Sabbaticals

Sabbaticals are available if you want to study to enhance your teaching skills or if you are ill and need to restore your health. For study sabbaticals, coursework must be rigorous and applicable to your teaching assignment. If your superintendent does not approve your proposed course of study, you must be given the right to amend it. All sabbaticals for restoration of health must be approved by the medical director. If your application is denied, you may go to Medical Arbitration.

All teachers are eligible for a one-year sabbatical of either type after 14 years of regularly appointed service. After seven years of regularly appointed service, all teachers are eligible for a one- to six-month sabbatical leave for restoration of health. In junior high and high schools, you can also apply for a six-month study sabbatical for the spring semester only. Before retiring or leaving service, you are required to return to your position for one year after a six-month sabbatical and for two years after a one-year sabbatical. Other rules apply, as well. UFT borough offices hold sabbatical workshops in the fall and spring to guide prospective applicants.

As part of the agreement to avoid layoffs, no education sabbaticals will be granted for the 2012-2013 school year.

Also see Medical Arbitration.