New York City schools, particularly in District 75, are in dire need of paraprofessionals, who provide essential support services for children with disabilities. The shortage won’t get resolved until the city Department of Education streamlines its...

Delegates at the UFT Delegate Assembly approved a resolution calling for the union to push for a fairer cost of living adjustment for New York City public employee pensions.

The school-based special education committee — created as part of the 2023 DOE-UFT contract — gave Naing the tool she needed to fight to ensure special education students in her school receive the services they are entitled to.

Leading with the positive, focusing on a student's specific goals and having parents be assured that an educator has a plan to further their child's needs are among the best ways to have more effective parent-teacher conferences.

Will Dulin, a third-year teacher at Pathways to Graduation in Jamaica, Queens, takes pains to truly see his CTE students, helping them to forge pathways to educational success even when they can't quite envision them themselves.

It was a great time for a great cause — raising money for the UFT Disaster Relief Fund — as members made their way out to the links at the Silver Lake Golf Course on Staten Island.

A pink wave crested over New York City school buildings on Oct. 16 as UFT members wore pink to work to raise awareness about breast cancer. The annual tradition is a way to celebrate survivors, pay tribute to lost loved ones and colleagues, and...

The NYC Association of Foreign Language Teachers/UFT's fall conference featured language-specific workshop sessions for teachers of Spanish, French, Greek and Russian.

UFT members hit the phone lines and fanned out from New York City to Philadelphia and Scranton, Pennsylvania, this fall to campaign for Kamala Harris for president, as well as other pro-union, pro-education candidates down the ballot on Nov. 5.


UFT members said the stakes could not be higher this presidential election season as members, elected officials and guests came together at UFT headquarters on Sept. 10 to avidly watch the presidential debate between Democrat Kamala Harris and...

Energized UFT members paired up with their fellow union members from the Philadelphia Teachers Union and AFT Pennsylvania on Sept. 21 to get out the vote for Kamala Harris in the battleground state.

Cell phones in schools distract from teaching and learning and can threaten students’ mental health by feeding an addiction to social media. Barring them from classrooms makes sense, but any citywide ban has to be carefully conceived and implemented...

Late-night impulse buys at the UFT Swag Shop!

The UFT traveled to IS 145 in Queens on Sept. 4 to celebrate the school's achievement in bringing all 6th-grade classrooms into compliance with the state class size law limits. This year, 6th-grade classes will have a limit of 23 students, down from...

Teacher’s Choice, initiated by the UFT over 30 years ago, allows school staff members to exercise their professional judgment to purchase supplementary supplies and materials to improve the educational experience for their students. Here are answers...

UFT members can now wear their union pride on their sleeves. The UFT Swag Shop, a cyber store that offers UFT-branded merchandise, went online on Sept. 25. The woman-owned store based in Detroit sells products made exclusively in the United States by...

The UFT celebrates passage by the City Council of a bill mandating rooftop solar panels for all public buildings, including public schools. UFT Vice President for Middle Schools Richard Mantell says the legislation will result in healthier...

At an Oct. 3 press conference on the steps of City Hall, UFT President Michael Mulgrew and UFT Family Child Care Providers Chapter Leader Tammie Miller demanded that the city pay 47 child care providers who lost out on two months’ payments after the...

Counting your blessings isn’t just a nice thing your elders probably advised you to do. It’s also a key practice for both mental and physical health.

The UFT's new class size committee is mounting a member-driven campaign to educate school communities about the state law that limits class sizes, share success stories and provide school chapters with steps they can take to move the process forward.

The following notification was emailed to all members as part of the UFT Update on Oct. 17, 2024.

The UFT will campaign to establish fair and sustainable cost-of-living adjustments to pensions for retired UFT members and other city workers by significantly improving the COLA benefit.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew sent a letter to NY State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa outlining concerns with the city's inability to provide mandated special education services.

In the spirit of Optimistic October, let’s look at the intertwined issues of burnout and work-life balance from their starting points, when they’re easiest to control and keep in check.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew, union leaders, and the chair of the City Council Education Committee on Wednesday demanded New York City to stop stalling and pay childcare providers the more than $500,000 they are owed for caring for city children.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew issued a statement following the announcement that Chancellor David C. Banks was stepping down as schools chancellor.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said city educators could support a citywide ban on student cell phones provided four key safeguards are part of any new city policy.

With the shift from summer to fall, now is the time to reap the benefits of a likely change in routine, to make decisions about what’s really important — and to develop whatever new habits you’ve been meaning to.

More than 4,000 hotel and casino workers on the Las Vegas Strip reached a tentative contract with the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, the latest in a string of recent union victories for over 40,000 hospitality workers on the Strip.


The start of a new school year is a perfect opportunity to organize your time for maximum effectiveness. Here are some tips on how set SMART goals (goals that are specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-based) to make the best use of...

For the past 18 years, Christina Setkoski has diagnosed, evaluated and treated students with mobility challenges at PS 138, a District 75 elementary school in Manhattan.


UFT Vice President for Academic High Schools Janella Hinds writes that we can guide our students to more fully examine who they are and where their passions lie but doing so requires us to bring our truest selves to the classroom.

The UFT has launched a new mobile app for fast and convenient access to union resources and information and is available for iPhone and Android users. The UFT Member Hub app replaces UFT-Mobile, the union's old app.

Students with disabilities and students of color made gains in math and lost ground in reading, mirroring the overall pattern for New York City students in grades 3 to 8, according to state test score data.

The popular Teacher’s Choice program continues this school year, with eligible UFT-represented educators receiving a reimbursement for some of the supplemental instructional supplies they buy.

Nine educators at MS 137 in Ozone Park, Queens, graduated from the same school where they were middle schoolers. The teachers and paraprofessionals credit their own teachers' mentorship and cultural connectedness as the inspiration for their deciding...