The following email was sent on Saturday, Oct. 3, to social workers and psychologists from Chapter Leader Raul Garcia.

I know many of you have questions about the UFT's recent agreement with the Department of Education about remote work. The answer primarily depends on your specific program and title and whether your work can be done remotely.

If you have no on-site duties or responsibilities, you have the right to work fully remotely. However, supervisors may require in-person UFT-represented employees to remain on site if needed. To protect everyone’s health and safety, we should limit the time we spend in school buildings to tasks that can only be completed in person. As professionals, we should communicate with our principal or supervisor about our intentions.

The agreement indicates that “schools will want to maintain some staff on-site, even if those staff members have remote assignments. A maximum of 20% of such employees, as covered by this section 10C, may be required to work on-site on a given day. These on-site programs will be given to such employees who express a need or desire work on-site.” As a result, some principals may ask you to report on a given day. If you are directed to report, you should contact your school's chapter leader to verify the 20% rule is being followed. Please remember this 20% rule applies to all UFT-represented staff in the building with no on-site duties or responsibilities. For example, if five UFT members can complete their work fully remotely, only one UFT member can be asked to complete their remote duties on site. As a reminder, our chapter’s contract does not include arrival, dismissal, lunch, hallway or coverage duties. Therefore, while you may be asked to work in person in accordance with this 20% rule, you should only be asked to complete your contractual duties.

All SBST clinicians assigned to clusters with multiple schools have assigned days of service for all schools in their cluster that they must adhere to. If your payroll school selects you to report in person for more days by invoking the 20% rule, you should verify whether the school is complying with that rule. Otherwise, you should be required to report in person to your payroll school for no more than the number of days assigned to the payroll school according to the clustering patterns of service.

As of now, face-to-face evaluations and in-person classroom observations are not approved because there is no agreed-upon health and safety guidance. Once guidance is issued, you should have ongoing discussions with your principal or supervisor about the planning and scheduling of these in-person tasks when warranted.

You do not need to fill out a formal request form to be considered for remote work. Communication is key. You should be in regular contact with your principal or supervisor about your intentions. Your plan may change each week based on the in-person tasks required of you.

If you have any questions or difficulties, please reach out to your school’s chapter leader, our chapter’s borough representatives or me at rgarcia@uft.org.