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College Board adds career options
Driven by a growing student demand for more opportunities to build job-related skills, the College Board continues to expand its footprint to focus on career exploration and preparation in addition to its programs aimed at college-bound students.
Time to lay it on the line with lawmakers
President Michael Mulgrew reminds members the UFT stays in the fight for the things that matter to educators, students, their families and our communities. As the budget process gets underway at the state and city level — the UFT is geared up to...
U.S. DOE drops diversity court battle
The U.S. Department of Education is dropping its appeal of a federal judge’s August 2025 decision that found the Trump administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules.
Metropolitan Museum of Art unionizes
After four years of organizing fueled by concerns over job security, pay and transparency in employment policies, hundreds of Metropolitan Museum of Art employees in January approved forming a union through the United Auto Workers.
Creating classroom content with AI tools
Find about a variety of educator-friendly AI tools with tips on how to use them to create classroom resources, including Notebook LM, Suno and others.
Partnering with paraprofessionals
When teachers and paraprofessionals are on the same page, the classroom becomes a place of unity and students are the beneficiaries. Teachers across the city discuss the benefits of forging strong, healthy relationships with the paraprofessionals...
Union takes its case to Albany
The UFT told state lawmakers during budget hearing in Albany that it wants them to deliver on a number of priorities key to best serving New York City educators and the students they serve, including fixing Tier 6, revising the state education...
Per-session activities
Learn all the rules and know your rights with regard to "per-session" activities done outside regular classroom hours.
Care for city’s youngest on tap
At the Delegate Assembly on Jan. 14, UFT President Michael Mulgrew updated delegates on the union’s work to expand access to affordable child care and addressed a range of national, state and city issues affecting educators.
Sabbaticals
UFT members who are teachers or other pedagogical staff — including school counselors, social workers and school psychologists — are eligible to take a sabbatical leave to enhance their teaching skills, restore their health if they are ill or achieve...
Provide for providers
The UFT welcomes New York mayoral and gubernatorial support for expanding 3-K and pre-K and launching a new 2Care program to care for the city's youngest children, but argues that the city's home-based, family child care providers must be fairly...
Protect U.S. workers
The UFT urges U.S. senators to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act to give federal workers the right to collective bargaining and safe workplaces and a way to redress grievances.
Members stand with Minneapolis
After the UFT Delegate Assembly passed an emergency resolution in support, hundreds of UFT members joined thousands of demonstrators in Manhattan on Jan. 23 to show solidarity with Minneapolis-St. Paul, where ICE fatally shot a Minnesota substitute...
Well deserved
A Staten Island paraprofessional presses for passage of the "RESPECT" check, reminding the public that she and her colleagues are as deserving as any of greater compensation.
Need for ‘RESPECT’ is great
The chapter leader at PS/IS 384 in Brooklyn urges his fellow UFT members to fight to "Fix Tier 6" and improve retirement and pension benefits.
Show paraprofessionals they’re valued
A Brooklyn paraprofessional says passage of the "RESPECT," saying she and her colleagues deserve to be shown they're valued.
Chapter Leader appreciation
A retiree praises the efforts of Chapter Leader Amy Craine of District 31 Pre-K Centers on Staten Island with whom he once had the pleasure of working.
Get in the fight to ‘Fix Tier 6’
Paraprofessional Luis Garcia of PS 55 in the Bronx opines on the challenges city schools face without a "RESPECT check" to help ease the shortage in his ranks.
City must ‘build’ capacity
The UFT is taking aim at the School Construction Authority as it forecasts that when New York City public schools enter year four of the phased implementation of the state’s class-size reduction law, they will fall slightly short of the 80%...
Members ‘Make It Visible’
The UFT in December launched its “6” Days campaign to “Fix Tier 6 in ’26.” Members across the city are making the issue visible, making it human and making it loud, with educators set to head to Albany on March 8 to rally and lobby state lawmakers to...
Katrina Thomas, PS 289, Brooklyn
Discarded plastic bottles inspired Katrina Thomas, the chapter leader at PS 289 in Brooklyn, to take the initiative to raise money to build a kindergarten in Ghana.
Samuel Berck, math teacher at Rikers Island
District 79 math teacher Samuel Berck instructs incarcerated students at the East River Academy at the Rikers Island jail complex.
"Jewels” sparkle at Radio City
Middle school teacher Rachele Domond and paraprofessional Daquan Harris of the Catherine and Count Basie Magnet School for Multimedia and Performing Arts, in Jamaica, Queens, took on the roles of choreographers and proudly watched their middle school...
Social study of old New York
Queens 8th graders explore themes of cultural identity, community and adaptation through the stories of families who lived in New York City tenements during a class trip to the Tenement Museum.
Shake off the winter doldrums
The cold, short days of late winter can drain even the most enthusiastic teachers and students. Seasoned educators know that keeping kids — and themselves — engaged and energetic requires some strategic planning. Here are a few tips from veterans to...
Turning hallways into happy places
Queens middle school teacher Laeticia Charles offers a sense of emotional connection and safety to the students she teaches in her second year at MS 137, elevating her students' academics in the process.
Getting into character
Middle school teachers Cristina Cappiello and Arielle Schwartz showcase an inventive way to teach the classic novel "The Giver" in their classroom at MS 245 in Manhattan.
Clinicians Appreciation Day
Nearly 1,300 attendees gathered online and at UFT headquarters for the 20th annual UFT Clinicians Appreciation Day for a mix of professional development, networking and for the first time, an awards ceremony honoring the School Psychologist and...
Optional drug rider reimbursement up to $900
Beginning in March, UFT retirees can expect a partial reimbursement from the UFT Welfare Fund -- for as much as $900 for some retirees -- for the cost of an optional prescription drug rider.
SHIP 2026 premium notices
SHIP 2026 premium notices were sent in early January to retirees who did not elect to pay premiums via automatic pension deduction.
Required minimum distributions
UFT retirees who are turning 73 in 2026 and have a tax-deferred annuity (TDA) account have to begin making annual withdrawals from their TDA (called a required minimum distribution or RMD).
1099 tax forms
The Teachers’ Retirement System issues 1099 tax forms each January to people who received distributions from TRS in the previous year.
Retirees rally for unionists
The RTC's Labor Solidarity Project offers retirees an outlet to practice their union activism, proudly standing with striking nurses and with other causes.
Save money with SHIP
UFT retirees who are members of the Retired Teachers Chapter can join the Supplemental Health Insurance Program (SHIP) during their first year of retirement and recoup hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars for out-of-pocket medical expenses...
Feeding the soul in retirement
Elizabeth Tremberger, a retired Bronx science teacher, was looking for a way to serve her community after retirement. She found it in a local food pantry, where she orders and hands out food to those in need.
Leading from the front
RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer hails the power of unionists like those of the UFT to preserve democracy and stand up to tyranny in the wake of the killings of laborers Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.