What is an ESP Bill of Rights?

• A Movement led by NEA ESP Members to Build ESP Recognition, Respect, and Power
  • It is critical that ESP members lead this work, with support from their NEA state affiliate leadership and staff.
• A Vehicle to Capture and Share ESPs’ Biggest Concerns
  • The voices of your ESP members must be the driving force behind this type of campaign.
• An Organizing Tool
  • A Bill of Rights campaign is an organizing campaign targeting issues impacting ESPs that provides an opportunity to build strong relationships that will sustain the union into the future.
• A Movement for Racial, Social, and Economic Justice
  • Economic justice is a building block in the global fight for racial and social justice. Advancing ESP wages through an ESP Bill of Rights campaign is essential to addressing the inherent classism in education systems.
• A Means to Identify and Develop New ESP Leaders
  • By engaging in a campaign, new leaders may be identified and encouraged to become more active in the union.
• A Roadmap for Affiliates to Build Professional Supports, Bargaining Strategies, and Legislative Priorities
  • Professional Supports: Through one-on-one conversations and other opportunities for ESPs to share their voice, the union can get a better understanding of ESPs’ biggest needs for training and support.
  • Bargaining Strategies: By identifying your members’ and potential members' most pressing needs, the union can create a roadmap for bargaining or meet and confer (discussions for locals without collective bargaining rights) goals. This can be done locally or coordinated across the state or region.
  • Legislative Priorities: The ESP Bill of Rights should be used to identify policy priorities, but the union cannot rely on simply turning their desired changes over to policy makers. There must be a strategic, coordinated effort to advocate for these changes.

What an ESP Bill of Rights campaign is NOT:

• It is not the answer to solving all ESP Issues
  • “Solving” ESP issues requires sustained organizing and consolidation of power. As public education, student needs, and the policies surrounding them evolve, so do the issues our ESP members face.
• It is not a short-term engagement
  • This is a marathon, not a sprint! Building a movement takes time, commitment, resources, and support. It is an organizing campaign that requires thoughtful planning and long-term engagement.
• It is not a campaign that engages only a few members
  • All members need to be supportive and involved, not just ESP members.
  • There is power in numbers, and those numbers also include teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, school leaders, parents, community allies, and other important stakeholders.
• It is not a campaign led by affiliate staff
  • While staff collaboration and support are critical, ESPs need to be the voice and face of this campaign. Engaging members and potential members, even if you think you know their most pressing issues, is mandatory.

History of the NEA ESP Bill of Rights

In the summer of 2018, ESP members from the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) started a living wage campaign for ESPs. That work became the foundation of MTA’s Bill of Rights campaign. A year later, they formed the MTA ESP Standard Task Force (STF). The task force was led by ESP members, including paraeducators, Jonie Cederholm and Sonia Fortin. The committee was tasked with evaluating ESP working and living conditions. In collaboration with Rutgers University, the ESP STF and the MTA ESP Committee surveyed ESP members across the state to understand their issues. After reviewing the survey data, they decided to create an ESP Bill of Rights that reflected the greatest needs of ESPs in their state. The MTA ESP Bill of Rights could then be shared with ESPs, other educators, and the public to build more awareness and understanding of ESPs and the issues they face. In May 2020, an NBI was introduced and passed during the MTA Annual Meeting of Delegates to endorse the MTA Bill of Rights.

In May 2021, The Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) launched their first coordinated bargaining guide for ESPs. While this document identified several important priorities, the MSEA ESP Committee quickly realized there needed to be a more engaging movement-based call to action for our ESPs. It had been twenty years since ESPs won the right to collective bargaining in Maryland, and the union's growth had recently become stagnant. After some MSEA staff learned about the Massachusetts ESP Bill of Rights, the MSEA ESP Organizing Committee decided to create their own ESP Bill of Rights campaign unique to Maryland. MTA ESP leaders were invited to attend the MSEA Summer Leaders Conference to present their Bill of Rights campaign which helped shape MSEA’s planning.

In the fall of 2022, the MSEA ESP Committee hosted thirteen listening sessions across the state of Maryland, engaging hundreds of members, and potential members, on what issues and actions should be identified for their Bill of Rights campaign. That same year at the MSEA Representative Assembly in Ocean City, the MSEA ESP Committee members launched the Maryland ESP Bill of Rights Campaign from the convention stage and challenged all 2000 delegates in attendance to personally endorse the Bill of Rights. Not only did every delegate endorse, but so did the Maryland State Schools Superintendent who was in attendance. A toolkit was provided to all RA delegates, so they could take the Bill of Rights back to their local union and worksites to ask for their endorsements of the ESP Bill of Rights. MSEA State President Cheryl Bost shared MSEAs plan and encouraged other state leaders to get involved and start their own campaigns.

In 2019, Jill Scarcelli, a Library Associate from Illinois, joined the first cohort of the NEA ESP Leadership Institute (ESPLI) alongside Sonia Fortin and other ESPs. During her time in ESPLI, Jill took the information she was learning from Sonia and other members of the cohort back to her state ESP Committee, inspired to push for a better future for ESPs in her own union. After hearing from ESP members about the same issues repeatedly, including poverty-level pay, a lack of benefits, safety concerns, retirement privatization of ESP careers, and a lack of overall respect, the ESPs in Illinois realized that even though ESPs were often told verbally what rights they deserved, there was no actual document that captured and reflected those needs.

Jill Scarcelli and Debra Ward-Mitchell, a paraeducator, along with other members of the IEA ESP Committee, began their first listening sessions in 2022. In April 2023, they officially launched the IEA rESPect campaign. The IEA rESPect campaign has a different structure than the MTA Bill of Rights campaign. In Illinois, ESPs, ESP allies, and IEA staff are invited to be part of four governance/staff-led teams. These teams are tasked to work collaboratively to bring forth and pass pro-ESP legislation, create resources specific for ESPs, and support locals in organizing for growth and power.

While each campaign was uniquely structured, the goal was the same—to win wage increases, good benefits, and better working conditions, and address other issues as defined by their own members.

After hearing about the campaigns in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Maryland, NEA President Becky Pringle attended the 2023 IEA One Conference, a professional learning conference for educators, where she learned firsthand about IEA’s success with this type of campaign. President Pringle then gave the NEA Board of Directors’ ESP Careers Committee the sole charge for that year: to create a national ESP Bill of Rights. After getting input from ESPs nationally, NEA launched the NEA ESP Bill of Rights in March 2024 at the NEA ESP National Conference. The NEA ESP Bill of Rights is intended to:  

• Serve as a guide for state affiliates, locals, or regions/districts to build their own campaign, based on their unique needs and structures.
• Capture a view of what is most important to our ESP members nationally. Guide NEA when creating, implementing, updating, and advocating for ESP programs, policies, and legislation on a national level.