This term refers to teachers in elementary schools who are not assigned to the same group of students for the entire day; they usually teach classes in music, art, science, physical education or any other subject that the chapter committee and the...

Many schools 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...

It is your principal’s obligation to provide basic instructional supplies and books (including textbooks, paper and testing supplies) so you can provide an effective educational program to your students. Under the 2023 contract, the DOE is now...

You are entitled to have adequate supplies in the teacher washrooms in your school (toilet paper, paper towels, soap, etc.). Your school must also make available to all teachers a pay telephone for their personal use. If your school does not have...

Gaining tenure is an important milestone. Tenure is a status that appointed pedagogues achieve after completing a probationary period with satisfactory service. Having tenure means you can’t be terminated without due process and you’re entitled to a...

If you are appointed under a new license, state law requires that you serve a probationary period of four years and a day. Each time you change your license and are reappointed, you must serve a new probationary period. As of the 2023 contract, the...

A new three-year pilot workday for teachers and paraprofessionals will be launched for the 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years under the 2023 DOE-UFT contract. 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 of the Teachers' CBA, UFT-represented employees have a 6 hour, 20 minute workday with 155 minutes of extended time configured in different ways depending on the school. School...

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...