Summer Organizing Institute: Students' Civil Liberties Union
The Students' Civil Liberties Union has a Summer Organizing Institute focused on leadership, advocacy, and community impact! Interested in being an advisor or learning more to recommend your students? Join a Zoom Orientation on Monday, April 27, at 4:30 PM! Register here for the link.
The votes are in... we ratified our contract!
The votes are in: Our 2025-2027 contract has been ratified!
An overwhelming 93% of SDEA members voted to ratify our tentative agreement, with 4957 ballots turned in! The contract will go into effect as soon as the District signs off at next month’s board meeting (a minor step!) It’s our votes and our voices that built this contract and voted to implement it!
The Election Committee has been the lead on both the votes members recently completed. Please reach out with questions or concerns directly to the committee via email at sdeaelections@sdea.net.
Our improved contract:
This contract includes improvements to staffing, pay, and stability… including:
- Concrete fixes for Special Education staffing
- 5% pay raise over 2 years - see what that looks like for you with this calculator
- Locked in fully-paid family healthcare (including Kaiser $10 co-pay)
- Side Letter for no layoffs
- No fall excessing at Title I schools – that’s 150 out of 175 schools
- Restored Early Childhood Education Teacher stipend
- Seniority for summer school hiring
- Protections for immigrant and LGBTQ+ educators and students
- …and more!
See more details of what has changed and answers to frequently asked questions in our 2025-2027 Contract Resources!
This is a contract built for members and by members!
Your union is a democracy, which means YOU have a voice in the decisions that shape your working conditions. SDEA members participated in every step of this contract process, and the improvements that we won are because members showed up to fight for them!
- In Fall of 2024, members identified priorities at Bargaining Input Sessions across the District and ratified a bargaining platform.
- In Spring of 2025, members kicked off bargaining by holding rallies and walk-ins across the District, and won our first significant tentative agreement after a week of rolling pickets.
- Members kept showing up throughout Fall 2025 as negotiations continued.
- As bargaining progressed and the Special Education staffing crisis worsened, SDEA union educators proved we’re willing to do whatever it takes to fight for what our students need… even to go on strike, if needed.
- Once members on the bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with the District, site reps led meetings at each school to discuss the agreement, answer questions, and vote whether or not to ratify it.
Every step of the way, member voices are the foundation of our democratic union: Brainstorming priorities, negotiating contract language at the bargaining table, explaining our fight to families, chanting on picket lines, talking to colleagues to make sure everyone has a chance to participate, asking questions, and having the hard conversations about what our schools need and how to make it happen.
Members rallying with their community in May 2025!
We’ve ratified a contract… but remember that there’s more to come.
This coming Fall, we’ll already be beginning the brainstorming process again about what we might include in our next contract. As you review what’s changed in our contract and see how the changes impact you and your students, remember to keep the conversation going about how we can all fight to keep improving our teaching and learning conditions next time.
We had to threaten a strike just to settle the Special Education Unfair Labor Practice. We know we’re going to have to keep fighting to get what our students need!
Keep showing up. Keep participating. Keep our union strong.
SDEA members just voted on union leadership as well as on our union contract, and the results mean that there will be a runoff election for multiple seats. Stay tuned for another electronic ballot to vote in the runoff election between April 13 - 17. Our democracy is stronger every time we use our voices. Stay involved. Stay active. Continue the conversations.
Site leaders showing their solidarity at our February 2026 Strike Summit!
Rally this Tuesday with our classified colleagues!
The District has voted to move forward with layoffs for hundreds of our classified colleagues, and we need to fight back! SDEA educators are standing with our CSEA colleagues to oppose classified layoffs that harm our students and school communities. In our “We Can’t Wait” campaign we’ve been fighting for Fully Staffed Schools… and that means both educators AND classified staff. These layoffs move us further from the support our students deserve and reflect a larger issue: California’s inequitable school funding. In one of the wealthiest states in the country, we can and must do better.
Join our classified colleagues at a rally next Tuesday:
????️ Tuesday, March 24
???? 4:00 PM – Rally | 5:00 PM – Board Meeting (Make a public comment and speak up for classified workers if you can)
???? Morse High School Performing Arts Center (PAC) Auditorium
6905 Skyline Drive, San Diego, CA 92114
???? WEAR BLUE to stand with your CSEA classified workers!
Run Up to May Day: Week of Action!
