The NYC Department of Education and UFT Lie About "Undue Burden" and Lack of Accommodations For the Unvaccinated

From Betsy Combier:

If you are a teacher in NYC and have been fired because you never were vaccinated with the COVID vaccine, you should know how the UFT and the NYC Department of Education "DOE" have been lying to you about your being an "undue burden" for wanting to keep your job. Many lawyers are also not addressing this sufficiently, in my opinion.

Let me be less harsh on the lawyers - they just did not do their homework. Instead, they were crushed by the City Law Department's insistance that the termination of unvaccinated teachers was due to a lack of remote positions within the DOE, or an "undue burden" in keeping unvaccinated teachers on salary. No one researched that? Yet, for the past 20+ years educators accused of something are reassigned to a place fondly called the "Rubber Room," and they are still doing it today. Let me qualify what I mean by "place" - to me, the Rubber Room is a process of fraud and corruption that frames employees of the NYC Department of Education by claiming false charges in order to terminate their employment or at least extort money from them by way of a settlement.

So, why did I write "fondly"? Because since I first was let in through the backdoor at the reassignment room located at 25 Chapel Street, 10th Floor, in 2003, I have met my closest friends and learned what not to do if you want to survive in the NYC cesspool called education. As an investigative reporter and not on salary to any union (exception: three years as a UFT Special Representative 2007-2010) or the NYC DOE, I was then, and am now, able to tell you what I have found out without being told to be quiet. Except by the people I write about, of course. I also have 4 children who were all in the NYC DOE System and are now working and married (at least 2 of them), and am very fortunate to have a fear of no one. I cannot be bullied, threatened or forced to do something that I feel compromises justice, safety, health or general well-being. ...of myself or anyone else I am honored to assist. 

So when I write about the Rubber Rooms, I am writing about all of the above, but because the rooms are actual places, it is easier to use "place" for the rubber room even though I mean the whole complicated, ugly, and beautifully human process behind the front door.

Employees sit in these rooms and are given no work, but receive their full salary. I knew one teacher, the late Alan Rosenfeld, who was in such a place for more than 13 years. The medium time currently is 1-2 years. The DOE knows that they have these rooms scattered throughout NYC, all boroughs. 

By the way. The Post article on Alan was incorrect about his case and character. My information about his 3020-a arbitration case is that the DOE failed to prove anything but did not want him back in a classroom. Secondly, Alan was a character from a great movie. He was an attorney, so he sat at his table in the rubber room at 25 Chapel Street and talked to his "clients" - the teachers also placed there - about their problems with employment and real estate. Alan sure liked to talk! Every week, sometimes several times/week, when I visited this location I sat with him and listened. It was better not to talk, you were interrupting him. I was very fond of Alan and he beat the system, so kudos to him!  He finally retired in 2012 and died in 2015 of cancer.

Since the COVID Vaccine Mandate started in 2021, no lawyer argued that the terminations were disciplinary because of the Problem Code placed on every personnel file of an employee who did not get vaccinated. This was a serious error, in my opinion. I am not a lawyer.

I was asked by the lawyers in Kane-Keil to write a Declaration on the Problem Code in June 2022, but the Code was never argued in the Complaint, so there was no Appeal. That's why the Problem Code was not mentioned in the final decision of the Court at the Court of Appeals. However, Attorney John Bursch put the Problem Code into the media big time when he did oral argument at the New York State Court of Appeals in February 2023. He had my Declaration in his hands. Thank you, Mr. Bursch!

I have been, and continue to be, very upset about the lack of attention in the Federal Court cases to the lack of due process and failure to accommodate by the NYC DOE. I would have gladly detailed the information I have with anyone. Fortunately, many people are proceeding with actions on their own.

