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New Educator To-Do List

Here are some items to take care of right away and others that will help you prioritize and stay on track. 

Especially for first year teachers

  • Join the UFT. As a union member, you have comprehensive health benefits, job protections, paid parental leave and superior workplace rights and benefits. 
  • Enroll in a health plan. Although you are covered from your first day of work, you must enroll in a city health plan within 30 days of your first day on payroll. Review the city plans » 
  • Enroll in COPE. Your contribution to the union’s Committee on Political Education enables the union to continue to fight for funding for public education and improvements to Tier 6 of the Teachers’ Retirement System. Your COPE contribution is automatically deducted from each paycheck. 
  • Store your DOE file/EIS number and your employee ID number in a safe place and make sure you can log in to your employee self-service account on the Department of Education website. You’ll also need your employee identification number or your EIS number to log in to the DOE’s payroll portal, where you can enroll in direct deposit, see your pay stubs and more. 
  • Note your UFT member ID number when you get your membership card in the mail or create a UFT website account. You’ll need it when you call the union or sign up for events and services. 
  • Be sure to carefully review and save the email you received from the DOE’s Department of Human Resources, which records all your current information concerning your New York City license/appointment and New York State certification. Most important, check that it is accurate. If not, be sure to follow the DOE’s instructions right away to correct any errors in the record. 
  • Start your personal professional file, either in hard copy or a digital folder, that includes your official DOE appointment/placement email, your fingerprint clearance and your state certification email. Any official emails or records sent to your DOE account should be forwarded to your personal email in case you are ever locked out of your DOE account. 
  • All new educators should check to see if they are eligible for an automatic salary increase based on previous experience, educational credits or time in the DOE system. Salary steps and pay differentials must be applied for with a salary step application in order to get the increases. If you have previous, paid, full-time teaching experience and/or related nonteaching experience, you may qualify for salary credit, which can raise your wages significantly — up to 7.5 years of salary credit — bringing you to Step 8B. All newly appointed educators must supply this information to the DOE by filling out the salary step application online. You will be assigned an “equate date” of hire once the DOE’s Office of Salary Services processes your application for the salary step. This equate date allows you to move up on the salary schedule twice a year. You will automatically advance to the next salary step each year: once on your equate date and again on March 1. If you do not submit the salary step application, you will automatically be placed on the lowest salary step, 1A, and move only on March 1 each year. You must fill out the salary step application within six months of your appointment date in order to receive any retroactive salary step payment. After your application is processed, the DOE will send you a certificate of salary status via email informing you of your salary step and equate date.  

Rights and benefits 

  • If you are a new teacher without prior teaching experience, you are entitled to school-based mentoring by an experienced teacher so you get the support you need, ideally from the first day of school. The mentor should be an experienced classroom teacher, coach or lead teacher, ideally in your subject area. The mentor will provide a minimum of two periods a week of con- fidential, nonevaluative and nonjudgmental support. If you have not been assigned a mentor, speak with your chapter leader or UFT district representative. If you have any questions or concerns, contact your chapter leader.

Miscellaneous

  • The UFT’s Member Assistance Program (MAP) provides free and low-cost wellness services, short-term counseling, workshops, support groups and continuing education courses, all designed to care for you while you care for our NYC communities. To set up an appointment with a counselor, receive a referral for outside mental health resources or learn how MAP can support you, please contact MAP at 212-701-9620 or via mapinfo [at] uft [dot] org (email.)

Keep in touch with the UFT

  • Get the latest union news even over the summer! Sign up for UFT text messages on important news. Find us on Facebook at @uftny, X at @UFT, Instagram at @uftny, TikTok at @uftny and Bluesky at @uftnyc.bsky.social.
  • Connect with the UFT by participating in Union Power Points, a program that encourages members to participate in the union beyond their particular schools and worksites. It’s a chance to find fun activities and events, connect with other members and earn points for staying involved. Learn more about Union Power Points.