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School Employee Claims

The Unemployment Insurance program has special rules for school employees and school supportive employees. If you are on a break or recess, you are still considered employed. This is because you will return to work, so you are not unemployed through no fault of your own.

Note: When this page mentions a school employee, the information is also for school supportive employees unless stated otherwise.

Recess Periods and Reasonable Assurance

A recess period is a time when classes are not usually offered, like summer breaks, off-track weeks, and holiday breaks (e.g., Christmas or spring break). For colleges and universities, it may also include breaks between semesters or quarters.

Reasonable Assurance is a written, spoken, or implied agreement saying the school employee will perform services for an educational organization during the next academic year, term, or remainder of a term. The agreement should have the same pay and work conditions as before.

School Employees and School Supportive Employees

There are two types of school workers: school employees and school supportive employees.

  • School Employees: Work for a public or private nonprofit school.
  • School Supportive Employees: Work for a nonprofit or public employer that provides services to a school.

You may not be eligible to get benefits based on your wages if all of these things are true:

  • You apply for benefits during a recess period.
  • You have an offer to return to work after the recess period ends.
  • You earned wages from a school during the base period. A base period is a specific 12-month term used to check if you earned enough wages for a claim. To learn more, see How Unemployment Benefits are Computed (DE 8714AB) (PDF).

Professional and Nonprofessional

In the Unemployment Insurance program, professional and nonprofessional have specific meanings. For example, a librarian is usually called a professional. However, in the Unemployment Insurance program, librarians are called nonprofessional because they don’t teach or do research or administrative tasks.

Note: These terms describe your type of work, not your job title.

Both school employees and school supportive employees can be either professional or nonprofessional.

  • Professional: Do jobs such as teaching, research, or main administrative roles (like teachers, principals, or registrars). They are defined as certificated employees.
  • Nonprofessional: Do other jobs such as custodial, cafeteria, or teacher aide work. They are defined as classified employees because they don’t teach, perform research, or work in administrative roles.

Examples of School Employee Claims

These examples show the different eligibility rules for school employees who apply for benefits.

Professional School Employee – Not Eligible for Benefits

  • The school employee is a teacher who only worked for a school during the base period. The teacher applied for benefits during a recess period and had reasonable assurance to return to work after the recess period ended.
  • The EDD told the teacher they were not eligible for benefits during the recess period because the teacher had reasonable assurance from the school to return to work after the recess period.

Nonprofessional School Employee – Eligible for Backdated Benefits

  • The school employee is a custodian who only worked for a school employer during the base period. The custodian applied for benefits during a recess period and had reasonable assurance to return to work after the recess period ended.
  • The EDD told the custodian they were not eligible for benefits during the recess period. But if the school did not call them back to work after their recess, they could ask for backdated benefits.
  • To be eligible for backdated benefits, they must contact us no later than 30 days after the new school term begins. They also need to keep certifying for benefits and meet all eligibility requirements during the recess period.

School and Non-School Employee

  • An employee worked for both a school and a non-school employer during the base period. They applied for benefits during the recess period and had reasonable assurance to return to work after the break.
  • The EDD told the employee that they were not eligible for benefits based on their school wages with the school employer because they were given reasonable assurance to return to work after the end of the recess period. But, if all other eligibility requirements were met, they would be able to receive benefits based only on their wages earned from the non-school employer.

For more information, see FAQs – School Employees.