TEACHER ACQUIRED TENURE BY ESTOPPEL (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department determined petitioner, a special education teacher, acquired tenure by estoppel:
“Tenure may be acquired by estoppel when a school board accepts the continued services of a teacher or administrator, but fails to take the action required by law to either grant or deny tenure prior to the expiration of the teacher’s probationary term” … . Here, petitioner obtained tenure by estoppel when she continued to be employed by the DOE and failed to receive any notice regarding the DOE’s decision regarding her future by the expiration of her probationary period … . In addition, the DOE failed to indicate to petitioner that the temporary assignment to perform clerical duties for the Committee on Special Education would not count toward her probationary period. Thus, petitioner’s decision to accept the temporary reassignment did not “serve to disrupt that teacher’s probationary period, nor . . . lead to an increase in the length of that probationary period” … . Matter of Wilson v Department of Educ. of the City of N.Y., 2019 NY Slip Op 01161, First Dept 2-14-19
