UFT President Michael Mulgrew called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to restore weekly COVID testing in schools.

New York State Supreme Court Judge Laurence Love today signed a temporary restraining order in the case brought by the Municipal Labor Committee against the city’s mandate of COVID vaccines for all city workers.

There were plenty of smiles and a bit of trepidation as the 2021–22 school year kicked off with all students returning to in-person learning in their classrooms for the first time since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Join with other members in a safe space where we will share strategies and resources for support. Together, we can normalize the conversation around substance use and shatter the stigma that harms individuals and families affected by it.

When we’re feeling stressed out, it’s easy to lose sight of our goals and turn to unhelpful behaviors to cope. Learn ways to understand what’s holding you back from building better habits and establish a plan to keep you on track toward achieving...

In this four-week virtual group, you will learn the basics of mindfulness, understanding and regulating your emotions, and how to apply these skills in your everyday life.

An independent arbitrator has upheld the union's position and ruled that the city must offer work outside school buildings to immunocompromised members who — even vaccinated — are at high risk of contracting serious illness from a COVID-19 infection...

An independent arbitrator has ruled that New York City teachers with certain documented medical conditions must be offered non-classroom assignments. Other staffers reluctant to take the vaccine must be offered either an unpaid leave that maintains...

The city’s Department of Education has suddenly begun a “get-tough” policy refusing medical accommodations for teachers with serious illnesses, including those recovering from cancer or from organ transplants, UFT President Michael Mulgrew announced...

More than 323,000 borrowers with significant or permanent disabilities will be relieved of a total of about $5.8 billion in student debt beginning in September, the U.S. Education Department announced.

The worst thing we can do as teachers is to ignore what has happened the past year. How can you start the school year in a way that acknowledges the trauma of the pandemic and sets students up for success as we move forward?

UFT members went door to door in August to speak with parents about their hopes and concerns about the full reopening of New York City schools for in-person instruction.

Bronx teacher Jamala Roper asked her 5th-graders to reveal their emotions “to” their masks. "Every emotion you can think of was shared behind their masks," she says.

Former paraprofessional Sherwin Persaud made the transition to teacher last school year, finding his niche working with autistic children and those with behavioral issues in the early grades at P233 in Forest Hills, Queens.

The UFT Bronx borough office organized a back-to-school celebration on Aug. 26, partnering with the New York Pubic Library and several other community organizations to bring supplies and activities to more than 150 local parents and children.

About 300 local families braved 90-degree weather to attend a back-to-school supplies giveaway organized by the UFT and community partners on Aug. 12 at PS 19 on Staten Island.

You may not be an in-service employee anymore, but you haven’t left the UFT. Now it’s time to become a member of the union’s Retired Teachers Chapter (RTC) and participate in what’s considered the nation’s best retiree program for public school...

Members who have spent their professional lives under the academic calendar, even in retirement look at school openings as a pivot point. RTC Chapter Leader Tom Murphy looks at where we have been and, after our summer respite, where we are headed.

Barbara Zietchick began taking painting lessons and learning about printmaking while she was still a kindergarten teacher on Staten Island in the 1980s. Now, 37 years after her retirement, Zietchick’s lifetime commitment to “change and growth”...

Si Beagle trips make a seamless transition from in-person walking tours to virtual excursions for Retired Teachers Chapter members.



More than 30 years ago, Antoinette Messina, now retired, taught an immigrant boy to speak English. In a simple twist of fate, that boy, who grew up to be a physical therapist, today is teaching Messina to walk again.

As COVID-19 ravaged New York City and forced schools to shut down, Brian Nagy enjoyed a unique position. He was ready for remote.

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center 20 years ago left an indelible mark on the educators and students who were in New York City on Sept. 11 — especially those in lower Manhattan.

Students learn how to combat climate change at eco-friendly, solar energy-powered school on Staten Island that has become a model for the Carbon Free and Healthy Schools campaign.

Theresa Aponte is a family child care provider in East New York, Brooklyn, and a “second mother” to children who attend her in-home day care center while their parents work.

UFT members and other frontline workers were showered with confetti on July 7 at a “Hometown Heroes” parade celebrating them for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic in one of the largest ticker-tape parades in New York City history

Five states with Republican governors that banned school districts from requiring masks are facing civil rights investigations opened Aug. 30 by the federal Education Department.

Any DOE employees who choose to continue receiving paper checks must receive them at their mailing address. The DOE will no longer send these checks to schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress and widened learning gaps for students in grades 3-8 in math and reading during the 2020-2021 school year, according to national data released July 28 by the testing group NWEA.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew, greeting teachers today on the first day back to school for DOE employees, announced that the UFT had purchased 70 classroom carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors, giving UFT staffers the ability to independently check the...

Rather than just seeing them for what their scores say or what we unconsciously believe about them, we need to make sure that we as teachers are centering student voices and experiences in our curriculum and instruction.

Online forms of classroom assessments can be huge timesavers for educators by providing quick data, instantly compiling student answers and even reducing the amount of grading.

We are heading into another really tough school year. And once again, the mayor waited until the last minute to make major policy decisions regarding public schools.

This Brooklyn teacher uses immersive, engaging lessons and storytelling techniques to bring the past to life for his middle school students.

UFT Vice President Anne Goldman, the head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT, writes that as hospitalizations rise, we again find ourselves in a battle for adequate staffing. Staffing ratios are the foundation for safe patient care.