Understanding Classroom Teacher Contracts

The standard HCPS classroom teacher contract covers 209 days. However, some teacher contracts extend beyond 209 days to meet various school and program needs. Extended-day contracts cover 214, 220, 231, 239, 246, or 260 days.

Instructional days for the standard 2026-27 school year are marked on the HCPS instructional calendar. Per Virginia Code, the standard school year may encompass either 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours. HCPS meets state requirements for instructional hours by meeting the 990-hour requirement, not the 180-day requirement. For the 2026-2027 school year, there are 172.5 instructional days for which students receive direct instruction. This accounts for 172.5 days of a teacher’s total contract, regardless of its length.

Starting with the 2026-2027 instructional calendar, HCPS will introduce a staggered start for students. Staff are required to report to work according to their regular work schedule, regardless of whether their assigned students or classes are scheduled to attend on Day 1 or Day 2. The staggered start impacts student attendance only and does not change employee work obligations. Employees will use these days for assigned duties, planning, collaboration, professional learning, or other school‑based responsibilities as directed by their supervisor.

Teacher contracts also include teacher work week, professional learning days, clerical days, before- and after-school activities, paid holidays and time to complete required compliance trainings. 

Below is a chart with the breakdown of types of days in each of the classroom teacher contracts:

Employees are paid for 8 hours of work each day and must be on site for 7 and one-half of those. There are 30 flexible minutes each day when the employee can work on-site or off-site. This equates to 150 minutes per week that are flexible in nature and occur outside of the hours a teacher is required to be at school. Below are typical instructional schedules and examples of work hours built around those bell schedules.  

Examples of HCPS Bell Schedules and Teacher Work Hours

In the teaching profession, working 7 and one-half hours in the building has been a longstanding norm, as indicated by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). This structure includes a flexible half-hour, often used at the end of the day, which is designed to support teachers in managing their professional responsibilities effectively, either in the building or off-site. This equates to 150 flexible minutes per week for which classroom teachers are paid. 

Principals may require employees to remain on-site for the final 30 minutes of the day for faculty or other school-related meetings or for duties necessary to protect the health and safety of students. This may include regularly scheduled meetings, or instances when buses are late or an emergency arises. 

Principals should not encumber more than 60 minutes of teachers’ 150 flex minutes per week for regularly scheduled meetings. For example, a 60-minute staff meeting may be held on Tuesday, and then teachers would be relieved of their 30 flex minutes on another day.

Classroom teachers are exempt employees who are paid a fixed salary, regardless of the number of hours worked. Teachers’ work days continue until all professional responsibilities to the students and the school division are completed. The contract and addendum outline specific parameters related to teachers' time, compensation and expectations for fulfilling professional responsibilities.

Teachers are often required to have duty assignments as part of their contractual day. These assignments can include various supervisory duties such as hallway, playground, bus duty or lunchroom supervision. Duty assignments are necessary to ensure that students are adequately supervised at all times and work responsibilities are properly fulfilled. 

Additionally, measures are in place to minimize the load of these duties for teachers. Schools should implement strategies such as rotating duty schedules and providing additional support staff. These efforts help ensure that teachers can focus on primary instructional responsibilities. 

“Other duties as assigned” encompass a variety of responsibilities, including but not limited to ensuring student safety, facilitating drills, providing class coverage, administering testing and providing coverage related to interruptions to the school day.

State policy (8VAC20-131-5) and HCPS School Board Policy (P4-05-012) provide planning time protections for all teachers who provide regular, direct instructions to students. 

At the elementary level, classroom teachers who provide direct instruction to students should receive an average of at least thirty minutes per day for planning, unencumbered by any teaching or supervisory duties.

At the secondary level, all classroom teachers should receive one period (or the equivalent) of planning per day, unencumbered by any teaching or supervisory duties. 

Planning time is protected from supervisory or teaching duties. However, it may (and should) be used for individual planning, IEP meetings, grade level or other collaborative planning meetings, parent conferences, or student health and safety or other administrative needs. It is not guaranteed time when a teacher will be alone in their classroom. 

Administrators should design master schedules and leverage instructional assistants to protect as much planning time as possible. They should also minimize any other supervisory or teaching duties that would infringe upon classroom teacher planning.

Secondary teachers receive compensation for providing class coverage during their planning period. Teachers are not compensated when planning time is used for IEP meetings, parent conferences, or other collaborative meetings.

Teachers are not compensated for attending IEP/504 meetings during their planning time because these meetings are considered part of their regular professional responsibilities. Planning time is intended for various instructional preparation activities, including parent-teacher conferences, collaborative planning, and meetings related to student needs.

While planning time is protected to ensure teachers have adequate time for preparation, certain essential meetings, like IEP/504 meetings, may be scheduled during this time to address students' specific needs.

In recent years, HCPS has invested in staffing and other supports to protect planning time, including the hiring of permanent substitutes and instructional assistants, and coaching on the development of master schedules to protect planning time to the greatest extent possible.

Lunch is a paid part of the eight-hour workday. Per School Board Policy P4-05-014 - Duty-Free Lunch and Regulation P4-05-014 R - Regulations Pertaining to Duty Free Lunch, “all full-time teachers shall be provided a duty-free lunch except in extenuating circumstances when temporary coverage is necessary to assure student safety and supervision. Such circumstances may include, but not be limited to, situations of high staff absenteeism, emergency conditions related to the facility and other security interests. All alternative measures to provide coverage should be exhausted prior to relieving a teacher of duty-free lunch.” 

