Staffing

Work Day

The unique nature of teaching makes it difficult to compare teachers' work day to those in other kinds of jobs. Generally, teachers aren't expected to be on-site a standard eight-hour workday and the work year is substantially shorter at 187 days (compared to a more typical 220). However, you'd be hard-pressed to find a profession with less flexibility, requiring a six-hour daily performance before some pretty tough audiences!

Teachers can accomplish so much each day, that any day that they are absent means lost learning for their students.

A 2020 NCTQ study found that school teachers are at work 95% of the time, on average, taking off about 9-10 days of school each year.  However, a small percentage of teachers is responsible for a quarter of those absences. The chronic absenteeism of some teachers is a serious problem.

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School districts provide on average 13 days of paid leave each year, most of it reserved for sick days, but often included are two or three days for teachers to attend to personal needs. States often dictate the minimum amount of sick leave teachers must be given. 

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