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.

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.

The general education or content area teacher has primary responsibility for delivery of content area instruction in an ICT class.

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.

Yes. These are some examples provided by the State Education Department.

Co-teachers may not be assigned to other duties (such as exam scoring or coverage or test proctoring for other classes) that would prevent them from providing IEP-mandated services to their ICT class.

If a co-teacher is routinely assigned to other duties, this issue should first be raised at a meeting of the school’s Special Education Committee with the principal. If unresolved at the school level, the issue can be escalated to the UFT district representative for that school or a UFT member can file a special education compliance complaint on behalf of the adversely affected students.

Integrated Co-Teaching may be provided for all subjects or on an individual subject basis. When Integrated Co-Teaching is recommended for less than the full school day, the student’s IEP must indicate the specific subjects or instructional areas in which the student requires Integrated Co-Teaching services.

A+ courses are professional learning courses that NYC DOE teachers may take for credit towards their salary differential.

If you are a teacher hired or rehired on or after Sept.1, 2019, then you must obtain a minimum of 18 A+ credits in order to earn your salary differential, unless you have already attained an additional doctorate or an additional master’s in an approved related area as determined by the Joint Accreditation Committee (JAC).

If you are a teacher hired on or after Sept. 1, 2017, but before Sept.1, 2019, then you must obtain a minimum of 6 A+ credits, unless you earned your salary differential before Sept. 1, 2019. (There was a six-month application window for teachers hired between Sept. 1, 2017, and Sept.1, 2019, who completed their 30 credits above a master’s by Sept. 1, 2019, but who had not finalized the application process for their differential. This window closed Feb. 1, 2020.)

If you are a teacher hired before Sept. 1, 2017, then you are not required to use A+ credits to obtain your salary differential. If you choose to submit A+ credits toward your salary differential, you must obtain a minimum of 6 A+ credits.

These rules went into effect on Sept. 1, 2019.

All teachers are eligible to take A+ courses for their own knowledge, development and to earn credit toward a salary differential. A+ courses may only be taken for credit by teachers. 

If you are a guidance counselor, paraprofessional, school secretary or other non-teacher title, your salary differential options have not changed.