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The special education teacher is primarily responsible for delivering specially designed instruction to the group of students with disabilities to address their needs as identified in their IEPs so they can access the grade-level curriculum.
The general education or content area teacher has primary responsibility for delivery of content area instruction in an ICT class.
Each ICT class must, at a minimum, have a special education teacher and a general education teacher. In New York City, the special education teacher must be certified and appointed in special education and the general education teacher must be certified and appointed under an appropriate general education or content-area license.
The two teachers — one general education and one special education — must be present for all periods of ICT instruction required by students’ IEPs. If an ICT class does not have an appropriately certified special education teacher, the school-based Special Education Committee should raise the issue with the principal.
Co-teachers must collaboratively plan, prepare and facilitate lessons, activities and projects, so they must be given regular common-planning time during the workday.
According to the 2023 contract, schools with professional activity periods will prioritize assigning special education teachers to common-planning time as their activity. Teachers can also choose to spend Other Professional Work time or prep periods on common planning.
Any lack of common-planning time should be raised at a meeting of the school’s Special Education Committee with the principal.
There are no regulatory requirements that specify how general education students should be selected for ICT classes and there is no published DOE policy or guidance on the issue.
However, as a matter of good practice, the general education “side” of an ICT class should be heterogeneously grouped. The general education students in an ICT class should be a representative sample of all the general education students on that grade level. ELL students are considered general education students in an ICT class. Therefore they should be proportionately represented on the general education side.
It should go without saying that the needs of the general education students should not be so great as to negatively impact on the students with disabilities in the class. For more information, see link: https://ec.ncpublicschools.gov/conferences-profdev/training-materials/administrators-transcript.pdf
If the general education population in the member’s ICT class is not heterogeneous, the member should immediately bring the ICT class makeup language (https://www.uft.org/teaching/students-disabilities/integrated-co-teaching-ict/ict-class-ratios) to his/her chapter leader and/or administration to discuss possible programming solutions. The chapter leader should bring this up at the next consultation committee meeting to establish a resolution that applies to all classes. This strategy is most successful early in the school year. Later in the school year program changes are not in the best interest of students and may not happen.
If an action plan to resolve the issue moving forward is not concretely established, the chapter leader should bring this to the attention of the district representative to resolve with the superintendent. The member can file a special education complaint on behalf of the adversely affected students.
Members can apply for their paid parental leave 15 days before giving birth but no later than 10 days after delivery. If the birth date is significantly different from the due date, you can revise your information in SOLAS as long as you log back in within 10 days of giving birth. You must log into to SOLAS to confirm your baby's arrival date whenever the birth occurs.
The number of students with disabilities in an ICT class may not exceed 40 percent of the total class register with a maximum of 12 students with disabilities. All students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) count when determining the maximum number of students with disabilities in an ICT class. ICT classes must also adhere to general education class-size limits.
ICT classes may not open at the beginning of the school year while in violation of these class-size requirements. If an ICT class is in violation of these limits, the teachers should first ask if there are any students in the class with IEPs who do not require ICT. These students can and should be moved into the appropriate general education classes. If this is not possible, and if an action plan to resolve the issue moving forward is not concretely established, the UFT member should file a special education compliance complaint on behalf of the adversely affected students.
Later in the school year, under limited circumstances, schools may apply for variances to exceed these limits if new students with ICT recommendations are assigned to the school or students are newly recommended for the service.
The school’s Special Education Committee should also raise any class size issues with the principal. Established in the 2023 contract, these school-based committees will meet at least once in the fall and again in the spring to discuss special education compliance issues, including teacher and paraprofessional programming, to correct these issues at the school level whenever possible.
The Department of Education recently informed the UFT that it discovered potential lead exposure from peeling paint in early child education classrooms in roughly 300 schools.
The UFT will be closely following the DOE’s efforts to ensure that all the classrooms where peeling lead paint was found in the latest inspection are made safe, and we will keep you updated.
Lead-based paint was banned in New York City in 1960 but remains in some older school buildings. It is not regarded as a health hazard in these buildings as long as the painted surface remains intact. Peeling lead paint, however, may result in dust that small children can ingest from coming in contact with dusty surfaces.
The DOE protocol calls for regular inspections for peeling paint. Any peeling surfaces should be sealed up and painted over. Independent experts then conduct tests to prove that the remediation was successful.
Read more from the DOE about lead-based paint safety »
Adults are generally regarded as less susceptible to lead exposure in this form, but if school staffers are concerned about their own situation, they should be advised to speak to a medical doctor.
Call the UFT at 212-331-6311 if you have additional questions or concerns and ask to speak with a safety specialist.
If members are interested in more information about UFT courses, they can access the current course catalog and register on the UFT website.
For more information about LearnUFT and courses offered to fulfill your CTLE requirements, visit: https://www.uft.org/teaching/professional-development/earn-ctle-hours-learnuft.