As a union, we’ve been fighting for more than just our schools and more than just our District… we’re fighting for the conditions our students and families need to thrive. That’s why SDEA is collaborating with union educators across the state and with community allies here in San Diego.
ACCE and other community allies are organizing a Week of Action this week building up to May Day 2026. This includes learning about how to organize across entire communities, including but not limited to efforts to organize general strikes. As educators, we have specific legal limits around when and how we strike. But that doesn’t stop us from standing with our communities: By showing up, learning, and taking action together.
Join an action this week and share with your community:
- Mon 3/23 – How To Do A General Strike - Training
- Session 1: 10:30AM - 1PM
- Session 2: 5:30PM - 8PM
- PANA Office: 5577 University Avenue, San Diego
- Tue 3/24 – Immigrant & Tenants Rights Workshop
- 6PM - 8PM
- Olivewood Clubhouse: 541 E. 24th St, National City
- Wed 3/26 – ICE Out of San Diego Action
- 10:30AM - 12PM
- Federal Building: 880 Front St, San Diego
- More information: bit.ly/iceoutofsdmobilize
- Fri 3/27 – Artivism Day! Art Making for Taking Action!
- 2PM - 6PM (Arrive when you can!)
- Memorial Park, Chula Vista
- Sat 3/28 - No Kings - Tens of Thousands in the Streets
- 10AM - 12PM
- Waterfront Park: 1600 Pacific Highway, San Diego
- NoKings.org - San Diego Event
TA Highlight: Equity
A Commitment to Equity in our Tentative Agreement:
Preparing to negotiate our next contract, SDEA members identified priorities in three main categories: Staffing, Pay, and Stability. Even in the time between identifying priorities and negotiating agreements, destabilizing threats to our students and communities have only increased. Our tentative agreement includes a new article focused on protections for educators, students, and communities. Article 35: Safe and Supportive Communities contains a variety of measures that make our schools more equitable for everyone, including:
- Release days for staff to attend immigration appointments if needed
- An immigrant family legal clinic and other supports for immigrant communities, in partnership with community organizations
- Protections for the use of educators’ preferred name and pronouns
- Gender neutral bathrooms at each school
- Free menstrual supplies in all bathrooms and locker rooms
- More support for District’s Restorative Justice Practices
- Improved implementation of Ethnic Studies
This new article continues SDEA members’ history of bargaining beyond just the basics. Our collective power can improve our own pay, benefits, and working conditions… but it is also a tool we can use to fight for the rights of our entire communities, and to advance a more just and equitable world.
Read more in the full Tentative Agreement on Article 35: Safe and Supportive Communities.
Other key wins in our tentative agreement:
- Concrete fixes for Special Education staffing
- 5% pay raise over 2 years - see what that looks like for you with this calculator
- Locked in fully-paid family healthcare (including Kaiser $10 co-pay)
- Side Letter for no layoffs
- No fall excessing at Title I schools – that’s 150 out of 175 schools!
- Restored Early Childhood Education Teacher stipend
- Seniority for summer school hiring
- …and more! See lots more information here.
Your votes: Your next contract AND your union leadership
Currently SDEA members are voting on two things: Their next union contract, and their next union leaders!
2025-2027 Contract Ratification |
SDEA Spring Leadership Elections |
|
| ????️ What you’re voting on | Whether to ratify our new union contract and implement the tentative agreement | Who will represent you in union leadership positions (Officers, Board, CTA State Council, NEA-RA delegates) |
| ????️ How to vote | In person at your school or program’s union meeting, or at the SDEA office during business hours if you’re not assigned to a site (VTs, members on leave, etc.) | Online via Simply Voting, using the ballot sent to your personal email on March 9. |
| ????️ When to vote | Voting began on February 26 at meetings scheduled by each site or program’s representatives. All paper ballots are due to the SDEA office by March 23 at 5 PM. | Voting began March 9 at 6 AM and closes March 20 at 5 PM. |
| ????️ Resources | Attend your next union meeting and access a variety of resources online | See full timeline, information, and a voter guide |
- Only SDEA members can vote! Not a member? Join now!
- Questions? Reach out to the SDEA Elections Committee at sdeaelections@sdea.net or call (619) 283-4411.
