The academic year is not the plan year, and the rules know it.
Independent schools, charter academies, training providers, early learning. Your staffing calendar, your budget calendar and your plan year are three different calendars, and benefits sit at the intersection of all three.
Three calendars, and the renewal has to fit all of them.
What is actually true in education
- Employees who work a nine- or ten-month schedule are still credited with hours across the full year under the employment-break rules, so summer does not make them part-time.
- Contracts and enrollment are set in the spring, which means the benefits number has to be known before the budget is approved, not after the renewal arrives.
- Adjunct, substitute and coaching staff are variable-hour by nature and need a measurement method, not a judgment call.
- Compensation is rarely why people stay, so the benefits program carries more of the retention weight than it does in most industries.
What CFH does about it
- Applies the employment-break rules correctly so a nine-month employee is not misclassified.
- Works the renewal to the budget calendar, so the number is available when the board votes.
- Builds a defensible measurement method for substitutes, adjuncts and coaches.
- Benchmarks the design against the schools you lose staff to.
Four sizes, four different problems.
Find your headcount. What changes at that size in this industry, and what we do about it.
A single campus is small enough that one claim moves the renewal, and large enough that substitutes and coaches already complicate eligibility.
What we do about it: Sets the eligibility method early and prices the market rather than accepting the renewal letter.
Crossing fifty brings applicable-large-employer status, and the employment-break rules are exactly where schools this size get the reporting wrong.
What we do about it: Runs the break-period credit properly and produces the 1095-C data from your contract records.
Several campuses and a mix of instructional and operations staff mean two very different populations under one plan.
What we do about it: Models funding on your own claims and designs contributions that work for both populations.
You are a multi-site employer with a governance structure, and the plan needs the same documented process as every other board decision.
What we do about it: Brings a documented renewal the board can read and keeps one calendar across vendors.
The three things employers in this sector ask us first.
Do our ten-month employees count as full-time over the summer?
Under the employment-break rules hours are credited across the break, so a nine- or ten-month employee generally does not become part-time over the summer.
How do we track eligibility for substitutes and coaches?
As variable-hour employees with a documented measurement method — not as a category excluded by job title.
Can you give us a renewal number before the budget is set?
Yes. We work the renewal to your budget and contract calendar so the number exists before the board votes rather than after.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
248.370.8853
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
719.425.2649
Houston, TX 77084
281.404.5670
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