Teaching at an online U.S. school from abroad?

Help

I am just starting to look into the possibility of working at a virtual school and was wondering about a couple of things.

First, would it be legal and allowed by school policy? I am a U.S. citizen, certified to teach in the U.S., and would be a resident of the U.S. for part of the the year but mostly living abroad.

Second, how much are you expected to be available synchronously? Because I would be living in a location with a big time difference from the U.S., I’m wondering if I would essentially be working a night shift. How many hours per week are live classes? If you don’t have a live class, do you need to be available live for other things during the school day?

Would love to hear from anyone who has experience with this.

in teachingby librarylearner

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4mo

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_L81

4mo

I would not tell a prospective employer that you would be out of the country where you live makes no difference for remote teaching.

My partner and I took a trip out of state to see family and met remote teaching expectations near a beach during Covid.

The job description would list the live requirements and hours you would have to be on live. You would have to determine if you would be willing to be off the regular schedule of the time zone you are in at the time for the job.

A school near me had a teacher who was living in France teach their French class remotely. The students showed up in a physical classroom with a teacher’s aide for the period.

librarylearner

4mo

Thanks for the info!

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4mo

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Edumakashun

4mo

You risk losing EVERYTHING if they find out. I've never heard of an arrangement that permits a teacher to teach from outside of the country while ordinarily resident outside of the country. You have to be subject to state and federal jurisdiction in order to teach in an American school.

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4mo

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Edumakashun

4mo

I guess maaaaybe if it’s a private school they have more leeway?

No, because they're still subject to state and federal law on child welfare.

I still don’t understand how the example with the French teacher works until that teacher has US working rights.

What you're describing sounds like one of those for-profit "Shit, we can't find a teacher! Let's hire an outside company!" scams, such as Elevate K-12, which is based in India. Basically, someone writes the curriculum, a teacher delivers the curriculum remotely (and does a terrible job of it), and there's a warm body in the classroom, usually a para. I imagine the French teacher works for one of those companies and not the district. If they're a district direct-hire, but don't yet have certification and aren't yet allowed to work in the US, then they'd have to be volunteering their time or the district is in pretty severe violation of state and federal laws.

I was a teaching assistant in Spain in 2020 and even though we went remote we were not allowed to leave Spain and keep working.

If it was Fulbright, it's probably because it's a cultural exchange. And, of course, laws on child welfare.

Edumakashun

4mo

Even if the hours and "shifts" lined up for you, it's prohibited in any state I can think of, and it's because you have to be subject to that state's jurisdiction (and federal jurisdiction) in order to work with children in the US. If you are teaching while outside of the country, or ordinarily resident outside of the country, you are no longer under the jurisdiction of the state or federal government, and that's a BIG problem for obvious reasons.

I believe Florida Virtual School, which is massive, actually changed the language in their contracts to specify that you have to be resident in Florida in order to work for them, although I don't think that's a universal requirement across all the states.

librarylearner

4mo

That’s what I’m confused about because technically I am a resident of a particular U.S. state, have an address there, and pay taxes there. It’s just I wouldn’t be living there for most of the year. Would the fact that I’m physically not in the U.S. while teaching mean that I’m not subject to the state’s jurisdiction, even though I am a resident?

Edumakashun

4mo

To put it rather oversimply: The state needs to be able to arrest you (or extradite you from another state) without involving any foreign government.

If you are not in the US, you are not subject to US laws. If you were in Ecuador, for example, there is no extradition treaty in place, so it would be impossible to hold you to account if you violated US child welfare laws. If you were in the UK, where there IS an extradition treaty, they'd have to go through a court proceeding to extradite you, and if you hadn't broken UK law, they'd have no grounds to extradite you, so you'd never be held to account. Plus, since you were in the UK while breaking US law, the US likely couldn't request extradition in the first place. You can see now why what you're wanting to do doesn't work.

librarylearner

4mo

Thanks for the explanation - I understand what you’re saying now.

Gracie53

4mo

On top of what others have said, its a matter of student private information being accessed outside the US (or at least that is my understanding when I looked into marking exams for SBAC or EdTPA abroad, it was a non starter.)

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