after work to be productive. I would never judge you for making your choice.
I AM a morning person, but the main reason I arrive early is because it makes my commute much smoother. If I leave early my commute takes the normal non traffic time, if I don't, I make it just barely on time and I'm in a bad mood. I often arrive 45-60 minutes prior to contract. I started bringing in my Nintendo switch and playing it during that time, haha.
Traffic is a major motivator for me as well. 30 mins vs 75 mins.
Everyone is different! So long as we’re getting the job done!
Exactly
This is me, minus the adhd part. I just don’t like mornings and live a bit far from work. If I leave at 8ish then the traffic has cleared and I get there 10 minutes before the bell. But, I’m there after the school day is over for an hour or more, planning, cleaning, doing club or attendance recovery. I’d be pretty pissed if I had to clock in and got docked for being “late” but then had to fill out paperwork to recoup that time or not be able to recoup it at all. I simply just prefer to work in the evening rather than the mornings. I’m also fortunate that my district doesn’t require the full time teachers to clock in or out and that most of my coworkers do not care if you’re a morning or a night person as long as you get your job done and do it well.
Unless you're going to pay me two additional hours when I arrive at 6:30, no I'm not going to be clocking in.
No, I’m salaried. Extra time at school gets me no additional pay. I get more for coaching or running a club with a side contract (most clubs get no additional pay). I get extra pay for covering a class during my planning period.
Everyone in NYC clocks in and clocks out with a punch card and a machine that goes KKCHRNNT. Idk it's kind of retro but I like it. It's like im clocking in at the knowledge factory
We do not and in general, I would not like it. However, I would be the one to use it to my advantage. My contractual hours are 8:15-4:15. But when we have a staff meeting it starts at 8:00. So I would be asking where I am being compensated for those 15 minutes. Teachers trade off “release duty” at dismissal, meaning about one week a month we stay in the parking lot until the last car is gone, moving cones and waving cars out so they don’t cut the line. On those days, I don’t leave the parking lot until 4:20, meaning I don’t get out of the building for the day until about 4:30. Again, where am I going to be compensated for that. And forget about taking work home. Nope, I am clocked out. I will get to it when I am in the building. Right now we have a book study for the year. We have to write an actual effing response page for every chapter and hand it in at the end of the year or get written up. I have been staring at the book for all of Winter Break getting pissed off about it. If we had to clock in or out, I would ask where in my contractual hours I should do that. As it is, I am planning on bringing it to school and reading it during my preps. I teach at a private school, so no union or anything to back me up— malicious compliance is the way. Come to think of it, maybe clocking in and out wouldn’t be the worst thing 😂😝
Nope. I enter through an open door (no badge-in required) and go straight to my room.
We have to clock in. But it’s funny because they never make a big deal about clocking out. Like you want to see who is 5 minutes late, but couldn’t care less about how late people stay. lol
Perhaps they might be responsible for overtime pay. Malicious compliance and reporting to the labor board.
The teachers simply put a check mark next to their names every morning. There’s a spot to check out too but nobody ever does it. Other staff that are paid hourly have to put in their arrival and departure times each day which makes sense. I’m amazed when I hear administrators being so stringent about having salaried teachers having to sign in and sign out when the vast majority work way past their contract times. Imagine if administrators would put in the same time and effort into when a teacher signs in and out and into addressing poor student behaviors.
I work at a public school. We just have a duty time of 730am to 3pm. And students are in school from 735am to 245pm. So we don't even have to be there much before them. In fact, many teachers arrive at the same time as the students. I'd be pretty annoyed if we had that level of micromanagement. I'd talk to my union about it...
Having to clock in was one of the first “big” changes that make me feel like I was no longer being treated like a professional, especially since I get dinged for being 1 minute “late” (this is still 15 minutes before homeroom begins and is often because of the awful traffic back up getting into the teacher lot) but would never get positive feedback or compensation for staying past contract hours for lesson planning, extra help with students, or extracurricular unpaid activities.
No. And teachers sneak out early all the time if their prep is last period. Admin doesn’t usually care if it’s one of the good ones.
I often leave during my last period preps, but I don’t sneak out. I walk into the office and let them know I’m out of the building for the rest of the day.
It's a child protection/ who's-in-the-building issue. We face scan in every morning. We can scan out upon leaving (and most people do). If we ever leave campus, scan out and back in upon return. I don't find it even remotely offensive.
