Teacher’s Choice, initiated by the UFT over 30 years ago, allows school staff members to exercise their professional judgment to purchase supplementary supplies and materials to improve the educational experience for their students. Here are answers to the most commonly asked questions about the program.  

As it has for more than 35 years, the Teacher’s Choice program will again reimburse UFT-represented educators for some of their out-of-pocket expenses for supplemental instructional supplies and materials of their choice.


Functional chapters are so named because what unites these student-support professionals is their function rather than a worksite or a school. The chapters were formed to allow these UFT members with common issues and concerns to have a voice.

Diana Gorda is a lab specialist at James Madison HS in Brooklyn, where she works to make sure that science teachers and the school’s 4,000 students have everything they need to perform safe and engaging laboratory experiments.

Three of the UFT's functional chapters recently elected new chapter leaders.

Bronx Engineering and Technical Academy Chapter Leader Yvonne Reasen used the new expedited resolution process for operational issues, negotiated as part of the 2018 DOE-UFT contract, to get the basic instructional supplies desperately needed by science teachers at her school.