Reasonable Assurance is an unemployment term that means school employees will not be entitled to unemployment benefits if they are expected to return to work after a break – summer, spring, fall, or holiday – any of them. Basically, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission realizes you operate on a school calendar that likely has some breaks in there for the kids and employees alike.

As we’ve advised before, please attempt to complete your rehiring processes before you let out for summer to save the most money. For each week into the summer break that your employees don’t know whether they will return, you could end up paying $368 per week per employee in unemployment.

Reasonable assurance is only found when the employee is rehired. If summer begins and employees aren’t sure about their job next year, expect a claim for unemployment and expect to pay for the time s/he is in limbo. And expect a domino effect; once one files, they all file. Based on experience, the most likely employees to file during the summer are substitutes, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and maintenance/janitorial workers. I’d focus on them.

The next important thing to know is that you must provide reasonable assurance in writing. In the past, we have struggled to prove that an employee actually had reasonable assurance when it was been given verbally. But, the OESC has truly become obsessed with paper, so I’d anticipate a verbal conversation about returning next school year won’t carry a lot of weight in an unemployment claim. Don’t take any chances and just give it in writing! A sample reasonable assurance letter can be accessed by clicking on the link on the rightside menu or by clicking here.

Finally, it’s a good idea to keep track of who has filed over the summer and been denied for reasonable assurance. With this list, you will want to ensure each is notified of when to return to work when school resumes. If it’s a substitute, you must offer work on the first day (to either work on the first day or get called on the first day for a date soon after). This is not for all of your substitutes in total. If you are a member of OPSUCA, we keep and provide this list to you at the end of the break so you will know who is affected.

When I say this, many immediately say that you don’t have substitute work available on the first day. Well, I’d see if you can find some because it will save you tremendously. The reason for this is that reasonable assurance can be lost. If you provided reasonable assurance but don’t actually bring that employee back on the first day, you will be liable to pay unemployment for the entire summer – as in immediately retroactive benefits.

For instance, you can pay a substitute $60 to work that first day of school OR you can pay retroactive unemployment benefits to your substitute for all of the summer. This means you could end up paying 8 times as much in unemployment assuming there are 8 weeks of summer. So, pay $60 or a few hundred or more.

So, in conclusion, here are the money-saving tips in order:
1) Hire for next year before summer begins or as early as possible.
2) Customize the provided reasonable assurance letter for distribution to all employees. Email works just fine and provides a receipt – all for free!
3) Keep track of summer claims that are denied for reasonable assurance.
4) Ensure the ones on your list in Step 3 are brought back to work on the first day of school.

I hope you will contact OPSUCA for all of your unemployment questions. We are here to assist you in any unemployment matter. For those of you who aren’t members yet, give us a call to learn about our trial basis membership options so you can see what we do!

Sincerely,
Jessica Sherrill
Director of OPSUCA

We care about Oklahoma public education and are operated solely to further that purpose.

We are Oklahoma-based and locally run through our board made up of Directors from OSSBA and CCOSA.

We pride ourselves on employing an attorney licensed in the State of Oklahoma who knows not only our state’s unemployment law, but also is very familiar with how schools operate under state school law.

We have created and maintain positive working relationships with the powers that be at the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and ensure respect goes both ways for the benefit of our membership.

We are a non-profit, which means membership fees lead to better program development for Oklahoma public education.

OPSUCA is in it for our children; when you keep your money with your school, our children benefit.

We would love to meet with you to tell you about what we can do for your school. Our goal is to save you money so that your dollars are used for the children (and not your former employees). Please call us at 888-528-3571 to learn more.