Teacher Benefits in Florida – How do they work?

http://www.fldoe.org/edcert/level1.asp

And you bought the endorsement in Florida or Michigan? I saw this on the Florida page:

http://www.fldoe.org/edcert/add_endorse_pro.asp

I just spent an hour surfing Florida’s Dept. of Education page and found some good resources. I’ll leave the links below, but from what I can tell – you are a highly qualified teacher.

Here’s the chart that makes me think you are:

http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2438/phase2chart.pdf

Here is several memo’s about highly qualified teachers:

http://www.fldoe.org/faq/default.asp?Dept=17&ID=291#Q291

Regarding salary and benefits:

Go to this link and look at the teacher pay review documents for details:

http://www.fldoe.org/JustForTeachers/Financial_Resources.asp

Once paid your base salary the following will need to come out of it:

1. Federal income tax

2. Your portion of your health care coverage

3. Anything you choose to put into retirement

4. Anything you choose to have pulled for medical or child care savings accounts.

Florida does not have state income tax. Florida does put money towards your healthcare, so you do not have the full burden. Florida does invest into retirement for you.

Hope all of this information helps!

Your salary as stated is always before any deductions for federal taxes, medicare, and social security. Florida has no state income tax, or local occupational taxes; you are not required to join a union, but it is encouraged. Medical insurance is provided, but you will have to pay a portion of the costs and the school board will pay a portion. You do not contribute to the state retirement fund…the school district does this for you. You can also have other personal retirement accounts taken out of your pay if you wish.

Unless your are Nationally Board Certified, you will need to take the 3 state teacher exams: general knowledge, professional, and subject area–if you want to be certified in elementary (K-6), social studies, and language arts, you would need to take 3 subject area exams (you may take up to 2 exams on one day) the state charges $56 for each area you wish to be certified in when you apply for your state license–after that it is $56 total each time you renew) (I’m not sure what the cost is to take each of the tests), usually during your first year of teaching in the state during which time you will be on a temporary teaching certificate which is good for threr years, after that you will be given a 5 year regular certificate that needs to have either 2 college courses or 120 professional development points for each area you are certified in.

If you do not have your ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) certification, you will also need to take 5 courses (300 hours), usually provided by the district, in order to get your ESOL endorsement within 2 years if you have second language learners in your class.

If you are a veteran teacher, your current school district will have to verify that you are “highly qualified” by completing a form that you should find in your new teacher package in August.