Schools should have a professional development team that at a minimum includes a literacy coach and a math coach. These coaches are colleagues, deemed to have classroom expertise, who are eager to share their knowledge. They show teachers how to...

Each school year, the DOE determines the license areas where there is a citywide shortage of teachers. If your school has a vacancy in one of those license areas, and you possess that particular license and have at least three years of experience...

With the 2023 contract in place, the DOE will issue an annual reminder that schools should identify space for all staff, including paraprofessionals, for lunch in buildings where there is no dedicated staff room or lounge. And, at the beginning of...

As per the 2023 DOE-UFT contract, a new three-year pilot workday for teachers and paraprofessionals has been implemented for the 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. Both the DOE and the UFT must agree to extend it each year after that or the...

Unless modified through a School Based Option (SBO) pursuant to Article 8B, teachers and paraprofessionals in single session schools have a 6 hour, 20 minute workday, Monday-Friday with a 60-minute professional development block on Mondays...

You are entitled to a duty-free lunch period. This was a strike issue in the 1960s. Duty-free means just that. It’s free of any and all duty assignments. If you teach in an elementary school, you must have a daily 50-minute duty-free lunch period. In...

If you are required to maintain classroom or hall bulletin boards, their format is up to you. Per Article 21A of the contract, your principal cannot dictate how they look or discipline you for their format. Hallway bulletin boards are not part of a...

The UFT believes that you are the best judge of a student’s achievement. Some supervisors have pressured teachers to pass undeserving students or, without the teacher’s consent, have unilaterally changed student grades. If this happens to you...

Partners in Progress: Peer Intervention Program (PIP) is a collaboration between the UFT and the DOE to provide pedagogical and professional support to tenured teachers delivered by fellow expert educators, founded in 1988. PIP provides confidential...

If you have a difference of professional judgment with your supervisor, Article 24 in the contract provides you with a mechanism for resolving it that is similar to nonbinding mediation. Often an entire staff or department uses this procedure to...