SEATTLE — Teachers in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) have voted to authorize a strike if a new contract agreement is not reached before the school year begins.
The strike authorization passed with 91% approval from union members and could affect approximately 50,000 students across the district.
Negotiations resumed early Thursday morning between SPS and the Seattle Education Association, the union representing a cross-section of educators at SPS.
The current educator contract is set to expire on Aug. 31, just days before the school year is slated to start on Sept. 2.
If a strike occurs, parents in the state’s largest school district may face immediate challenges finding alternative childcare.
Key negotiation topics between the district and the union center on working conditions, such as workloads, caseloads, and class sizes, as well as care for special education students and compensation for teachers and other members of SPS staff who are part of the SEA.
Special education teacher Matt Legacki said bargaining team members have been actively crafting terms.
“Today we’ve been coming in, we’ve been working on language, we’ve been talking to the various department heads to get things done,” Legacki said.
District educators previously went on strike in 2022, an action that delayed the start of that school year.
John Shaw, an elementary school teacher in the district, expressed a desire to avoid another work stoppage.
“None of us wants to go on strike. We want to be in the classroom,” Shaw said.
Parents across the district are now forced to prepare for the possibility that school will not start on time, and that there could be disruptions to work and daily schedules for thousands of families.
Crystal Watkins, whose brother attends and lives near Bailey Gatzert Elementary School, described how neighborhood families depend on school schedule consistency.
“So there’s a lot of kids up in this building that go to the school every day. Especially when I take my little brother, I’d be seeing a whole bunch of kids go there. So if they do delay it, I know the mothers, they’ve got to go to work and stuff, got to delay their jobs,” Watkins said.
Watkins voiced hope that both sides resolve the dispute without altering the calendar.
Lead negotiators for the union plan to continue contract negotiations through the weekend.
The Seattle Education Association has scheduled a general meeting for Sept. 1 for members to vote on a potential contract if a tentative agreement is reached between SPS and SEA ahead of the planned Sept. 2 start of classes.
©2026 Cox Media Group
