The Department of Education has expanded the grade-level boundaries for a number of teaching licenses in order to ensure that city licenses align with state certificates. These changes have no impact on seniority or completion of probation status for teachers serving in the affected licenses nor is there any effect on excessing or other personnel decisions made prior to the date of the change.

Effective Nov. 1, separate junior and senior high school licenses were replaced by a single secondary license, similar to the grades 7–12 state certificates. This means that mathematics, English, social studies and some foreign language teachers now have a single secondary license. ESL and physical education teachers now each have a single license for all grades K–12. (Elementary school teachers who do not have a physical education license or certificate but who are currently teaching physical education, such as teachers with common-branch certification, may continue to teach physical education in accordance with state regulations.)

This change in city teaching licenses will make transferring to a new school easier in a number of circumstances. For example, a high school math teacher will now be able to teach math in a middle school without having to serve a new probationary period. The DOE and the union sent emails directly to all in-service teachers in these license areas notifying them of the changes. If you have any questions, please contact the educational liaison in your UFT borough office.