TA Highlight: Improved Pay... What, Who, & When
Improved Pay in our Tentative Agreement: What, Who, & When
Preparing to negotiate our next contract, SDEA members identified priorities in three main categories: Staffing, Pay, and Stability. Here’s some of the ways that pay will improve for SDEA educators if we ratify our tentative agreement:
| What: | Who: | When: |
| A 5% raise over two years | All unit members (plus other District employees with “Me Too” clauses, like classified staff) |
These raises will be paid once the District receives the state funding owed to them. See more in the TA on Article 7, and calculate what that raise would look like for you here. |
| Monthly Penalty Payment for Ed Specialists Over Caseload Limits | Ed. Specialists:
Mild/Moderate/MMSN, Moderate/Severe/ESN, & Mild/Moderate/MMSN Special Day Class |
Current school year: The District is compiling a list of educators who qualify. If the agreement is ratified, payments will be made within one payroll cycle after the list is finalized.
Going forward: Payments will be issued the month after a caseload exceeds the contractual limit… to incentivize the District to address SpEd staffing quickly rather than saving money by overloading educators and then delaying grievance settlements. See more in the TA on Article 29 & more about the SpEd fixes in the TA.
|
| Pending Caseload Grievance Settlement Payments | Ed Specialists who were overloaded beyond caseload limits during the last two school years (2023–24 and 2024–25) | The District is preparing a list of impacted members. Once available, a unionwide message will be sent so members can review and appeal if needed.
See more in the Grievance settlement agreement May 2026 Update: Ed Specialist Caseload Grievance Settlements: 2023-24 & 2024-25 |
| Restored ECE TK Stipend | ECE Teachers assigned to a TK classroom | Retroactive to July 1, 2025 and moving forward, eligible teachers will receive the lead teacher stipend to help close the pay gap with Multiple Subject co-teachers. |
Looking for details on how this applies to individual situations? Check our FAQ first!
Your vote: On your next contract AND your union leadership!
Right now, these pay improvements are tentative as part of our tentative agreement. To actually implement these changes, SDEA members need to VOTE! Currently there are two votes in progress:
| 2025-2027 Contract Ratification | SDEA Spring Leadership Elections | |
| ????️ What you’re voting on | Whether to ratify our new union contract and implement the tentative agreement | Who will represent you in union leadership positions (Officers, Board, CTA State Council, NEA-RA delegates) |
| ????️ How to vote | In person at your school or program’s union meeting, or at the SDEA office during business hours if you’re not assigned to a site (VTs, members on leave, etc.) | Online via Simply Voting, using the ballot sent to your personal email on March 9. |
| ????️ When to vote | Voting began on February 26 at meetings scheduled by each site or program’s representatives. All paper ballots are due to the SDEA office by March 23 at 5 PM. | Voting began March 9 at 6 AM and closes March 20 at 5 PM. |
| ????️ Resources | Attend your next union meeting and access a variety of resources online | See full timeline, information, and a voter guide |
- Only SDEA members can vote! Not a member? Join now!
- Questions? Reach out to the SDEA Elections Committee at sdeaelections@sdea.net or call (619) 283-4411.
Our voices at the state level: Extend Prop 55!
Remember, the reason for all the contingency language about when we get our raises and the reason we’re always fighting for the basics is because of bigger picture education funding. That’s why it’s critical to extend Proposition 55. Without it, California public schools face $14.6 billion in cuts which would disappear overnight if Prop 55 isn’t extended.
To be clear, Prop 55 is an extension of the personal income tax rates voters already approved in 2016, and it only applies to couples earning over $700K. This existing funding stream is what has been supporting our schools… and we can’t afford to lose it!
SDEA reps have been collecting signatures at union meetings, and union educators across the state are doing the same. We can’t win local improvements while losing statewide funding!
????️ Vote. Sign. Participate.
Being part of a democracy means that YOU have a voice: Negotiating and voting on a contract, deciding on who represents you, and prioritizing how our public resources are used. Like any democracy, our union is stronger when everyone participates! Show up. Talk to your colleagues. Vote. Participate.
TA Highlight: Some Basic Rights
In our tentative agreement, we won some basic rights!
After over a year of organizing and showing up, SDEA members reached a tentative agreement that tackles some big issues like Special Education staffing and raises. We also secured important everyday protections that make a real difference at work:
- The right to bathroom breaks: For the first time, our contract will guarantee coverage for bathroom breaks. Before, it was up to administration to decide whether to plan for coverage. If we ratify the tentative agreement, schools will be required to have a coverage plan, and violations can be enforced through our grievance procedure instead of filing a Labor Code complaint. When our rights are easier to enforce, those rights are stronger.
