In what is purported to be an effort to provide guidance to New York school districts regarding the termination of probationary teachers in light of the state’s recently enacted Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) statute, Education Law Section 3012-c, on June 24, 2014, the Board of Regents adopted an amendment to Section 30-2.1(d) of its rules. Unfortunately, however, both the amendment and the circumstances leading to its adoption have succeeded only in creating further confusion in an area that had already been extremely murky. Much of this confusion was occasioned by the abrupt and unexplained deletion of critical language from a state Education Department memorandum which accompanied the proposed amendment.
By way of background, prior to the enactment of Education Law Section 3012-c, school boards possessed broad discretion to terminate a probationary teacher. Indeed, it was settled law that a probationary teacher could be terminated for any reason unless it was established that the termination was for a “constitutionally impermissible purpose or in violation of a statutory proscription.” James v. Board of Education of Central School District No. 1 of the Town of Orangetown and Clarkstown, 37 NY2d 891, 892 (1975).
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