The Hidden Rubber Rooms of New York City Create a Fiscal Nightmare

Betsy Combier 

President at ADVOCATZ

August 20, 2020

The Hidden Rubber Rooms of New York City Create a Fiscal Nightmare

by Betsy Combier, Linkedin

In 2010, the eight warehouses that had the nickname "rubber rooms" were closed due to news reports of hundreds of education personnel sitting in remote places getting paid their full salary to do nothing. I had started visiting the reassignment centers ("Rubber Rooms") in 2003, starting with the invitation by teacher David Pakter, who was assigned the TRC at 25 Chapel Street, 10th Floor. 

When I started working at the UFT in 2007, I simultaneously started talking and writing on this Blog about the rubber rooms in order for the plight of the enclosed tenured teachers to become visible to the paying public. This idea, that millions of public dollars were being spent to keep people out of their classrooms doing non-teaching activities, was a political nightmare for Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC Department of Education. I told Mayor Mike about it, and he was horrified.

Thus it came to be that since 2003 I have been listening to the stories and working as an advocate at the due process hearings of reassigned educators. For three of those years 2007-2010, I was a UFT Special Representative. I found everything about the NYC rubber rooms to be fascinating. Each location was unique because of the number and character of the people placed there while they waited for their hearing, a 3020-a arbitration mandated by Education Law, and their tenured status. Tenured educators cannot be fired for any reason without a due process hearing on the allegations of incompetency or misconduct. All employees in these rooms stayed at the location for the regular school day with 30-45 minutes for lunch. These times were monitored by the principal placed in each room. I know one teacher in a rubber room in the Bronx who studied for the LSAT while sitting in her reassignment, and now is a practicing attorney. To pass the time, classes in everything from cooking to the law were given every day, depending on the license or interest of the people in each location.

However, placing about 1500 education personnel in rooms away from students for 1 to 15 years simply could not be sustained. In my opinion, must not remain. Holding a public employee on a full salary in a room without justification is more than bad public policy. It's also can be demeaning and malicious. There are many who enjoy being paid their salary and not being harassed by a principal or co-worker.

An important fact is that people in the rubber rooms were organizing. Demands were made by the displaced employees, starting in 2008, to form chapters for “rubber roomers”, and to elect unofficial chapter leaders in each location. Neither the Department nor the UFT wanted to legitimize the rubber rooms in this way.

Under pressure from an angry public, the UFT and the DOE signed an agreement on April 15, 2010, to clear these now very visible examples of fiscal absurdity by speeding up the resolution of charges at hearings known as 3020-a arbitration. No one has paid any attention to either letter agreement, then or now.

NYC promised to ban teacher ‘rubber rooms’ — they went underground instead

NYC hired a roster of arbitrators to hear the cases quickly, but many of the accused fought termination rather than settle, retire or resign, and most wanted witnesses to testify on their behalf. Some hearings are lengthy -- one recent case took 32 days and nine months of hearing dates, not including the decision). The time limits are not enforced.

Then there is the shocking case of Alan Herz. he was charged with two so-called "inappropriate" comments to his students, neither of which, in my opinion, warranted anything more than maybe a slap on the wrist. However, some DOE employee somewhere wanted Alan fired, and he was served 3020-a charges, thus highlighting what I believe is the main problem with the entire disciplinary procedure: the charging, pre-3020-a hearing process. His Attorney informed the arbitrator that the school investigator did not file his report until two years after a student accused the teacher of 'insulting' her. This is a blatant violation of procedure, which requires that any report written by an investigator must be completed within six to 12 months. The arbitrator did the correct thing, as all arbitrators should, and dismissed the case at the pre-hearing, citing the procedural error. Within 10 days the NYC DOE sued the arbitrator in the NY State Supreme Court for dismissing the case so quickly. The Judge dismissed the City’s lawsuit. What this case shows is that arbitrators must do what the Department wants, and that is to prosecute the accused, even if innocent. Speed, facts, and law have no relevance.

