Philly is changing the process for teachers assigned to ‘rubber rooms’ during investigations

Changes are underway in the Philadelphia School District’s “reassignment rooms,” where teachers and other employees accused of wrongdoing have languished — with full pay — for months or years.

The news comes three months after City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, chair of Council’s education committee, called for hearings on the so-called rubber rooms.

“What came to us was complaints about the process, and we’re here today to announce that the process has changed,” Thomas said during a news conference at school district headquarters Tuesday, where he was joined by Philadelphia Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and Oz Hill, the district’s deputy superintendent of operations.

» READ MORE: Bedbugs, lounge chairs and ‘absolutely nothing’ to do: Tales from inside Philly schools’ rubber room

To ensure investigations are on track, the district has instituted weekly case monitoring, and has started an intake process for employees assigned to the rooms, Watlington said.

The district has reduced backlogged investigations — those taking longer than 60 or 90 days to complete, depending on the type of case — by 87% from July 2024 to January, Watlington said.

Employees assigned to the rubber rooms — windowless conference rooms — have described their stints there as surreal: There was little or no supervision or work to do; people came and went as they pleased, sometimes leaving for lunches or to exercise. Some dragged in lounge chairs, slept, read, and even formed romantic relationships or threw parties, employees said.

One rubber room had bedbugs at one point.

Those in the room often have little to no information about the status of their cases, they say.

The president of the district’s teachers union said Tuesday that despite the district’s changes, investigations are still taking too long.

Here’s what to know about the rubber rooms, and what steps the district is taking to address problems:

The rubber rooms work this way: Teachers, administrators, and other staff accused of improprieties are forced to leave their current positions and report to these offices in district headquarters while investigations are completed. (The offices, shown to reporters Tuesday while employees were on spring break, are basic conference rooms, with rows of tables and plastic chairs.)

District policy calls for investigations to be completed within 60 days, or 90 days for Title IX discrimination cases, Watlington said Tuesday. But some employees are there much longer: One administrator who previously spoke to The Inquirer said he was assigned to the room for a year and a half.

Watlington, who said 66 employees were assigned to the rubber rooms as of January, could not immediately provide an updated number Tuesday. He also did not know how often employees were fired after being assigned to the rooms.

Watlington — who has led Philadelphia schools for close to three years — said the longest he has heard of someone being assigned to the room is two years.

Some of the delays have been due to district failings — like “sluggish, lackluster case management,” Watlington said. But he also said that in some cases, employees were “not participating in investigations in a timely manner.”

Arthur Steinberg, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said that even staff who are cleared during investigations “are not returned to classrooms right away due to bureaucratic inefficiencies within the administration.”

“Amid a district-wide staffing shortage, the absence of just one educator from our classrooms is one too many — especially in light of the fact that a majority of staff are eventually cleared of any misconduct," Steinberg said, while calling for better working conditions to improve ongoing shortages.

The reforms announced Tuesday include establishing an intake process for those sent to the reassignment room and more communication with employees about next steps and timelines.

“Nobody should ever be unclear about why they’re there,” Watlington said.

The district is also using a new system to track the status of cases, and monitoring cases weekly to ensure it is complying with the 60- and 90-day timelines.

It is also improving transition planning for employees returning to schools, taking attendance in the rooms, and inspecting the rooms multiple times daily for cleanliness.

“We already see more timely investigations,” Thomas said.

Steinberg said that while the union was “gratified” to hear of progress “since we asked them to address the backlog last year … the process of investigating and adjudicating professional conduct allegations against educators and staff is still taking far too long.”

While Watlington said the district had reduced backlogged cases — from 46 to six, between July 2024 and January — it cannot guarantee all cases will be resolved within 60 to 90 days. “We’ve got to make sure in those cases that present some unusual extenuating circumstances that … we don’t violate people’s right to due process,” Watlington said.

The district has not hired additional staff to help conduct investigations. But it is advertising for a deputy chief of investigations, along with a permanent human resources director.

Once those positions are filled, district officials plan “a full assessment” of the rubber rooms, Watlington said, for a “deeper analysis” of what the current system costs the district and how it can improve the process with its existing five-person staff.

The district will regularly report to the school board and City Council on the status of backlogged investigations, Watlington said.

Thomas said that given the district’s budget deficit, he was glad Watlington’s focus for improving the rubber-room process was on reevaluating existing resources rather than hiring more investigative staff. He is not currently planning to hold hearings on the issue, he said.

While he doesn’t like that the district is spending money on teachers who are not in the classroom, Thomas said, that was an unfortunate consequence of the need to protect students while ensuring fair investigations of employees.

“You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. No one wants to pay someone $90,000 to come to work every day and look at walls and draw pictures,” Thomas said. “But I’m not quite sure what the alternative is.”