Safe and successful before and after-school activities require teacher engagement, and contracts for most classroom teachers include compensation for hours of time dedicated to before- or after-school activities. These activities may be school or division-sponsored, may be hosted by a PTA, or may be hosted by an outside organization. Some examples are listed below, though this is not an exhaustive list:

Not necessarily. Some meetings (such as certain Title 1 meetings/planning), professional learning, events or student organization supports are accounted for separately and compensated through specific stipends or grant funds. As these hours are not part of the standard contractual obligations, they do not count towards the 32 hours included in the contract.

Administrators should inform staff of all before- or after-school events at the beginning of the school year, whenever possible. While some events may be scheduled later, providing as much information as possible at the beginning of the year is beneficial for all parties. 

Principals and teachers should work together to ensure appropriate coverage at such events and that teachers are able to plan accordingly for their 32 hours.

Principals are responsible for ensuring that teachers fulfill their responsibilities within the 32 hours and that teachers are not asked to exceed those hours unless necessary to protect the health and safety of students.

Teachers are required to fulfill 32 hours of before- and after-school hours obligations during a school year, or use leave if not attending. While pay will not be deducted for not attending any specific event, compensation may be adjusted if an employee fails to fulfill their contractual obligations over the course of the entire year.

Administrators should adhere to the 32-hour allocation to the greatest extent possible unless additional time is needed to protect student health and safety or in direct alignment with their contractual obligations and professional responsibilities.

No, additional compensation is not earned if employees exceed 32 hours of evening events. As salaried, exempt employees, teachers are paid a fixed salary, regardless of the number of hours worked. Teachers’ work days continue until all professional responsibilities to students and the school division are completed.

The HCPS calendar and teacher contracts identify four required professional learning days throughout the school year. The maximum duration for any professional development day is eight hours.

If employees are absent from one of those work days, they need to take leave or make arrangements to complete the professional learning activities at the discretion of their administrator.

Sometimes professional learning is available to or required of certain teachers outside of their regular contract, for which they are compensated separately. This includes, but is not limited to: New Teacher Academy, Novice Teacher Week, and training required by the state under the Virginia Literacy Act. Additionally, some employees are compensated for leading professional learning outside of their regular contract.

Classroom teachers are required to fulfill eight hours of professional learning before the school year begins. This may happen in different ways depending on their contract length and the teacher’s specific role.

Some teachers may fulfill some or all of the one-day requirement during the divisionwide summer professional development. In this instance, they are not contractually obligated to work on August 19; however, they may voluntarily choose to be in their building that day. School administrators should not plan any school-specific meetings or activities on August 19. 

Other teachers may fulfill some or all of the requirements on the designated divisionwide professional development offered on August 19. It is important to note that some professional learning is only offered on August 19. For example, professional learning for LAMP teachers is typically offered only on the divisionwide August professional learning day. As such, those employees do not have the option to fulfill the requirement earlier in the summer.

Of final note, any employee on contract on the day of the summer professional learning (an employee on a 260-day contract, for example), is not relieved of contractual obligations to work on August 19.

The Division of Learning provides principals with a report of employees who attended summer divisionwide professional learning. Principals are responsible for monitoring teachers’ fulfillment of professional learning responsibilities.

Yes, safe schools training is included in employee contracts in different ways.  For example, teachers on 209-day contracts are compensated eight hours for completing online compliance training via the SafeSchools training platform. 

Next school year, employees must complete the training by September 30, 2026. Employees have discretion about where and when they do so. HCPS does not designate a specific work day for this, but compensates employees for whom it is built into their contract.

Per School Board Regulation P4-08-009 R - Regulations Governing Personal Leave, personal leave cannot be taken on the last workday before or the first workday after a vacation or holiday unless approved by the principal or supervisor at least five workdays in advance.

Clerical days are built into the school calendar to provide teachers with dedicated time to complete responsibilities related to instruction, student progress, and classroom management. Typical activities include, but are not limited to: grading assignments and assessments, finalizing report cards or progress reports, updating student records and documentation, organizing classroom materials, preparing for upcoming lessons or instructional units both individually and through PLC meetings, entering grades and completing required paperwork or compliance-related tasks. This day is not designated for professional learning. 

Three and one-half clerical days are designated in the 2026-27 calendar. On these flexible days, employees may elect to work on- or off-site as their duties allow and with the approval of their supervisor or Principal. 

At the Principal’s discretion, employees who complete end-of-year clerical and other tasks ahead of time will not be required to attend the June 7 clerical day in person.

Teachers and other exempt employees at the secondary level are eligible for compensation for weapon scanning. Eligible secondary staff may receive compensation for morning‐arrival scanning duties,ranging from a minimum of thirty (30) minutes to a maximum of ninety (90) minutes per day. After the first 30 minutes, compensation will be provided for actual time spent scanning in 15-minute increments. In emergency situations when SSOs are unavailable to conduct scanning beyond morning arrival, eligible secondary staff may be assigned to perform and be compensated for scanning duties for up to 90 minutes per day.

Elementary school teachers are supervising students in classrooms during student arrival and are, therefore, unavailable for weapon scanning.

No, this is not the current practice in HCPS.