One contract for two programs made teacher eligible for benefits

Arkansas state law says teachers who don’t work during the summer aren't eligible for unemployment benefits. In a recent case before the Arkansas Court of Appeals, the statute was found to be inapplicable when the teacher routinely conducted a summer program and also taught during the regular academic year.

Facts

Nichole Tucker began working for Bentonville Christian Academy (BCA) as a preschool teacher in 2014. She described BCA as a preschool that "goes year-round" and didn’t take a summer break. Instead, it ordinarily offered a summer program that ran from the beginning of June through the end of July, with regular school programming resuming at the beginning of August.

Tucker signed a letter of intent in February 2020 indicating she would work for BCA's summer progam ram and then return as a teacher in the fall of 2020. On April 3, 2020, however, the school closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and furloughed its teachers. She didn’t return to work until the school reopened on August 3, 2020.

Tucker filed for unemployment benefits, which were denied. State law provides that persons working in an instructional, research, or principal administrator capacity aren't eligible for unemployment benefits during the period between two academic years if they worked in the first year and have a contract to work in the upcoming academic year.