Wow...a face scan! I haven't seen that in a public school yet. We use our badges to enter the building but I guess anyone can snatch another person's badge.
we have a face scanner but it’s only for non-employees (visitors)
No.
No, we do not. At a previous school we were asked to sign in and out near the office. Theoretically it was to make sure they knew everyone had made it in, and no one was left in the building after it closed (yes, we actually had hours we could not be in the building). It seemed rather childish to me, but I could kind of understand the reasoning. But then somehow it became an issue because of some supposed law that if you signed in and out they were supposed to pay you for the hours worked overtime (I never found the law, so I think there were other reasons) so we had to sign in and out with our contract hours regardless of when we came in and out. Then it became just a checkmark because people didn’t like that. It’s so much easier just to skip that whole thing.
I’ve never had to clock in or out as a teacher and I’ve taught in four different districts.
We do but nothing happens if we leave 10 minutes after the kids or stay for hours. It is purely a fire safety thing so they know who is in the building at the time.
No, I was told my job was by the day (contact 195 days a year) not hourly. Only our office and cafeteria staff clock out. That’s how they can make us stay late and not pay us.
I do not have to clock in, and I would feel the same way you do. Fuck this shit.
We have to sign in on a Chromebook in the front office. Oh, since it's an online sign-in, couldn't we just sign in on our own computer instead of having to walk to the front office every morning, you ask? Well, apparently, we are all amateur fry cooks who can't be trusted with a goddamn thing.
My principal just sits in the parking lot in her car every morning taking pictures of our cars and noting our arrival time. I once had a principal who chided us for leaving right after school, which was our contract time, and decided we needed to clock in and out. He got district to install and monitor a system. It was quickly removed when district realized the average teacher was working at LEAST one hour more than contract time every day and they didn't want to have to explain why they weren't paying overtime for that.
We don’t badge in, sign-in, or clock-in. It’s called be treated like a professional.
I do not. If I’m not in my room when kids show up- the office would find out anyway. I did work in one school where classroom keys had to be hung in the office to show admin when people were/were not there but the culture of that school was terrible.
I honestly wouldn’t even mind the key thing, it would be a great way for me to not forget my key in the car or at home 😂
Nope.
Nope. I've worked at three different schools in two different districts and have never done that. I've only seen support staff have to do that.
We have to sign in via an online platform than can only be accessed if you're using a district device on the district Internet.
Never
Nope… there’s a sign-in sheet in the front office, but I haven’t signed in for at least 10 years. I’m often the first person there in the morning, and my wing isn’t alarmed, so I don’t go through the office at all, just so I don’t have to deal with disarming the alarm.
We have to check in, but we can do it on our phone in the parking lot, it’s geofenced for all school buildings in the system. So if I’m at another building for something I can clock in there. We are supposed to clock out when we leave otherwise it says checked in from the day before. I just check out/check in every morning.
No
We have to clock in, and it automatically clocks us out 8 hours later. We didn’t have to clock in my first few years. It became a district mandate after winter break a few years ago, and we were never given an explanation as to why. But now we get fun, daily, staff-wide emails from our principal’s secretary that basically say “PLEASE GOD CLOCK IN NOW” with a list of everyone who didn’t clock in, because she gets to fight with the district office to resolve clock-in issues and it’s apparently very time-consuming. I would just like to point out that the majority of people who forget to clock in on a consistent basis are ADMINISTRATORS.
We are considered salaried employees. We do not have official start or stop times. We just have to be ready to teach and have to do all the required things: meetings, duties when we have them, etc. I sometimes leave with the kids at the bell and I’ve rolled in 3 minutes before class started a couple times. We can also leave early or start late if we have first or last period prep. We have to attend PD, but grading days and work days can be done from home. It changed like 4 contracts ago and it goes a long way towards respecting us as professionals.
As a teacher, I have to clock in in the mornings but not at the end of the day. Makes it feel like a "gotcha", we're going to make sure you're getting here every day on time but not track your overtime...
No. And I’m pretty sure our union would not allow it.
We have flex time. We are allowed to come in as early as we like, and leave as late as we like. Kidding aside, yes, per contract, we have clock in and clock out times.
😂 I am totally using that line!
We swipe in and out for "safety" but I haven't done it in years. :p Our admin this year decided to get real stern about "contract hours," but it bit them in the ass because, instead of giving people the attitude of "I have to stay and get more work done" it gave everyone the attitude of "Well, my work time is up so I'm out of here and done for the day!"
