If UFT-represented DOE employees want to take additional time off following a UFT parental leave or a maternity leave to care for their child, they may take an unpaid child care leave until the September following the baby’s fourth birthday.

Appointed pedagogues are entitled to a “calendar month” grace period, which pays you for all weekends and holidays for the calendar month following the exhaustion of the days in your sick bank and/or your borrowed days. Work days are deducted from your pay. The advantage of borrowing days and using the grace period is that since you remain on payroll, those days count toward your pension, seniority and pro-rata summer vacation pay, and it also keeps your health benefits intact.

You may take time following the death of a family member without loss of CAR days. If your parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, spouse or domestic partner, or parent of spouse or domestic partner or any other relative or step-relative of your immediate household should die, you are granted the day of death plus the next three calendar days (excluding weekends and holidays). Under the 2023 contract, members may delay taking all or part of their bereavement leave to any point within three months of the death if the delay is in connection with a funeral or a memorial service that is scheduled later. The superintendent may grant additional time with appropriate documentation.

See more about bereavement. 

A leave may be denied because of incomplete medical documentation, not meeting eligibility requirements, not providing timely notice of the need for a leave, the health condition is not sufficiently serious, or a leave is determined not to be medically necessary. If there is missing information required from your leave application, you should receive notice in writing and you will have an opportunity to provide the necessary documentation.

Most leaves are applied for on the DOE website through SOLAS, the Self-Service Online Leave Application System (https://apps.schools.nyc/solas). Absences of one day or more, but less than 10, and intermittent FMLA leaves are not applied for online; pedagogues should talk to their school Payroll Secretary in these instances.

• If you physically gave birth to a child, you may use your available CAR/sick day balance immediately after your child’s birth for up to a maximum of six calendar weeks (eight weeks for a C-section) before beginning UFT parental leave for an additional six weeks.
• If you did not give birth to a child, you are eligible for up to six weeks of UFT parental leave beginning on the date of the birth or adoption of the child.
• If your newborn can’t come home from the hospital with you: In a new provision in the 2023 contract, if the newborn must remain in the hospital (in a neonatal intensive care unit or otherwise) longer than a typical stay, the parental leave can be delayed for either the birth parent or their partner, and the birth parent can borrow days and use a grace period for up to six weeks following the vaginal birth or eight weeks following a C-section if she doesn’t have enough CAR days in her bank. In no case, however, may parental leave start later than three months after the birth of a child. 

No. Birth mothers must choose between two options:

1. Take the traditional maternity leave including any applicable right to borrow days and/or use a grace period; or
2. Take a UFT parental leave. Under this option, immediately following the birth of a child, a birth mother may choose to use up to six weeks of CAR days for a vaginal birth and may use up to eight weeks of CAR days for a C-section birth. Following the use of her CAR days, the birth mother can use UFT parental leave for up to an additional six weeks — for a total of 12 to 14 weeks.

Yes. You may use your three personal business days for religious observance. These will be deducted from your CAR (sick bank) or you may take a pay deduction for each day that you do not report to work. The deducted amount will equal the amount that it would cost for a per diem teacher. You must fill out an OP 201 form: http://www.uft.org/files/attachments/op201_0.pdf For more info: http://www.uft.org/our-rights/know-your-rights/religious-observance