IN RE: the Claim of Malcom E. MARTINEZ (2023)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed February 24, 2023, which ruled that claimant was disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance benefits because he voluntarily left his employment without good cause.

Claimant worked as a teacher's aide for the employer until August 2022, when he quit his position in order to become a full-time student and earn his bachelor's degree.  He thereafter filed a claim for unemployment insurance benefits.  The Department of Labor issued an initial determination finding that claimant was disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance benefits because he had voluntarily separated from his employment without good cause.  Following a hearing, an Administrative Law Judge affirmed the denial of benefits.  The Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board affirmed, prompting claimant's appeal.

We affirm.  It is well established that resigning from a position in order to pursue academic studies, while commendable, constitutes a personal and noncompelling reason for separating from one's employment, disqualifying a claimant from receiving unemployment insurance benefits (see Matter of Lee [Commissioner of Labor], 190 A.D.3d 1170, 1172, 140 N.Y.S.3d 314 [3d Dept. 2021];  Matter of Delgado–Agudio [Commissioner of Labor], 149 A.D.3d 1377, 1378, 50 N.Y.S.3d 314 [3d Dept. 2017];  Matter of Silberman [Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Ctr.-Commissioner of Labor], 17 A.D.3d 815, 815, 792 N.Y.S.2d 736 [3d Dept. 2005], lv denied 5 N.Y.3d 713, 806 N.Y.S.2d 164, 840 N.E.2d 133 [2005]).  It is undisputed that claimant left his employment in order to complete an undergraduate degree program.  Accordingly, substantial evidence supports the Board's finding that claimant was disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance benefits because he voluntarily left his employment without good cause (see Labor Law § 593[1]).

ORDERED that the decision is affirmed, without costs.

Egan Jr., J.P., Lynch, Pritzker, Reynolds Fitzgerald and Fisher, JJ., concur.