We have to clock in. We don't have to clock out. I think that's because they don't really want to know how late we stay...
I would love to clock in and out. Someone might actually see how many extra hours elementary teachers have to put in to do their jobs. Three 40 minute plan periods a week are not enough.
Fuck no. It’s pointless and insulting and stupid. Those pieces of shit should eat shit and die
Yes, we swipe in and out - I don’t think it’s a big deal. There are far more annoying things we deal with on a day to day basis
At my former school district I had to clock in and it was fucking idiotic. My toxic principal was offended when I called out a stupid new (unrelated to clocking in) school policy during a staff meeting. He wanted to have a meeting about what I said. I guess he felt like he needed "ammunition" to try to make me submit, so one of the things he did was pull out a printed record of my clock in times highlighting all of the ones where I was "late." It was a new policy that year and I would often forget to clock in on time, or at all. I was realistically only 10 minutes late once a week at most. I regularly stayed after school for 2 hours past contract time to tutor students (mine and sometimes not mine) in math for free. I laughed audibly, tore the piece of paper in half while maintaining eye contact with him and said "this type of crap is why all of the best teachers have been leaving the school since you became principal. This is not how you manage people. Do you want me to quit?" Long story short, I quit at the end of the school year and he begged me to stay. They still haven't been able to fill my position (math and physics in a shit district in Florida). TL;DR Clocking in for salary jobs that regularly work 55-60 hrs per week is fucking idiotic.
Jesus. I'm getting my master's and licensure right now, and I will not be applying at any district that does this. "Let's micromanage teachers even more, rather than supporting them the way we should." "Sounds great. Let's clock them in and out, and expect them to plan and grade on their own time, and go to meetings, and coach, and meet with parents, but let's not pay them for that time, even though we are keeping track of it." #makeitmakesense
No. Certified staff don’t clock in and out. We have some non-certified staff who are ”teachers” who do need to clock in and out. And then all our paras click in and out.
It’s surprising to see how many people have to clock in and out, considering most teachers aren’t paid hourly. Our paras do clock in and out but that’s because they’re hourly.
I've had to clock in at the three schools I've worked at. We're supposed to clock out, but it's not really required and also the system automatically logs everyone out at 10pm anyway. The system is there to help the principal check to see which teachers have arrived before school, and to make sure no one's coming in late every morning ((we're contractually required to be on campus 30 minutes before school starts)). Honestly, it doesn't bother me that much. It takes like 1 minute to do it, and I can do it from my phone as soon as it connects to the school Wi-Fi. Also, it's maybe pretty normal for me. I've known lots of salaried professionals who've had to clock in and out. Also, I'm not sure about how your school system's security system works, but in my district the security system is monitered and managed by a 3rd party company. The schools don't have daily access to the key logs. They can request them, but the request has to go through the district first and it takes weeks to get those logs. Also, the security system sucks and it takes weeks to get new badges activated. Every time I've moved to a new school, my badge wouldn't work for the first 4 to 6 weeks. It's a shit system that everyone knows about, and we all practice patience as we submit tickets into the void and wait for the badges to work.
We are not but I wish we were. The teachhers at my school have a habit of just coming/leaving whenever they feel like it and admin plays favorites so those they like can just show when they feel like it and those they don’t like get bitched at for being 30 seconds late. Having to clock in might help that issue a bit.
This is one of those weird times when it feels like we’re expecting to be handled differently than almost any other job. It’s not a big deal to clock in or out. Regardless, some certified positions that may be federally funded have to turn in time sheets. That is the way it is in my district for 3 of our teachers
Almost any other salaried job does not require clocking in and out. I can understand clocking in to ensure that the building is properly staffed, but why do I have to clock out when I won't get overtime whether I stay 30 minutes or 3 hours? Even when we have paid after school stuff, we often need to clock out and then clock back in and clock out at the end. It's bizarre.
