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.

September is a great time to set your intentions for how you’d like the school year to proceed and put strategies in place to help you achieve your goals.


UFT Vice President for Academic High Schools Janella Hinds encourages high school educators to continue to expand their own knowledge base through reading a variety of texts. Being an avid reader, she writes, helps educators better guide their...

UFT-represented educators will receive roughly the same Teacher's Choice alloment as last year to reimburse them for some of their out-of-pocket expenses for supplemental instructional supplies and materials of their choice.

New York City public school students in grades 3 to 8 made dramatic gains in reading and math on 2025 state exams. The percentage of students overall performing at grade level in reading jumped 7.2 percentage points to 56.3% and 3.5 percentage points...

Queens high school teacher Amy Matthusen explains ways to center students in creating evaluative criteria to help deepen learning.

The start of the school year is is an excellent time to make sure you’re taking the right steps to prepare for retirement and secure your own future. Here are the most important things you need to know about your pension benefits as a UFT member.

Here are the meeting dates and times for the RTC general membership meetings scheduled for the 2025-26 school year.

The Adams administration has dropped its effort to implement a Medicare Advantage health care plan for the city’s roughly 250,000 Medicare-eligible retirees.

Registration for intersession 2026 Si Beagle classes begins on Oct. 14, 2025.

The September 2025 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which retired members will see in their September pension checks, is 1.2%. Eligible retirees will receive up to $216 -- or $18 per month -- before taxes from the COLA.

The UFT Welfare Fund Retiree Legal Plan with Elder Law Supplement offers many benefits, but the five that UFT retirees use the most are assistance with estate planning, elder law, civil litigation, real estate and matrimonial law.

Retired teacher Luann Martin gives back to her community by volunteering with the Feeding with TLC soup kitchen operated by Trinity Lutheran Church on Staten Island.

In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a plan to import the worst part of Medicare Advantage — prior authorizations — into traditional Medicare. Prior authorization requirements will be established for certain traditional...

Pedagogical DOE employees who are injured or made sick on the job are covered by the Line of Duty Injury provision of the DOE-UFT contract — not workers’ compensation. The following Q&A answers some of the most frequently asked questions about Line...

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

UFT President Michael Mulgrew writes that we will see meaningful improvements in our working conditions — and our students’ learning conditions — this school year as a result of fights we undertook as a union for the changes we need. 


James J. McBratney, a product of Staten Island public schools, is a successful business owner and financial adviser best known on Staten Island as the proprietor of Jimmy Max Restaurant, a community staple he dropped out of college to open in 1989.

The number of new teachers who turned out on Aug. 26 for the kickoff of New Teacher Week was about twice as large as last year, thanks to the surge of hiring over the summer to reduce class sizes in some 750 schools. As the new hires lined up outside...

Two years after Florida expanded a law allowing tax dollars to fund private school scholarships, school districts across Florida are facing declining enrollment and the loss of millions of dollars in public funding as more families opt for state...

The Trump administration has unilaterally stripped hundreds of thousands of workers at four federal agencies of their union contracts after a federal appeals court overruled an injunction that had halted the plans. 


A US Supreme Court ruling allows the Trump administration to proceed with 1,400 layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education.

The UFT Delegate Assembly voted on July 8 to endorse Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor in the November elections. At a news conference at union headquarters the following day, Mamdani pledged to work with the union to...

The start of the year is a good time to consider what equipment you have on hand, what you may need to obtain, your classroom protocols related to technology, and what technology projects you’d like to pursue. Here is a framework for doing this...

As any seasoned teacher will tell you, it’s important to start the school year off on a good note. Along with essentials like reviewing classroom rules and units of study, ice breakers play a key role in setting the right tone and building rapport...

Federal workers have faced a dizzying mix of reductions in force, firings of probationary workers, early retirements and deferred resignations since Trump became president for the second time. The Federal Unionists Network (FUN) in New York City is...

The UFT-DOE contracts contain protections against a wide range of discriminatory or harassing behaviors, including sexual harassment. Federal, state and city laws also provide protections. Here is what you need to know.


At its last meeting of the 204-25 school year, the Delegate Assembly passed four resolutions.

If you travel to work by public transportation, you can save money by taking part in the City of New York Commuter Benefits Program, which enables you enables you to pay for allowable commuting costs in the city and the tri-state area with tax-free...

At PS 13 on Staten Island, UFT members and the principal began holding initial planning conferences "on the move." That seemingly minor change has delivered outsized benefits in teacher morale — and possibly even student achievement.

The Municipal Labor Committee and the city reached a tentative agreement with EmblemHealth and UnitedHealthcare on Aug. 28 on a new health care plan for in‑service city workers, pre-Medicare city retirees and their families.

With the new ban on internet-enabled personal electronic devices in New York public schools, we are not taking anything away from our students — instead, we are giving something back. We are giving them back their ability to focus, and we are giving...

As of Aug. 6, the DOE had hired more than 2,300 educators for the 3,700 open positions for class size reduction — about 62% of the need. The progress is significant, but the UFT notes that with hiring shortages throughout the city school system, the...

The historical curiosity of 1st-graders at Manhattan's PS 4 is sparked when co-teachers Lizette Lantigua and Yomayra Gomez take them on a class trip to the 260-year-old Morris-Jumel Mansion, Manhattan's oldest surviving residence.

The new academic year marks the start of the statewide bell-to-bell ban on cellphones and any other internet-enabled electronic communication devices in schools. The UFT successfully fought for the restriction to help students focus.

In a sign that the pandemic has drawn fully to a close, the city Department of Education’s special COVID-19 leave policy ends this school year. Absenses related to COVID-19 will be charged to members' sick bank.