I think you can see my point, which is that all decisions made before a 3020-a case begins are random and arbitrary. The NYC DOE honors no rules, regulations, or law when an employee does something that a 'higher up' is embarrassed by, or doesn't like for any reason. The procedures for disciplinary action against tenured employees beg for accountability and mediation of the proposed charges before an arbitrator is appointed and paid to hear the case to decide the penalty. Under these conditions, false charges are justified and unlawfully validated. All an arbitrator has to do is find the DOE witnesses 'credible' and the witnesses and charged employee, or "Respondent", 'not credible'. The penalty of termination is then the 'only' outcome. 

This frame-up is a process designed and used by the NYCDOE, UFT and CSA lawyers, intentionally. All parties violate the rights of the people they are supposed to serve. 

When I do a 3020-a arbitration, arbitrators are challenged, because I and the lawyer I work with (outside of NYC I do these hearings often without an attorney, similar to PERB litigation) are not bound by the restrictions placed on NYSUT attorneys who must comply with the sham.

[Added by Betsy 2025: I remember  an arbitrator telling me several years ago, after he exonerated the Respondent I was advocating for, that he was so fed up with the system where he was "supposed" to terminate everyone, that he decided he would exonerate everyone instead. Yep, he was removed from the arbitration panel by the DOE. In fact, several arbitrators told me off the record that they were told they had finished their service on the panel because they were too "lenient" as they did not terminate every Respondent. I never reveal my sources, so don't ask].

The political ‘solution’ was, and still is, to spread out the accused or allegedly guilty employees here and there -- in school offices, basements, storage or copy rooms -- anywhere hidden from view. The rubber rooms have gone underground. No one knows who these new rubber roomers are, because school and central budgets do not have a category for “reassigned” or “suspended” personnel.

The hiding of the reassignment rooms and process is very clear in the 3020-a hearings. Here is one example: in a 2019 case, whenever a witness or the NYSUT attorney mentioned anything about the accused teacher being "reassigned", the Department attorney Seyi Collins-Jemmott prosecuting the case told the transcriber/reporter,

"MS. JEMMOTT: [Interposing] I am--the Department is going to ask that the reference made by opposing counsel to respondent being reassigned be stricken from the record."

Ms. Collins-Jemmott interjected this whenever anyone mentioned "rubber room" or "reassignment", to hide the fact that the charged educator had spent almost a year as a reassigned teacher.

In 2009 I wrote:
The "Gotcha Squad" and the New York City Rubber Rooms

In 2010 I wrote about the scattering of rubber roomers throughout NYC:

Teachers in NYC Rubber Rooms Are Now Scattered So That The NYC Board of Education Can Hide The Harm and Retaliation

In 2014 I wrote about the new rubber rooms' and the rules:
The NYC DOE Re-Assignment Policy Issued in 2010

Then, in 2017 we heard the exact same lie about teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve or ATR pool:

City Will Move Sidelined Teachers From Limbo to Classrooms

The Department benefits from hiding the rubber rooms by not being subjected to public outrage for the waste of public funds. The UFT benefits from hiding the rubber rooms because they are saved from public ridicule for keeping "bad" teachers on salary while they are reassigned to do nothing. Everyone wins but the general public and the parents and children in the schools.

When a teacher is reassigned, who takes his/her place? Anyone who is available - a substitute teacher, uncertified para, ATRs, no one is watching. Kids often have their entire school record jeopardized because their teacher is suddenly absent. The reassigned teacher is not permitted any contact with students, and the substitute is not knowledgeable about the subject or the kids. 

But my point is that there are ATRs still sitting in schools citywide. I spoke with one of these in-school reassigned teachers this morning, May 29, 2025. The unvaccinated employees could have been removed to a Rubber Room - which today is, often, home, while the ATRs took their place. 

See: Absent Teacher's Reserve Agreement Reached

Clearly, the NYC Department of Education has a long history of paying employees not to work for many reasons for several years. They have accepted this "undue burden" and have created an employment category just for these people.

