The UFT hosted a legislative breakfast for City Council members on April 20 to discuss the union’s funding priorities — with Teacher’s Choice topping the list — as the Council considers its budget for the fiscal year starting on July 1.

“In New York City, we have the largest, most diverse, most challenging school district in the country,’’ UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the Council members assembled at UFT headquarters in Manhattan. “We take that with great pride, and we move our children in a better direction. And we’re doing it better than ever before.’’

But “the money has to be in our schools,’’ he said. “We need to fund programs that are actually going to make a difference.’’

Mulgrew made an appeal for more city funding for three such programs.

First is Teacher’s Choice, which reimburses educators for some of their out-of-pocket expenditures for school supplies. Last year, each classroom teacher received $122, up from the previous year but still only a portion of the more than $500 New York City public teachers spend on average, according to the union’s teacher survey, to make sure students have what they need.

The UFT is urging the Council to commit $20 million, or $250 per teacher, the prerecession allotment. The ultimate goal, Mulgrew said, is to make Teacher’s Choice “a permanent item in the budget.”

The union made a strong appeal for the Positive Learning Collaborative, a joint effort between the UFT and the DOE, whose mission is to provide training and support to school staff to help them to better manage student behavior before it escalates. The program is currently in 16 schools, but many more are on the waiting list, union officials noted.

Mulgrew also asked the Council for additional funding to expand the union’s Community Learning Schools Initiative, in which 26 schools so far have forged partnerships with non-profits, businesses and government to integrate vital support services into schools.

Council Education Committee Chair Danny Dromm, a former New York City public school teacher, urged his colleagues to support the UFT’s city budget priorities. “The decisions we make affect what happens in every single classroom,” he told them.

Among the 19 Council members who attended were Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Finance Committee Chair Julissa Ferraras-Copeland.