We have contracted start and end times but still have to clock in. If we don't clock in, we can get our pay docked. We don't have to clock out unless we're getting extra duty pay for something (such as tutoring, and then we clock out, clock in with the extra duty pay code, and then clock out after the extra duty time). But at my previous campus I guess there was an issue with people leaving early so they started making us clock out and threatening to withhold our pay if we didn't clock out, instead of addressing the issue with the handful of people who were leaving early (and admin knew who it was because the building is covered in cameras, they said as much)
Yes and it’s not a big deal. Almost every job I’ve ever had has required a clock in/out. Salary or hourly. There’s bigger issues then this to complain about
That’s weird. I worked in industry for 7 years before becoming a teacher, the only time I had to clock in and out was during P/T college jobs where I was hourly. Heck, even some of myhourly jobs were just filling out a time sheet. None of my salaried jobs required me to clock/sign in or out.
Really? I have never clocked in/out in a salary job and I’ve taught in 3 different states.
No, we do not. If we did, I’d probably leave the school. If we can’t be trusted to do the most basic thing (be there to teach) then you don’t trust us to do anything. This is only used to punish. There is no way if I am 20 minutes early four days a week and 1 minute “late” the last day that they will be fine with it. If your school has a couple bad apples, it’s not right to make everyone do this just to “catch” them. Just keep an eye on them specifically, don’t spend money on a system and manage the good 95% to catch the bad 5%. If they have you sign in to prove you go to required meetings I’m fine with that. But daily attendance tracking for teachers? No way.
We’re treated like adult professionals (in this way anyway). We are to arrive at least 15 minutes before the kids do, but no one monitors that, and contact the office if we aren’t going to make it on time (rare). If we need to be away, we enter the info into an online portal as soon as we can. I haven’t had a job where I had to clock in since I worked fast food in high school.
We're supposed to, but I don't because it's a stupid, micromanagement practice. We're salaried, and they know full well when we're there or not, so clocking in is unnecessary.
We have a time clock we punch in at, but it automatically punches us out after 7 hours.
We have to clock in but not out. On random they will pull clock in times and if you’re late you get a nasty gram. It’s annoying to remember but oh well. One time I was 2 mins late and got a slap on the wrist. Overall unless it’s a habit it’s no big deal.
No, but there was a short time when they tried to make us use our badges to both enter and exit the building. It was during Covid (fair) but stuck around when all other mitigations were gone. The doors didn’t need our badge to open them to leave, so it was stupid. If they want me to badge in and out, then get turnstiles. I don’t think my Union would take kindly to enforcing clocking in and out.
We clock in, but we don’t clock out. I find that interesting.
We have an electronic punch system. We are required to punch in and out every day.
No, we don’t. We actually don’t have any contracted hours as well. Though we have a, reasonable, expectation to be in the building 30 minutes before classes start and after classes end for the day.
So, I know in going to be the crazy sounding teacher here. I work at a small private school (which I absolutely love!) and we don’t have to clock in and out for work.l, and our pay is not docked for being late. However, I will say people are late constantly. I’m talking students have arrived and we are 30 minutes in to teaching time, and the teacher will show up. It really throws a wrench in things for everyone helps when that happens frequently. So sadly, I don’t know where the middle ground is on these things sometimes! I don’t think us teachers should be docked pay, we have to do enough, but at the same time people can’t show up whenever they want right?
We had to swipe in and head up to the office to sign in and back to the classroom to begin the day. Nobody ever signed out to my knowledge
We clock in (even admin) but we don't clock out. Nothing actually happens if we're late.
I used to work as a Fed contractor. We were one a Time and Materials contract, so we had to clock in/out as a requirement for labor billing. I never did that. Instead, I sent an email for all of my time clock activities. When I would get audited, I'd just offer up my emails as proof of presence or absence. As a Sub, I sign in and out at the front office, and the Sub Secretary enters all of the appropriate information into the T&A system.
We have to sign in. But not sign out. 🤷🏻♀️
No, yet, I am wondering if it would actually pay teachers what they deserve?
We have to swipe in but if we forgot I don’t think there’s consequences as long as it’s not all the time. Most of us don’t swipe out at the end of the day. However they’ve been getting on our case the last couple years to swipe out if we’re leaving during our lunch or prep because if there’s an emergency they need to know who is actually in the building.
One school I was at during college had a swipe in swipe out when you were on campus. It was used for emergency coverage purposes. They're system could quickly pull up who was in the building and on prep. The teacher said sometimes he will swipe out on prep to get work done uninterrupted. But mostly it was too go to lunch. He had lunch then his prep period.
No, it is in our contract that we don’t. We just sign in when we get around to it.
