When you return from a leave of absence, in most cases you return to your school or worksite.  In some cases, you may be excessed while on a leave, if you were the least senior person in your license area and your school experienced a drop in enrollment.  Some titles, like Guidance Counselors, Speech Teachers and Occupational and Physical Therapists have time limits for a right of return to your school or worksite.

You can stop working a week before your due date without any additional medical documentation. If you want to go on leave before that, you would need a note from your doctor that includes a diagnosis and prognosis.

You can apply for a sabbatical by logging onto the DOE's Self Online Leave Application System (SOLAS).  SOLAS is available at https://apps.schools.nyc/solas.  

If you are a teacher with 7 years of service, you could be eligible for a six-month sabbatical.  People on six-month sabbaticals are paid 60% of their regular pay.  People who are on year-long sabbaticals (which require 14 years of service) receive 70% of their regular pay.

See the UFT's main page on sabbaticals for more information. 

Any time a person is off payroll, their summer pay is reduced accordingly. In other words, if you are off payroll for 10% of the school year, your summer pay would be reduced roughly 10%. If you are on a UFT parental leave, this loss is compensated for in the check you receive from the Welfare Fund. Any time that you are out on a child care leave, or any time off payroll outside of the six/eight weeks of parental leave, will result in a vacation pay reduction.

See more information about leaves »

Both parents are each entitled to six weeks of UFT parental leave if they both work for the DOE in UFT-represented titles. In the 2023 DOE-UFT contract, the union fixed a thorny issue with the original 2018 parental leave agreement: When both the parent and the nonbirth parent were UFT-represented employees, they were entitled to a collective total of only six weeks of parental leave. Under the updated contract provision, this couple may now take a total of 12 weeks of parental leave.

The combined 12 weeks of parental leave can run concurrently (six weeks each, at the same time) or consecutively (six weeks for one parent, followed by six weeks for the other parent). However, one parent may not donate their leave time to the other to increase one's UFT parental leave period beyond six weeks. 

Termination Pay: You retire with all your Cumulative Absent Reserve (CAR) days and are paid out for half your days at your daily rate.  

Terminal Leave: You use your CAR days, every 2 days in reserve counting as one day, to stay on payroll and retire off your leave. Terminal Leaves may not cross over semesters and you must give your principal at least 30 days notice (OP40) before the start of your leave. 

See the UFT Retirement Toolkit for forms and additional information »

CAR days are for your own illness and can be accumulated up to 200 days. Members earn and can use 10 self-treated days per school year as long as they are on payroll. Self-treated days do not require a doctor's note. Three of the self-treated days can be used for personal business and/or to care for an ill family member (a total of 3; not 3 each).

Medically-certified days (and anything beyond 10 self-treated days) do require medical documentation.

Personal business is defined as something that can only be done during the school day, such as closing on a house. Personal business days should be requested in advance and the principal may ask the nature of the personal business before granting approval. 

Members can apply for a UFT 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. 

If you are excessively absent or late, you may receive a letter for your official file. If you are tenured, the DOE has the right, with sufficient notice, to file disciplinary charges against you. There is a special, expedited procedure when the DOE seeks to discipline a tenured teacher because of time and attendance issues, but in these cases, the hearing officer cannot terminate you, but rather levy penalties less than termination.

Most appointed pedagogues (lab specialists, school counselors, secretaries, social workers and psychologists and teachers) are eligible for a one year study sabbatical after 14 years of service. In addition, middle school, junior high or high school teachers/classroom pedagogues with at least 7 years of service are also eligible to apply for a 6 month study sabbatical for the spring semester only.

See the main UFT page on sabbaticals for more information.