The UFT's community schools initiative, which now serves more than 20,000 students in 32 schools, launched on June 20, 2012, when it received financial support from the union and the City Council to begin with six schools that September.

The union defined standards for paperwork reduction in it's 2014 DOE-UFT contract, and when a principal at John Dewey HS in Brooklyn ignored those standards in 2015, the contract enabled the union to hold the principal accountable.

The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history claimed the lives of 14 students and three staff members on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland, Florida. Five weeks later, students nationwide walked out of classes to support the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., organized by Stoneman Douglas survivors.

Seven years ago, two Federation of Nurses/UFT members who responded to the union’s appeal for medical volunteers, helped in the relief effort in the Philippines after a devastating typhoon. 

Bullying has no place in any child’s education. That was the inspiration behind the UFT’s creation in 2011 of the Building Respect, Acceptance and Voice through Education, or BRAVE, program to provide tools, knowledge and support in confronting bullying.

How can we promote and encourage innovation and creativity in the classroom?

That’s the question the union sought to answer six years ago when it negotiated, as part of the 2014 DOE-UFT contract, an initiative that rewards collaboration between educators and administrators as they seek new ways of approaching teaching and learning.