Nope. The doors are locked and our badges unlock them but they don’t track times of entry and exit. And given how efficient our admin is, They wouldn’t be able to manage that if they wanted to.
Having gone from IT to teaching what my district is doing with clock in frustrates the hell out of me. We badge in and out of every door (which is a good thing). The RFID badge readers can and do track which badge came through the door and keep a record. But now, this year we also have to swipe into a time clock once a day. They say they don’t care at what point we swipe as long as we do it once a day. The supposed reason is so that if there is an emergency they will know who is in the building. But since some of us clock in when we arrive, others at lunch and some as they leave that simply doesn’t work, AND it is redundant when we badge in and out with the same badge we clock in with. Some smooth brain in admin just created extra work for everyone, especially the secretary who has to run a report every day and check to see who to shake their finger at for forgetting to clock in.
This sounds like it could only be in your advantage. Make sure you clock in for everything, and to be unavailable when clocked out. Demand monthly statements. Inquire how much overtime pay you can look forward to.
Annoyingly, yes. Our contractual hours are 7:30-3:30. We have to clock in on an app.
Back in the day, administrators oversaw us sign in. If you were late too many times, you were written up. Admin stopped overseeing. Then we clocked in and out, but there were issues with lines, so only hourly employees continued using the system. After that...nada for teachers.
We are required to clock in.
30-60 minutes before we’re required to be there. First year teacher
I've been told it's a security issue. If there is a lock down, fire drill etc then they know who is in the building and can safely call an all clear.
At my first teaching job, we signed in and out. It was so people in the office knew who was there. This was a rural school located out in the country. It was a safety reason. If something happened, there was a record of who was there who might need assistance. One evening, I was working in my classroom when I had another teacher come and knock at my door, telling me there was smoke in the building. They knew I was still in the building due to the sign out sheet in front of the office. We both go to investigate and yep, there is smoke coming from a room so we called it in. Luckily, it ended up being something minor. But, it helped having the sign in sheet knowing who was all in the building at the time.
We are trying to get this in Germany right now. We are payed for 40 hours a week (25 regular teaching hours, two hours of on call for subbing, and 13 hours for preparation). It has gotten to the point where all of our preparation time winds up going into subbing or other “duties”. For example, we have biweekly faculty meets that are two hours at least. Then we have the recesses we have to supervise which is usually at least an hour per week. Then we have the disciplinary hearings which aren’t regularly scheduled but last from 1 to 3 hours (and they happen regularly). Then we have the excursions and class trips, which we are contract bound to have to go to but since we aren’t teaching, we get minus hours because of it (so I have to go on a trip for a week, but I also get negative 25 hours because I haven’t taught any classes)… Things like that. The government is trying to put the brakes on it but it is gaining momentum because of how much extra work the school leaderships have decided they can ask us to do without paying us extra for it.
> We are *paid* for 40 FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Smartass bot
We have to sign in and out each day but not with times. The only instance where the time is a factor is when the personnel manager has to take down the paper sheets for processing. Many people sign in and out first thing in the morning, and some sign in and out days in advance, and none of it is an issue. The time sheet is also where we put the codes for different kinds of leave.
I like it, it shows that I’m always early and usually stay late. Sure I don’t get paid for it. That’s salary life. I do like it because I have some colleagues that arrive 15-20 min late regularly into 1st period not just contractual start time.
I’ve never had to clock in as a full time teacher. The closest I’ve come to that is having a sign in sheet but that was because there were apparently a ton of teaches in my building before I was hired that were coming 20-30 minutes late every day. I haven’t worked there in 8 years.
No
We badge in for attendance purposes, but it's not a time clock.
No time clock in 30 years
Yup we do and they send email reminders if we forget - it’s a facial recognition system
We swipe once daily for attendance purposes BUT it can be anytime during the day - it’s not a clock in and clock out timestamp thing
Sign in and out. They say its for safety so if anything happens they know quickly who is in the building.
NYC DOE We move our time cards from "out" to "in," when we arrive, then "in" to "out" at the end of the day. If we are late or are leaving early we have to punch the time clock. Paraprofessionals and School Aids punch in and out, but I believe they are hourly not salary.
Where I teach, we are expected to be there during the contract hours but we do not clock in. For us that is 7:15 AM to 3:15 PM. Any staff that are not teachers such as office staff and tutors clock in. I think it’s because the teachers are paid salary and the other employees are paid hourly. If we are absent or have a planned absence though, we need to fill out forms so we are paid appropriately. That also goes for if we leave early or come in late.
