How Do You Resign From a Teaching Position in Arizona?
Today, I’m answering the question: How, as a teacher, do you resign from your position? This is a complicated answer. There’s no simple way to address this. If you want to resign, meaning that you would just want to fulfill your contract and you’re not going to renew your contract for the next school year, that’s the easiest way to resign. You would just fulfill your requirements for the school year. When the school district or the governing board presents you with an Arizona teacher employment contract for the next year, you simply just give them notice that you are not going to renew that contract and don’t sign it. That’s the easiest way.
You just fulfill your school year, you fulfill your contract, you’re letting them know that you’re not going to renew it, and there you go. That’s the easiest way. The more complicated ways are when you are in the middle of the school year, or if you have signed, and then that previous summer you’d like to resign. So, you’ve already signed the contract, you have stated that you will be employed with that school district for the coming school year within the specified date, and now you would like to resign. This gets really complicated. School districts vary from public school districts, charter schools, and private schools. But you’re really at the mercy of the school district to be released from your contract. So, you really need to be released. Most teaching contracts have no without cause termination, which means there’s no way to get out of it. You have to fulfill it.
Now, there are some exceptions and school districts may list them on their teaching contract themselves, but I’ve seen a family leave for yourself or for someone, one of your close family members because of a medical issue, or if you’re moving out of state. I’ve seen that on a contract, but it just varies. And sometimes there are no exceptions whatsoever. So, you need to give as much notice as possible to help mitigate your damages. You need to let them know that you’re leaving. And you may need to specify the reason if it’s within one of those exceptions, and then you’re waiting for the school board to release you from your contract. I’ve also seen some school districts where they will release, but not until your position is filled. So, you may have to be there a little bit longer until they are able to find a suitable replacement for you.
You also want to be careful resigning mid-year. Some public-school districts in Arizona have a liquidated damage clause, which means that if you break your contract mid-year, you may have to pay them back a portion of your salary, bonuses, or just a specific amount. It can get pretty high even like $10,000, $5,000. These are pretty serious consequences. So again, if there’s any way to fulfill your contract for the school year, I would do that first. If you can’t do that, then you need to ask the school to be released from your contract. Now, if they’re still giving you a hard time and they’re not releasing you, then even at the beginning of the onset, if you are trying to terminate your contract after you’ve signed it, I would recommend advising an attorney who’s familiar with these sorts of situations like myself. Other topics of interest include:
We do this daily. You want to make sure that you are doing what’s best for you and that you’re mitigating any sort of financial damage. Also, if you’re terminating your contract after you’ve signed it, so you’re asking to be released or you’re breaching your contract, your school district can also report you to your licensing board, the state board of education for Arizona. It may be considered an act of unprofessional conduct and there may be consequences against your license. Now, there are a lot of factors that play into this. Are you abandoning your class mid-year? Or is this during the summer you’ve given them notice? Is there some family emergency? All these things are factors and they’re very fact specific to your situation. So, you want to be careful. Again, to summarize, the best way to resign from your teaching position is to fulfill your contract for that school year and just give them the intent that you will not be renewing for the next year.
If you have signed your contract and you’re under a contract with a school district, charter school, or private school, you want to read your contract very carefully and see if there are any financial consequences if you terminate your contract. And then also, you’ll want to consider speaking with the school district if they are going to report you to the state board of education because you really don’t want to get put under investigation or any sort of consequences for your teaching license. You want to be careful about that. I know there’s a teacher shortage right now here in Arizona and school districts are really trying hard to hold onto their educators. So, it’s a really difficult time to resign right now. You want to make sure you’re being very careful.
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