Union: Stamford teachers denied requests to work from home
STAMFORD — About a third of Stamford teachers with outstanding requests to work from home have had those requests denied, according to the head of the teachers union.
Diane Phanos said about 12 of the roughly 35 teachers who appealed the district’s initial decision to deny their claims were recently told they had to work from inside classrooms. The rest of the appeal cases remain pending.
More than 100 teachers asked for accommodations through the Americans with Disabilities Act prior to the start of school. Many of those teachers requested to work remotely for the school year. But all of those requests were denied just days before classes began.
Some 35 of those teachers challenged the district’s decision last month, and gave human resources access to their medical
records. In the meantime, they have been allowed to work from home.
Phanos said the 12 teachers who received a second denial have challenged the decision and can still work from home until a final decision is made.
On Monday, Phanos said teachers remain frustrated by the district’s response to the requests, and many have wondered just what it would take to get the district to approve one.
“I’m not a doctor, but many of these people have serious underlying conditions that if they did contract the virus, it could cause serious complications,” Phanos said.
Human resources personnel for the school district met with teachers individually in 15- minute sessions in August with Phanos in attendance as well as a representative from the Connecticut Education Association.
Phanos said teachers were asked to submit medical documentation to support why they should teach remotely this year. In some cases, the city asked employees for further documentation, she said.
That happened to Turn of River Middle School teacher John Corcoran, whose doctor initially wrote a note saying it would be preferable for Corcoran to stay out of school buildings. Corcoran and Phanos said they were told by hu
man resources personnel to go back to the doctor to get a more strongly worded letter.
The follow- up doctor’s note listed Corcoran’s past cardiac history, which includes obstructive coronary artery disease.
But his request to work from home was denied Sept. 4, which prompted Corcoran to challenge the decision and file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He has yet to get a response from the district and has been allowed to work from his Wilton home in the meantime.
Stamford school administrators have repeatedly said they are unable by law to discuss individual employee cases, a statement they repeated late last week
“Reviewing and/or granting requests for any ADA accommodation is a process that includes assessing each request independently and may require subsequent requests for additional information,” said schools spokeswoman Sharon Beadle in an emailed statement. “There is no checklist of criteria that one is required to meet in order to warrant an accommodation. In fact, what may constitute as a reasonable accommodation for one individual’s unique set of circumstances may not be for another.”
Phanos questioned the district’s review process.
The “confidential medical questionnaire” applicants filled out includes three questions on the first page. The first question asks “Does
this medical condition substantially limit a major life activity?” The second question then asks the applicant to choose from a list of 24 life activities that are limited by the person’s medical condition.
The list includes things such as “walking,” “eating,” “sleeping” or “recalling facts.”
The third question is “Does the medical condition substantially limit the employee’s ability to perform the essential functions of their job?”
Phanos said she believes the human resources department denied applications based off this page alone, since she noticed that the denied applications she saw all responded “no” to the first questions.
“It doesn’t seem like HR looked beyond that first page,” she said.
Phanos said she believes teachers can provide online education just as well from home as they can from a classroom. Administrators, including Superintendent Tamu Lucero, praised teachers for how they provided education online once schools closed in March.
“I felt they had done it so successfully in the spring, so why the superintendent feels every single person needs to be in a building is beyond me,” Phanos said. “My belief is teachers can be effective in the hybrid method, and they can be effective in the virtual method. And they proved that.”