[Sirsubalot]

On Friday, I am spending my 5th day in a high school class where the teacher requests me.

Although the teachers have brunch duty only once every four weeks, I already checked her schedule, and I am about to have her brunch duty for the 4th day out of five, which is somewhat of a statistical anomaly .

This teacher has a desirable 5th period prep, so for the first four days, I have been called to cover another class during prep. Friday will be no different I am sure.

This means that for the 7.5 hour day from 7:30 to 3:00, which actually goes a little longer due to leaving the report, I will again get only a 30 minute lunch break the entire shift.

Is this within legal parameters?

[YayaSub]

Each state is different, but you are actually ENTITLED to exactly zero breaks if you are over 18 (in my state). Of course, I don't know know of any workplace that doesn't give at least a 30 minute meal break for a shift of that length. How much break time are you expecting?

[luv2teach2017]

In CA, you are by law entitled to breaks. I think the law requires two10 minute breaks and a lunch break for every 8 hours worked in a day. But as a sub, you may have to ask for your breaks, as no one is going to look out for you except you.

[broomrider]

You might want to ask the teacher you are subbing for to split the "fee" she is collecting for having you do other people's duties. Sometimes you get chocolate! [Perhaps you can come up with something more subtle to let her know you are aware you are the one paying for the favors she is dispensing.]

I'm guessing because you are technically working a less then 8 hour day, you are not entitled to breaks.

[Ima Teacher]

We are only required to get a 20 minute lunch.

[Sublime]

I would make sure before going out for break/duty that I am ready for the next class, use the restroom, and I would not rush out to supervise. I think we are entitled to use the restroom on our 15/20 minute break before going outside. When I get break duty at the junior high I always take a few minutes before going out. I'm not going to rush around and stress out just to get there right after the bell rings.

[mkesub]

In my state also, we are not entitled to any breaks. I'm pretty sure I've always gotten at least a 25 minute lunch break. Usually there is another break somewhere during the day, but not always.

[Tapdancesub]

Usually a 10 minute break in the morning, and a 30 minute lunch. If we’re not on time for duty, we hear about it.

[broomrider]

we could easily be held responsible/liable for injuries occurring during assigned duty especially if we are not present at the time.

[Sirsubalot]

I would never sacrifice restroom time to assure I am not late for duty.

Duty time incorporated having the first five minutes free.

I was not at all surprised to pick up my folder with a sticky note to report to ---- for Per 5.

What was a shock was a call from the front office saying that I did not need to report after all since the class had been covered.

I bet this never happens again.

[teabreak]

In my district, the only thing I'm guaranteed is a 30 minute duty free lunch and 20% of my week to be for planning/PLC work. We don't have legally required breaks. You may have to look into what your state and district require.

That's the reality of teaching. I was a full time teacher for 30 years before I retired and started subbing. When I started teaching, every other type of worker in the state was guaranteed a 15 minute break in a 4 hour time frame and a 30 minute meal break for a shift over 6 hours. Not teachers, though. Of course, that has gone away for all adult workers, now. When teachers unions could still negotiate working conditions we had, in theory, a guaranteed 30-minute duty-free lunch break but what that actually meant is that they could require us to work through our lunch breaks as long as we were allowed comp. time to make up for it. Usually, if you had to work through your lunch break, you could leave 30 minutes early....like any teacher had enough prep. time to actually do that. I've worked 7.5 hour days with no break at all. If I had to use the bathroom, I had to ask a neighboring teacher to watch my class, call the office and request someone to watch my class or wait for a class where a student had an aide that traveled with them.

And yes, I've noticed that I often get in on the "extra duties as assigned" when I'm subbing. But when I was a full time teacher, I know that the difficulty of the day I was looking at DID affect whether I thought I could get through the day sick or not. But if all these absences are planned then, yes, it does look as though she's weaseling out of a duty she doesn't enjoy.

What I hate the most is arriving at an elementary school and discovering that I have before-school recess duty. I have one school where that happens pretty frequently. I hate it because they don't have any good procedure for checking in either. It might take me 10 minutes to find someone who can let me into the room (they never hand out room keys) and then I might find out that I have 10 minutes to review lesson plans before I have to go outside for recess duty.