The DOE released the following guidance in December 2024 about virtual professional development for occupational and physical therapists.

School-related professionals playan essential role in supporting the varied needs of students. This issue of the New York Teacher is dedicated to these UFT members. They number more than 46,000 in total in the New York City public school system and...

Monday, Dec. 23, will now be a school holiday, thanks to union advocacy, parental support and a student petition backed by UFT members from across the city. UFT President Michael Mulgrew, New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and...

The IRS has announced how much employees can contribute to their tax-deferred annuity account in the 2025 calendar year.

Oksana Parfilko maintains the laboratory rooms and plans and leads lab activities for science students at New Dorp HS on Staten Island.


Tom Murphy, the union's political director for 16 years and the chair of the Retired Teachers Chapter for 15, received the Charles Cogen Award, the union's highest honor, at Teacher Union Day on Nov. 3.

The UFT honored the organizing efforts and successes of members thoughout the city as some 1,500 members, friends and families gathered at the New York Hilton Midtown on Nov. 3 to commemorate Teacher Union Day.

As a school counselor, I recommend that classroom teachers do these four things to support students in their social-emotional growth. 


The UFT's Supplemental Health Insurance Program's 2025 premium notices will be sent in early January.

If you have opted for Medicare’s voluntary prescription drug rider (Part D) for 2025, you may potentially spend less out of pocket for prescription drugs. Under the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, beneficiaries now have a spending cap of $2...

More than a year into its operation, the Retired Paraprofessional Support line has proved more successful than anticipated — both for those calling in and for those answering the phones. 


UFT retirees will support our school-related professionals now more than ever. How can we do that? By keeping our union strong.

Each year, thousands of retirees take advantage of Si Beagle Learning Center in-person and online courses, seminars, trips, and dining and theater experiences. The program is named for the late Si Beagle, who pushed the union to offer continuing...

Retired bilingual school social worker Eliot Winokur is making a splash in retirement as a competitive swimmer. He holds top 10 rankings on the U.S. Masters Swimming website for the United States and the world and says swimming is both fun and...

Paraprofessionals at P256 in Queens, a District 75 school for high-school-age boys, pooled their Teacher's Choice funds to refresh a key space used by their students to calm themselves and reflect on their emotions. They celebrated the grand opening...

This school year, PS 133 in Harlem has three newly minted teachers who were employed as paraprofessionals at the school the previous year. The three, who have fashioned a mini support group for one another, are grateful for the help of the union and...

A team of teachers, speech therapists, occupational therapists and other related service providers create an environment where students with autism and general education students can learn in their 5th-grade Nest classroom at PS 682 in Brooklyn.


More than 50,000 graduate students and other student workers on 51 university campuses nationwide have formed unions since 2022, according to the National Labor Relations Board.


Eighth-graders in the United States lost ground on digital literacy between 2018 and 2023, according to the International Computer and Information Literacy Study, which assesses preparedness for the digital world.

Two Massachusetts families have filed a lawsuit against the creators and publishers of widely used whole-language reading curricula claiming that they engaged in “deceptive and fraudulent” marketing of curricula they knew was ineffective.

There are excellent online audio and visual resources that speech improvement teachers and classroom teachers alike can use to help students develop their listening and speaking skills. These media-rich resources provide ways to listen to language...

Incorporating strategies used by occupational, physical and speech therapists into classroom teaching can not only greatly benefit students with disabilities, but can also improve learning for all students. And the more teachers normalize using these...

For the new classroom teacher, the sheer volume of related service providers in a school can be a little bewildering. But it’s important to get to know these colleagues and the services they provide to students with disabilities.

Chanisse Wade, a second-year social worker at Bronx Legacy HS in Mott Haven, strives to create a "culture of celebration" at her school. She publicly celebrates all student achievements, large or small — from high grades to good attendance to...

Nagella Al-Balushi, an occupational therapist at PS 340 in the Bronx uses the equipment in her therapy room to work on a variety of motor skills with students in a typical 30-minute session.

Nearly 180 children living in temporary housing gather at UFT headquarters for the union's annual Thanksgiving Luncheon. They enjoyed the dozens of activity tables and an early Thanksgiving dinner before leaving with a new coat, gloves and hat. 


About 70 people learned about online student safety, special education resources and more at the UFT's Staten Island Family Partnership Summit held on Nov. 9 at PS 20 on Staten Island.

Roughly 350 new retirees gathered for the New Retiree Luncheon at the New York Hilton Midtown on Dec. 5 to toast their life after retirement. 


Tikkun olam — Hebrew for “repairing the world” — was the theme for the UFT Jewish Heritage Committee Awards dinner for a second straight year. The event, which was held at Russo’s on the Bay in Queens on Dec. 5, was “joyous and festive, with the...

UFT volunteers transformed Shanker Hall at union headquarters into a wonderland of candy-cane balloons, games and crafts for the union's annual holiday party and toy drive for students in need. Organized by the UFT Elementary School Division, the...

Nurses take an oath to act in the best interest of their patients, but the corporatization of health care and the focus on profits have made it increasingly challenging to keep that vow. Nurses grappled with that challenge and took workshops to...

Educators from schools across the city exposed their students to a variety of career and college pathways at three fairs hosted this fall by the UFT's Academic High School Division. The Future in Focus event highlighted careers in which the workers...

About 500 middle schoolers from 31 schools throughout the city learned ways to combat bullying during the UFT's annual anti-bullying conference led by BRAVE, the union's anti-bullying initiative.

Parent empowerment was the objective at the Queens Power Summit, which drew more than 80 parent leaders, students and UFT members to the UFT’s Queens borough office on Nov. 23.

Italian cuisine and culture were on the menu when the UFT Italian American Heritage Committee hosted its annual fall dinner on Oct. 22 at Mario’s Restaurant in the Bronx.

More than three dozen UFT members turned out for fun and games at Bingo Night at the union’s Queens borough office on Nov. 22 to raise awareness of COPE, the union’s political action arm.