If you are not eligible for parental leave because you have not been employed by the DOE for 12 months and in active service for 12 months prior to your child's birth, you are able to take a traditional maternity leave. There is no minimum service requirement to be eligible for maternity leave. 

Maternity leave begins the day your child is born. You can use up to six weeks of your accumulated CAR days (sick days) for a non-cesarean delivery or eight weeks for a cesarean delivery. If you don't have enough CAR days in your bank, you may submit a request to borrow up to 20 additional sick days or, in some cases, use a grace period. 

You will continue to be paid and maintain your health benefits during your leave as long your absences are covered by CAR days, borrowed days or a grace period. Please note that members will not be paid beyond the six to eight weeks after giving birth. 

Your payroll secretary can tell you how many CAR days you have accumulated or your pay stub also contains that information, which can be found on the DOE payroll portal.  You would apply for a maternity leave online through SOLAS. 

If you have been working for the DOE for more than 12 months, but were not in active status in the past year, you would also be eligible for an unpaid child care leave at the conclusion of your maternity leave. 

Please contact a UFT leaves specialist before applying to discuss your options at 212-331-6311. 

See a comparison between maternity and parental leaves for additional guidance. 

No, and here’s why: 

Virtual learning is described in the 2023 MOA with the goal of becoming “the first major public-school system to develop, implement and expand high-quality virtual instruction and related services, for all students who choose this option.”

The Department of Education defines credit recovery as “intensive instruction in a student’s identified area(s) of deficiency only. In credit recovery, students do not retake the full course. They instead work with a NYCDOE subject-certified teacher to relearn and master the areas in which they need support.”

Virtual learning classes should be full courses and not credit recovery. To be credit bearing, virtual classes bearing must address NYSED commencement-level learning standards and provide the opportunity for 54 hours of instructional time per credit under the supervision of a NYCDOE subject-certified teacher, who determines student competency of learning outcomes for the course.

The General Rules for Virtual Learning outlined in the 2023 MOA specify that:

-All virtual assignments shall be posted. No staff will be involuntarily assigned to teach a virtual class.

-Virtual instructional periods may combine synchronous, asynchronous and small group instruction.

-All students participating in virtual learning will be part of a class and a school.

-All participating staff will be provided with pre-assignment and on-going training.

-All virtual classes and related service sessions shall be compliant with current SED regulations, IEP mandates and Board Academic policy.

-Article 15 of the Teachers’ Contract and the 8/23/16 “Pro Rata Teaching Assignment” agreement shall apply to virtual assignments.

-Teachers will only be assigned to virtual learning assignments for students that have opted to participate in virtual classes.