Search
School Safety
Safety is a basic prerequisite of quality education. To ensure a safe environment, your principal — in consultation with the UFT chapter — is required to develop and annually update two documents: a safety plan (routine procedures for ensuring school...
Victim Support Program
If you are the victim of a crime or are injured by a student or intruder, the UFT‘s Victim Support Program (212-598-6853) will help you on a confidential, one-to-one basis. The program offers advice, counseling and assistance with the police, the...
Disruptive Children (Behavior Problems)
If a student in your class is very disruptive, you have the right to have that child removed for a single period, a single day or up to four days. The removal process is spelled out in Chancellor’s Regulation A-443 (Student Disciplinary Procedures)...
Damaged or Stolen Property
Although you are responsible for school and student property under your supervision, you are not responsible for the loss of such property if the loss is not your fault. However, if your personal property (including your car, but excluding cash) is...
Salary
All teacher salary schedules can be found in the contract or on the UFT website. Check that you have been given credit for all the educational credits you’ve earned and all the experience you have. Note that you may be able to get salary credit for...
School-Based Option (SBO)
A school-based option ("SBO") allows UFT members at a school the ability to collaboratively modify contractual articles or to create positions not automatically allowed under the DOE-UFT contract. Members can use the SBO process to change their...
Compensatory Time Positions
Compensatory time (comp time) positions create nonteaching assignments for teachers. These assignments are in lieu of teaching, may be full-time or part-time, and are subject to the school budget. Some compensatory time positions can be created...
Cluster Teachers
This term refers to teachers in elementary schools who are not assigned to the same class 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...
Coaches (Literacy and Math)
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...
Shortage License Areas
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...
Supplies
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...
Teacher Facilities
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...
Tenure
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...
Probationary Period
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...