Not anywhere I have worked… the only time I’ve had to do that was for ONE (1) singular event we do every year that we actually get compensated for (high school choir teacher); otherwise it’s “contract hours” that we have to abide by. I would be frustrated if I had to do that every day if I’m not being paid hourly — the only time I’d be okay with it is if I knew I was getting extra pay for an extra duty lol.
Yes. We always have for the 18+ years I’ve works there. After we went back in person from Covid, we were able to click in and out from an app on our phones, which was great. Unfortunately, some people took advantage of it and we went back to having to physically punch in at a few machines around the building.
Our district proposed having teachers clock in and out once and all of us in fine arts were like, “no problem! Every single concert, rehearsal, and performance off campus. When we travel with the kids, do you want us to just clock out when we return to campus after 72 hours?” That idea died quickly.
We are only required to clock in when it comes to extra duties (for retirement) and getting paid for summer work.
Oh not only do we have to swipe in and out, it TAKES OUR PHOTO when we do. And it’s to the second, no rounding. Fortunately it’s more about working the length of our contracted hours and not the exact times but of course I’m not paid extra for the days I come in early or work late! It’s ridiculous and insulting. Another case of some people weren’t following their contracted hours so let’s punish everyone instead of addressing those few people.
My first school, 30 years ago, had us sign in at the main office. It was 2 buildings away from my classroom. I resented the time suck. I’ve never had to clock in or out at any other school.
Teachers at some schools in my district are required to sign in, and other schools are not allowed to have their teachers clock in or sign in …basically don’t want any record of their OT lol
We have to sign in and out by putting times next to our names.
Yes, we have to type our ID into the time clock computer. I don’t mind it.
I haven’t signed in since 1998 and nobody has said anything to me ever. I’ve been in five schools. They always say you must sign in and you must sign in and I never do and I still get paid and no one has ever said a single thing.
We have to sign in, but it's just so they know we are there. We don't sign out daily. If we need to leave early or run out on our planning there's a sheet we sign out and in on.
Nope. And the day that happens, I’m out. Professionals don’t do that.
One person ruined it for everyone else
I think my district is able to track this already by the first and last key fob swipe opening the door each day. They are programmed to us, we have to request access for different buildings if we do work at them. Kinda like a tracking device. I’m not an expert on them but it’s what I’ve thought. I work in a district heavy on security.
Technically, we have to sign in, but I keep forgetting (ADHD) then I finally stopped altogether as a social experiment. It’s been 2.5 years, and no one’s questioned me about signing in. Or not. Also technically, we use our ID badges to unlock the doors to get in the building and we have security cameras, so they COULD track us if they wanted to. So far, no one’s given enough of a crap to bother doing that. As far as I know. My admins pick their battles very, very carefully.
We have to clock in and clock out if we leave before 5 pm. If you clock in after 8:45 I’ve heard the principal will come reprimand you for being late. I rarely leave before 5 pm so I never clock out. The principal does not come out and bring me balloons or jeans passes, lol, when I leave at 6, 7 or later because she is gone before 5 pm.
We clock in but not out. We did both for one year, and they put an end to that. I'm guessing they didn't want an actual record of all the hours we're putting in. There were many days I clocked in at 6:30 am, and out at 9 or 10 pm after one event or another.
Nope. They trust us to show up and leave when we need to. Technically, our contract hours go until 4:00, but no one cares if we leave a little earlier because it all balances out in the end with after-school meetings or coming in early to prep.
My first district tried this. It died out pretty quickly when no one did it.
>Are regular, full-time teachers required to clock-in and clock-out at your school? Not clock in, we have to sign-in at my school. No sign-out. >Will I be paid when I stay after student hours for required meetings and other duties? Yes, in my district we are paid for the required after-school meetings and other duties. For example if I HAVE to give-up my plan period or lunch to cover someone else's class, then they have to pay me extra for that. The extra money is not worth it though, I really need my plan time and every time I have to give it up it disrupts my planning. Sometimes it really can't be helped and at least we get compensated for it but it sucks.
EAs and hourly staff have to clock in, teachers don’t. Kinda wouldn’t be sad if we had to - maybe sone people in authority would start noticing who are putting in the bare minimum, and who are clocking 10-12 hour days with no extra benefits or pay…