The saying "throw the largest amount of mud at the wall hoping something will stick" is right on the mark. However, the most outrageous part of this whole public hoax is the fact that none of the charges need to be true, but the public has to pay for it. And, there is no accountability and no consequences for false charges.

The take-away is that this entire boondoggle is random, subject to whims and fancy, dislike and discrimination, rather than planning and human capital management.

The psychology of lack of ownership for wasting public funds is well-documented. Every elected official has had to deal with "If it's not coming out of my own pocket, who cares?", "Who is going to find out? I'm protected from prosecution", "it's my job to get bad teachers out of the building", etc.

NYC needs to refine the charging process so that public money is used effectively to root out the truly bad while supporting the wrongly charged and consequences for those who pursued false charges.

We also must end the hidden rubber rooms and make these places visible so that public money can be allocated appropriately, and publicly. Give all educators relevant work to do in accordance with their license while they sit in the "rubber room" for a short amount of time, no more than needed to get an arbitrator and hearing date. Give the public a say in where their money goes.

Our educators deserve better.

By the way, the picture used by the POST in my op-ed is a great hero of mine, for resilience and his fighting spirit. His name is David Suker. He was charged with putting a false home address for himself when he registered his daughter for a school on the Upper West Side. He did not do what he was accused of, but in addition, by the time he was charged 10 years had passed. I know that any investigation into a student's real address must be completed within 30 days, and no one can be charged 10 years later. But in the random and arbitrary procedures used in NYC to discipline and/or terminate tenured educators, the laws of NY State have no relevance.

David Suker's NYSUT Attorney Steve Friedman did not know or care to know that the residence requirement charge was bogus, and David was terminated. David called me up after receiving his penalty of termination and asked for my help in his Article 75 Appeal, which I agreed to do with Attorney Maria Chickedanz. We won $250,000.00 for him as well as his job back. Love this guy.

Betsy Combier, betsy.combier@gmail.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

*********************************************************

Below, you can see how the Daily News misinforms the public with platitudes designed to cite one side of the issue, i.e. that the NYC Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers want all accused employees fired without due process. The UFT and DOE "fixed" this in NYC by hiding the new, smaller rubber rooms, and omitting any determination of probable cause. They went straight from making a charge (true or false) against an employee, filing a Letter to File (puts the person on the Problem Code) and pursuing the charge as if it were true, with an arbitrator told to terminate. If the arbitrator doesn't, he/she is fired from the panel. That's how the DOE and UFT "fixed" the rubber rooms' fiscal nightmare.

City to close ‘rubber rooms,’ $30M detention halls for teachers accused of major violations

By Erin Einhorn, Meredith Kolodner and Rachel Monahan

UPDATED: April 8, 2018 at 1:01 AM EDT

The reporters didn't do their due diligence. First, in 2008 there were many more than 99 educators in the 8 rubber rooms. Second, the paragraph below states the reason why Mike Bloomberg "closed" the large centers and hid the reassignment centers: he wanted to pay attorneys to skip over probable cause for specious charges, and go quickly to termination:

"The agreement is not expected to save money immediately since the department will have to hire more lawyers. Education Department officials said they hoped to see some savings down the line as teachers are either returned to the classroom or fired more quickly."

Almost everyone has heard about the termination of educators from the NYC DOE if they did not get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. The City of New York needed to reduce the education budget, and had to omit due process so that they could fire all the unvaccinated as part of that effort. The NY DOE and the UFT "forgot" to mention the rubber rooms and the Problem Code in their speedy termination procedure. Lawyers also omitted mention of the Problem Code and rubber room reassignments because it seems that no one did their homework. 

In any case, every Federal due process class action Complaint filed since 2021 for unvaccinated educators has been dismissed by the Courts.

We all gotta do something about this. 

Give all unvaccinated terminated teachers their former positions back, AND their back pay, pension time and benefits, car days, everything. Now.

betsy@advocatz.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice

Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials