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Jonathan Fickies

The UFT offers low-cost workshops that meet the state’s Dignity for All Students Act six-hour training requirement for state certification. DASA seeks to ensure all students attend school in an environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment and bullying.

All school professionals — including teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors and social workers — seeking state certification, as well as those seeking a new or second certification, must complete the training. Educators progressing from temporary to permanent certification and paraprofessionals moving up a level must also meet training requirements. If you are not sure whether you need to complete the training, contact the UFT certification department at 1-212-420-1830.

UFT DASA workshop leaders are just catching their breath after providing a record 17 summer workshops, including two mega workshops on June 28 for 600 participants. They will now start over again as more educators seek out the training in the new school year.

Adhim DeVeaux, the coordinator of the UFT DASA workshops, declared it almost impossible to keep up with the demand. A full schedule of more than 60 workshops for the 2015–16 school year has already begun to fill up. He estimates that the UFT has trained more than 14,000 educators in the last 17 months at workshops in all five boroughs.

DeVeaux said that those who go through the training report that their school colleagues would also benefit from the workshops.

“The beauty of the training,” DeVeaux pointed out, “is that it gives participants the opportunity to have conversations about race, culture, sexuality and religion not usually afforded in the school community. This new generation, in turn, is looking for opportunities for everyone on staff who has not been trained to share in those conversations.”

The UFT offers the anti-bullying workshops for $25 for paraprofessionals and $50 for all other members — far less than the $100 tuition charged by local colleges. The union’s workshops are held at union headquarters on the weekend and at convenient borough office sites where the required six hours is divided into two after-school sessions.

At the Bronx UFT office, six two-session workshops on Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 8:30 p.m. will begin in October. The Brooklyn UFT office offers five midweek, two-part training sessions from 5 to 8:30 p.m. beginning in December. Single-session, six-hour workshops from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. will be given on weekends at UFT headquarters starting in October. (Queens and Staten Island training times have yet to be announced.)

To sign up and register, go to UFT Courses and use the union’s online course registration system. Or fill out and mail in the DASA registration coupon in the UFT Fall 2015 Course Catalog. Either way, act quickly because classes fill up almost as soon as schedules are posted.