In the coming school year, the UFT plans to keep up the fight to secure appropriate pay and health benefits for long-term substitute teachers.

A substitute teacher who begins a term teaching in a vacant position, or who begins in the middle of the term and performs the role of a regular classroom teacher for two months or more, should be recoded as Q-status, the payroll category that pays a sub at the rate of a first-year teacher and confers health benefits. Yet, prior to December 2023, substitutes who were hired to fill a vacancy — for example, who took over for a teacher who resigned or went on long-term leave — had to wait until the end of the school year and then file a grievance to be retroactively awarded the pay of a Q-status sub. They would lose out on the medical insurance they should have received for that period.

In December 2023, the UFT, with the help of its chapter leaders, identified about 200 substitute teachers whom the union believed should be coded as Q-status and pushed the DOE to recode them. After the UFT’s dogged advocacy, about 90 of those 200 received the higher pay and medical benefits before the end of the school year.

“The DOE has dragged its feet on paying these teachers what they’re owed,” said Michael Sill, the UFT’s director of personnel, payroll and special projects. “We will continue to fight for other long-term subs who are doing the work of full-time, appointed teachers but aren’t being paid at that rate.”

The DOE determined that 75 of the 200 substitute teachers were not eligible for Q-status, and about 25 are still under review. The union has reached out to those 75 teachers and offered to file grievances if the teachers disagree with the DOE’s conclusion.

Throughout the 2023-24 school year, the union made a concerted effort to educate principals about Q-status and fought to ensure they coded their long-term subs appropriately from the moment they qualified for Q-status, said Sill.

“Too few principals and schools understood the rules,” he said.

Some of the substitute teachers themselves, who may not be union members yet, did not know about Q-status. Others expressed fear of retaliation from their principals if they insisted on being recoded midyear as Q-status. To alleviate those concerns, the UFT negotiated a provision in the 2023 contract stating that principals could not retaliate against subs for insisting on the appropriate payroll status.

The union relied on the information from chapter leaders and other members in schools because the payroll information provided by the DOE does not identify what work per diem subs are doing day-to-day at their schools. The union asked chapter leaders to meet with long-term subs in their buildings and identify those who are doing the work of a full-time classroom teacher.

That nearly half of the long-term subs working in the 2023-24 school year were converted to Q-status “is a step forward,” said Mark Collins, the director of the UFT Grievance Department.

The UFT will continue its advocacy and outreach in the 2024–25 school year to ensure that long-term subs are recoded appropriately as soon as they qualify for Q-status so they get the pay and health benefits they deserve.

Learn more about long-term subs’ rights and benefits.