Don’t Forget About Reasonable Assurance

Given the present circumstances, it may be easy to forget to provide employees “reasonable assurance” for a job in the 2020-21 school year. Under the Michigan Employment Security Act, schools should provide em­ployees with reasonable assurance that they will have a position for the following school year. The reasonable assurance is not a guarantee of employment but is, instead, a good faith belief that a position will be available for the employee the following school year.

Providing employees with reasonable assurance may preclude the employee from claiming unemployment benefits related to the employee’s school employment over the summer break denial period provided by the Act. While reasonable assurance does not need to be in writing, the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency has created a form reasonable assurance letter that can be provided to employees. That form is available at:

www.michigan.gov/documents/uia_1160_81922_7.pdf