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Absences

Self-treated days

If you are a teacher or other appointed pedagogue and are absent from school because of illness, you will be paid for up to 10 days in any school year without submitting a doctor’s note, as long as you have days in your Cumulative Absence Reserve (CAR), commonly referred to as your sick bank. These are known as “self-treated days.” If you take more than 10 self-treated days in any school year, you will not be paid for the additional absences unless you submit a doctor’s note – even if you have accumulated days in your CAR. Whenever possible, you should submit medical certification for each day you are absent to preserve as many of your self-treated days as possible.

Here are some more important things to know about self-treated days:

  • You can use three of your 10 days for personal business, provided that the days are approved by your principal. Personal business is officially defined as something that cannot be done at any time other than a school day, during school hours. All three personal business days may be used to care for family members who are ill.
  • Aside from these three personal business days, your self-treated days may only be taken for your own illness or disability. If you have exhausted all the days in your CAR and you are a full-time employee, you may borrow up sick leave days.  Appointed pedagogues may borrow up to 20 additional sick leave days. Full-time paras and administrative employees may borrow up to 10. You must submit a request to borrow additional days in writing to your principal. It is important that you call your school and notify the principal each day that you will be absent. 
  • If your supervisor suspects that you are abusing the sick leave provisions in the contract -- for example, absences are always on Mondays or Fridays or before holidays, s/he may investigate.

Other absences

You are entitled to take one day each school year for an annual physical exam or for annual laboratory tests. This absence is deducted from your sick bank (CAR).

Absences due to hepatitis B as a result of working with children, or to an allergic reaction from a DOE-mandated skin test, will not be deducted from your CAR, provided you submit appropriate medical documentation.

Other absences that are not deducted from your CAR include those used if you contract measles, mumps or chicken pox from a student; for the death of an immediate family member or to appear in court as a juror or witness. These are considered "non-attendance" days. Your chapter leader can advise you about which forms to file for these absences.

You can request up to four hours of paid time off annually to get screened for breast or prostate cancer, and up to three hours of unpaid time off annually to donate blood. The request should be made in advance and in writing to your principal. It will be granted if it is determined that it would not be a major disruption to the school.

Absences for paraprofessionals

Educational paraprofessionals may use their sick leave (CAR days) for their own personal illness with certification from their physician.

CAR is time earned by a full-time educational paraprofessional that can be used for personal illness. Eligible employees earn one CAR day for every month they are on payroll, up to 10 days per year. These days may be carried over from year to year.

Eligible employees can accrue a maximum of 200 CAR days.

An educational paraprofessional may not use more than 10 self-treated days in an academic year. Absences due to personal illness beyond an employee's 10 self-treated days must be medically certified.

Educational paraprofessionals may use their sick leave up to three consecutive days for a self-treated illness. Beyond three consecutive days, an employee's principal may request certification from their physician, such as a note from their doctor, to certify their absences.

An educational paraprofessional may use three sick leave days for personal business during the academic year. These days are included as part of the educational paraprofessional's 10 self-treated days in a 10-month period. If three personal business days are used, then the employee can only use seven self-treated days during the school year. For more information regarding the use of personal business days, the employee should contact the school’s payroll secretary.

Educational paraprofessionals who exhaust their sick leave balances are eligible to borrow up to 10 days with certification from their physician. UFT educational paraprofessionals whose sick leave allowance has been exhausted have the right to borrow against future sick leave in accordance with applicable administrative regulations.

A request to borrow CAR in conjunction with a leave of absence needs to be submitted through SOLAS for approval. The employee's CAR is placed in a negative balance for the number of days borrowed. As the employee earns CAR, the negative balance is adjusted.

UFT educational paraprofessionals do not have the option to buy back borrowed CAR days. They may only accrue one sick day each month, which will be applied to their negative CAR balance.

    Further guidance on Absences

    Know Your Rights definitions for:

    Absence forms

    • CAR Transfer Form & Rules
      All pedagogues may use this form to donate sick time to a colleague. The recipient receives one day for every two days donated. Pedagogues may only donate sick days to a colleague suffering from a catastrophic illness. Sick leave transfer rules are on page 2 of the form.
    • OP 44: Application for Termination Pay for Pedagogues
      Upon resignation, termination or retirement, pedagogues and paraprofessionals may be granted half of their sick leave balance (up to 100 days) at the rate of 1/200th of their annual salary. Pedagogues must fill out this form online, download it, print it and get it signed by the principal and then mail or hand-deliver (strongly suggested) it to the DOE. The DOE does not accept faxes. Paraprofessionals do not need to fill out this form. However, in order to collect termination pay, they must be members of the Teachers' Retirement System.
    • OP 201: Application for Excuse of Absence Without Pay and/or as Non-Attendance
      All pedagogues use this form to request time off with pay and no loss of CAR time for the circumstances listed on page 2 (death in the family, jury duty, graduation, religious observance, etc.). OP 201 is also used to request a day off without pay in certain circumstances.
    • OP 221: Application to Attend Meeting, Conference or Convention Outside NYC
      All pedagogues, paraprofessionals and administrative staff use this form to request approval for time off for a meeting or conference either with pay as non-attendance and no loss of CAR time, or without pay
    • OP 407: Confidential Medical Report and Medical Evaluation
      All pedagogues, paraprofessionals and administrative staff are required to submit an OP 407 form when applying for sabbatical leaves, (for) restoration of health leaves, (for) sick leaves over 20 consecutive school days and (for) alleged line of duty injuries. To maintain confidentiality, this form may be submitted directly to the Medical (Bureau) Division in place of a doctor’s statement on an OP 198 form.
    • Application to Use Earned Annual/Sick Leave or Report Non-Chargeable Absence  
      All UFT members may use this form to report any kind of absence (e.g. sick day, personal day, meeting attendance, etc.).

    DOE documents regarding absences

    Frequently Asked Questions

    A list of the most commonly asked questions.

    What is the difference between absences that are medical, personal or self-treated days?

    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. 

    What's the difference between terminal leave and termination pay?

    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. 

    If both parents work for the DOE, are both eligible for parental leave?

    Both parents can receive Paid Parental Leave if they both work for the DOE in UFT-represented titles. However, in these cases, the 6 weeks are split between the 2 parents.

    Applications will be processed to prioritize the delivering parent’s request. As such, we encourage both parents to appropriately plan for their usage together. The six weeks of UFT Parental Leave can run concurrently (three weeks each, at the same time) or consecutively (three weeks for one parent followed by three weeks for the other parent, or four weeks for one and two weeks for the other, zero weeks for the delivering parent and six weeks for the non-delivering parent, etc.).

    How can taking a maternity/parental/childcare leave affect my summer pay?

    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 Parental Leave, this loss is compensated for in the check you receive from the Welfare Fund. Any time that you are out on a Childcare Leave, or any time off payroll outside of the 6 weeks of Parental Leave, will result in a vacation pay reduction.

    How do I apply for a sabbatical and how much will I be paid?

    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.