- The right to clean, cool air: Previous air quality bargained during an earlier COVID-19 era has expired… but our need for clean air has not! If ratified, the District must provide air filters for classrooms without working HVAC systems and regularly inspect and service those systems. Functioning air systems aren’t optional, whether that’s filtered air during flu season or working air conditioning in a heat wave.
- Speaking of working HVAC systems, we also won the right to streamlined repairs: Maintenance requests used to bottleneck at central PPO (which had over 60,000 requests as of January, just for this school year!) Under our new agreement, simple fixes can be handled at the site level, with central PPO stepping in when needed.
Read more in Article 8 and Article 11.
Other key wins in our tentative agreement:
- Concrete fixes for Special Education staffing
- 5% pay raise over 2 years - see what that looks like for you with this calculator
- Locked in fully-paid family healthcare (including Kaiser $10 co-pay)
- Side Letter for no layoffs for the term of the contract (June 30, 2027) – a historical win!
- No fall excessing at Title I schools – that’s 150 out of 175 schools!
- Restored Early Childhood Education Teacher stipend
- Seniority for summer school hiring
- Protections for immigrant and LGBTQ+ educators and students
- …and more!
Many resources are available to help you understand this tentative agreement before voting, including highlights, a detailed summary of changes, the full agreement language, and answers to frequently asked questions: Click here for Tentative Agreement Resources.
Now it’s time to VOTE!
Right now all these wins are a tentative agreement… because to actually implement these changes, SDEA members need to VOTE! Voting will take place in person at a union meeting at your school or program, and began on Feb. 26.
Our contract covers all certificated educators, but only SDEA members get to vote to ratify it. Not yet an SDEA member? Join now online!
Members on leave and Visiting Teachers can vote at the SDEA office (M-F, 8AM - 5PM). All ballots are due to the SDEA office on March 23 at 5PM. If you don’t know when your next union meeting is, talk to your site rep!
Letters in Solidarity: When We Get Strike-Ready, We Win!
Today, February 26, 2026, we were set to be on strike as SDEA union educators for our students with disabilities, to fight for the special education staffing that our schools so urgently need. While we would prefer to be in our classrooms with our students, we were ready to strike if absolutely necessary. But as we all know since we are teaching our students today in the schools that we love, we didn’t have to strike because 2 weeks ago at 11 pm as The Clock Was Ticking to come to a deal, our SDEA Bargaining Team settled the Special Education Caseload Overage Unfair Labor Practice and arrived at a tentative agreement on our entire next contract!
What’s in the tentative agreement? In the tentative agreement, there’s some huge wins for not just special education but for all educators and students in our district that we can all be proud of. That’s why the SDEA Bargaining Team, SDEA Board of Directors and SDEA Representative Council, made up of 180+ elected educator leaders from schools and programs across our district, have all unanimously endorsed a YES vote on the ratification of our next contract.
Here are a few of the biggest wins:
- Concrete solutions to address Special Education staffing shortages like caseload overage stipends, annual $4000 stipends for ESN/Mod/Severe teachers, case management days for Mild/Moderate teachers and free SPED credentials for SDEA members who fill vacancies internally
- 5% pay raise over 2 years
- Locked in fully-paid family healthcare (including Kaiser $10 co-pay limit)
- No layoffs – a historic win!
- Continuing the path to ending the unnecessary chaos of Fall Excessing
- Restored Early Childhood Education TK co-teacher stipend
- Protections for immigrant and LGBTQ+ educators and students
And these are just the highlights! In the rest of this issue of the SDEA Advocate, you’ll find a summary of the tentative agreement, an FAQ and a salary calculator for your 5% raise to help you make an informed decision on your vote to ratify our next contract.
Reps at last night's Rep Council unanimously endorsing a YES vote!
How did we win all of this? We won the demands in our SDEA bargaining platform by coordinating our campaign with our We Can’t Wait union sibling locals across the state and getting strike-ready for the first time in 30 years in our district. When we achieved our goal of 90%+ SDEA union educators voting to authorize a strike for special education staffing, we left the district with no other choice but to shut down schools on the day of our strike because you can’t run schools without teachers! This gave our SDEA Bargaining Team maximum power 2 weeks ago to push the limits of what was possible because we had the full force of 6000+ mobilized SDEA union educators behind us. Because WHEN WE GET STRIKE-READY, WE WIN!