The UFT and the Department of Education reached agreement on May 19 on a broader set of enforceable paperwork standards in the union’s ongoing effort to reduce and eliminate the excessive paper and electronic demands that are taking educators’ time away from students.

The new agreement, negotiated by the union based on teacher feedback, builds on the first systemwide standards, which were negotiated and implemented at the beginning of the school year as a result of the paperwork provision in the 2014 contract.

“Excessive paperwork is the biggest daily issue facing our members in schools,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “These standards give educators a tool to get relief if they can’t resolve the issue at the school level.”

Ellen Gallin Procida, the director of the UFT Grievance Department, called the expanded standards another example of how the union contract supports education. “Instead of unnecessary, duplicative paperwork, educators can focus their energies on supporting their students,” she said.

The new agreement features three new standards, which cover both paper and electronic record keeping:

• A general standard states in broad language that educators and related service providers will not be required “to perform redundant, unnecessary or unreasonable amounts of record keeping concerning the performance of, plans for or evaluation of students” unless required by federal or state law.
• Educators and related service providers will be required to keep grades and/or session notes in only one manner unless otherwise required by federal or state law. In a new right, staff required to use electronic systems must now have adequate computer access during the workday. The standard notes that this is in addition to the DOE source system until the systems can be aligned.
• Time spent in professional development, Parent Engagement or Other Professional Work — the three activities during the extended time — must not generate excessive or redundant paper or electronic work. Principals may create reasonable requirements for teachers to briefly record which family members they contacted and the topic discussed — something educators do anyway — during the 40 weekly minutes devoted to Parent Engagement. A sample log is attached to the standards as a model.

The route for resolving any school-specific paperwork issue that can’t be settled at the school level remains the same. The chapter leader brings the issue to the attention of the UFT district representative, who may bring it to the district paperwork committee. If the issue is not resolved there, the union may bring it to the central paperwork committee for adjudication. If the issue remains unresolved at that level, the UFT can proceed directly to arbitration. The district and central paperwork committees are both made up of equal numbers of DOE and UFT representatives.

“We have provided a mechanism that ensures that the paperwork standards will be enforced,” said Gallin Procida.

The UFT won its first test of the paperwork standards in April when an arbitrator ruled that the principal of John Dewey HS was violating the standards and ordered her to stop burdening staff with unnecessary paperwork related to “Do Now” assignments.

See the expanded paperwork standards »