I was extremely proud to stand with City Council Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph and other Council members on Jan. 30 as she announced proposed legislation to give every UFT-represented paraprofessional a permanent annual payment of $10,000 or more.

It’s a matter of equity, fairness and respect.

We launched our RESPECT for paraprofessionals campaign in December 2024. Our special education survey, to which 81% of our schools responded, had painted a clear picture of a special education system debilitated by the lack of personnel to deliver mandated services to students. Of the 2,264 special education vacancies reported by chapter leaders across 474 work sites, fully two-thirds of them — 1,558 — were paraprofessional positions. ​

The fact is our paraprofessionals cannot survive in this city on a starting salary of just under $32,000. Without offering fair compensation, the DOE cannot hope to retain and recruit enough paraprofessionals.

For half a century, our paraprofessionals have been shortchanged by city pattern bargaining, a negotiating practice that ties all municipal workers to the same percentage wage increases. The same 3% increase translates to a much higher dollar amount for higher-paid DOE employees than it does for paraprofessionals. As a result, as the decades have passed, our paraprofessionals have fallen further and further behind. The city has always refused to negotiate higher salaries for a particular title unless other members give up part of their wage increases. We cannot let the city pit our members against one another. It is the city’s responsibility to pay paraprofessionals more.

We got widespread media coverage when we spotlighted the serious staffing shortages in special education at our press conference in November. Council members are rightly concerned that our city’s most vulnerable students are not getting the services they need to thrive as a result. So they were receptive to working with us to figure out a way to raise paraprofessional compensation now, outside the strictures of pattern bargaining.

Under the proposed legislation, a “para pay index” formula would provide full-time paraprofessionals with an additional payment of approximately $10,000 each year, depending on the size of the wage gap between the highest-paid school administrator and the lowest-paid paraprofessional. Substitute paraprofessionals would receive this payment on a pro-rata basis. This permanently recurring annual payment would be separate from a paraprofessional’s regular salary and would not be pensionable, but it would start to close the inequitable wage gap.

When we launched our petition calling on the City Council to pass this proposed legislation, it immediately went viral. In under 24 hours, it had garnered close to 35,000 signatures, which is unheard of. The success of the petition speaks volumes about how the public supports our paraprofessionals and believes in doing right by them. But we still have a fight ahead of us. It’s going to be a real battle to build the level of support we need in the City Council to make this important change a reality. Please sign this petition and share it far and wide.

Now is our moment. It is time to say enough is enough. Paraprofessionals are crucial to the success of our schools, and they are needed now more than ever. Our city needs to show paraprofessionals the respect — and fair compensation — they deserve.