Absent Teacher Reserve

Absent Teacher Reserve is a term referring to teachers who are no longer appointed to a specific school, but are reassigned to a school or number of schools within a school district or school system throughout the school year. It may also refer to assistant principals who are rotated from school to school in a similar fashion and there are also AGRs, a guidance counterpart.

Job losses by ATR teachers are typically caused by the closing of poorly performing schools. Teachers who are "excessed" (laid off) due to school closings apply for jobs in other schools or land in a reserve pool if no school hires them. In addition, teachers removed for issues relating to job performance, or problematic issues, can wind up on ATR status (where it exists) due to a legal agreement, decision, or binding arbitration.

According to The New Teacher Project, a national nonprofit that studied New York's ATR pool, 25 percent of teachers entered the pool because they faced disciplinary charges; one third had received unsatisfactory evaluation ratings; and the majority of teachers in the ATR had not made an effort to apply for a new position through the city's hiring system.

Many ATR Assistant Principals were not hired because they cost more than hiring principals wanted to spend on supervision. Assistant Principals placed in the ATR Pool by the NYC Department of education were often experienced and at the top levels of their salary. Placing Assistant Principals in the ATR Pool was also done to force senior supervisors to early retirement, allowing the NYC Department of Education to get new supervision at lower cost. Dan Weisberg in the New York Post asserts this practice was a disservice to students and tax payers.

The term is used today in the New York City Department of Education to describe teachers who wound up on ATR status for the above stated causes. Frequently, the teachers lost their positions because the New York City Department of Education closed their school. New York City, in recent years, closed many of its large middle and high schools in favor of smaller schools, offering up space to charter schools. The ATR teacher program developed from the 2005 contract between New York City and the United Federation of Teachers which eliminated seniority rights. A small minority of current and former ATR teachers were exonerated teachers who were formerly assigned to reassignment centers.

The Absent Teacher Reserve is mainly made up of veteran teachers who are at the top of the pay scale. For the most part, ATR teachers are on their own to locate a new position. However in New York City, principals are in charge of their own budgets, so a person at the top of the pay scale is undesirable even if highly effective and qualified. Many current teacher vacancies are posted on the New York City Department of Education's Open Market website.

ATR teachers rotate week to week from one school assignment to another within their school districts of tenure. They can work as an ATR teacher week to week in an assigned in-district school more than once in a school year, but not in consecutive weeks. An exception in the initial ATR teaching assignment, which is for the entire month of September only.

Several hundred assistant principals excessed from their administrative positions in the New York City Department of Education are also rotate to different schools in ATR status.