Based on current Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures, the September 2022 COLA, which retired members will see in their September pension checks, is 3.0%.

In the face of the outcry against teaching the horrors of enslavement in the U.S. and the historic fight for civil rights, it’s time the country demonstrates how much civil dissent should be valued by making Aug. 28 -- the date of the 1963 March on...

More than 250 New York City public high school students gathered on Oct. 20 for the UFT’s Future in Focus college and career fair, exploring the benefits of organized labor and featuring a job fair with representatives from a variety of unions.

Harlem 4th-grade teachers Melody Naccarato and Pura Luna let their students get their hands dirty as they learned about plants and biodiversity during a class trip to the historic Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx.

The hydroponics lab at P141K at IS 71, a District 75 site that serves students with profound learning challenges, allows students to participate in gardening activities year-round. The students have the opportunity to witness the plant life cycle...

With spring’s arrival, we enter field trip season in schools. But planning a field trip in New York City is no easy feat.

More than half — about 75,000 — of the approximately 140,000 English language learners in New York City public schools have lived in the United States for fewer than three years. They need the support of culturally attuned and linguistically diverse...

Everything you need to know about the UFT's Student Debt Relief Program and the status of federal student-debt forgiveness.

Nearly two thousand educators and their students logged on for the UFT’s Future in Focus virtual college and career fair on Oct. 21 and 22, when representatives from more than 100 colleges and universities helped participants explore the...

It’s good to read that teachers are once again allowed to teach phonics, so their young students have tools to build decoding and spelling skills.

It was a night of food, festivity and recognition as members of the UFT African Heritage Committee gathered in Queens for the group’s 19th annual Awards Dinner Dance on Feb. 4, honoring the UFT’s Sterling Roberson with the Trailblazer Award, Queens...

Medicare-eligible UFT retirees will remain in their current health plans for the time being after a state judge’s ruling triggered a delay in the launch of the New York City Medicare Advantage Plus Plan.

UFT-represented employees covered by the DOE-UFT contract will see a pay raise of 3.5 percent on Sept. 15.

The UFT supports parents and the community in their desire to advocate for their young people’s fair and just education in New York City’s public schools.

The new administration has taken a hammer to the U.S. Department of Education, wreaking destruction that is sure to hurt the nation’s public schools and students.


The state and the city have the time in the coming months to create a thoughtful, comprehensive plan to safely reopen school buildings and bring teachers and children back together.

Members who have spent their professional lives under the academic calendar, even in retirement look at school openings as a pivot point. RTC Chapter Leader Tom Murphy looks at where we have been and, after our summer respite, where we are headed.

Cogen Award winner Ellie Engler made a habit of keeping UFT members safe, from her work with the union’s Safety and Health Department, where she created the Health and Cancer Helpline and the Member Assistance Program, to her early warning about the...

As Gov. Kathy Hochul considers signing state legislation to reduce class sizes in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams is threatening cuts to next year’s school budgets even as he sits on billions of dollars of federal education aid.

At the March Delegate Assembly. UFT President Michael Mulgrew said significant progress had been made toward passage of the RESPECT check bill during a report where he also provided updates on the impact of the state's increased funding for 3K and 2K...

UFT members supported the “RESPECT check” bill on Nov. 13 by holding teach-ins, wearing blue and tagging City Council members on social media in photos of themselves holding “RESPECT for Paraprofessionals” signs.

Sharon Brown, a member of the UFT’s Administrative Education Officers and Analysts Chapter, supports the principals of 32 Bronx high schools with budget compliance.

The UFT, along with seven New York City public school teachers and the Staten Island borough president, filed a federal lawsuit on Jan. 4 seeking to halt the implementation of congestion pricing in Manhattan. The suit charges that the plan’s...

UFT Vice President for Elementary Schools Karen Alford writes that it’s been a stressful year, and the pandemic is still affecting all our lives. Some UFT members have gotten a jump-start on their own social-emotional wellness, with training in...

When I began my career as a high school social studies teacher four years ago, I knew I wanted my classroom management to be dramatically different from the “reward and punishment” style.

Canva is a popular online graphic design platform that has made premium features available to K-12 teachers for free. Canva for Education offers sophisticated designs that are easily customizable with templates created expressly for educators.

My students can express their voices through journal writing, poetry and narrative story writing. I want my students to know their stories don’t have to be confined to their hearts.

Senior citizens need to be wary of emails, phone calls and text messages designed to get them to hand over money or share personal information, an elder fraud expert told UFT retirees at the Retired Teachers Chapter membership meeting in May. Fraud...

UFT membership entitles retirees to discounts on everything from clothing, restaurants and Broadway shows to travel, financial services and sports clubs.

After a rough start to a teaching career during the pandemic, a thrid-year educator is happy to have stuck it out and stayed in the profession.

This spring Mayor Eric Adams launched an ambitious $7.4 million literacy initiative targeting children with dyslexia. While it’s an admirable idea, there are still many more questions than answers.

More than 32,000 UFT members responded to an online survey commissioned by the UFT to gauge their primary bargaining goals as the union prepares to negotiate with Mayor Eric Adams and the DOE on a contract to replace the one set to expire in...

The following information was sent in an email from Chapter Leader Rosemarie Thompson on Sept. 28, 2022.

The roughly 5,500 UFT members who belong to the smaller New York City Board of Education Retirement System want the opportunity to switch to the TRS — and there is a bill in Albany that would give them that choice.


The UFT made an impassioned case for a city budget that fully meets the needs of New York City’s students at the union’s annual legislative breakfast with City Council members on April 25 at UFT headquarters.

The United Federation of Teachers will roll-out a “Fix Tier 6 in ‘26” campaign with action in January, February and March, both in schools and through social media, and build to a massive rally in Albany, NY, on March 8, 2026.