CAR days are for your own illness and can be accumulated up to 200 days. Members earn and can use 10 self-treated days per school year as long as they are on payroll. Self-treated days do not require a doctor's note. Three of the self-treated days can be used for personal business and/or to care for an ill family member (a total of 3; not 3 each).

Medically-certified days (and anything beyond 10 self-treated days) do require medical documentation.

Personal business is defined as something that can only be done during the school day, such as closing on a house. Personal business days should be requested in advance and the principal may ask the nature of the personal business before granting approval. 

Termination Pay: You retire with all your Cumulative Absent Reserve (CAR) days and are paid out for half your days at your daily rate.  

Terminal Leave: You use your CAR days, every 2 days in reserve counting as one day, to stay on payroll and retire off your leave. Terminal Leaves may not cross over semesters and you must give your principal at least 30 days notice (OP40) before the start of your leave. 

Both parents are each entitled to six weeks of UFT parental leave if they both work for the DOE in UFT-represented titles. In the 2023 DOE-UFT contract, the union fixed a thorny issue with the original 2018 parental leave agreement: When both the parent and the nonbirth parent were UFT-represented employees, they were entitled to a collective total of only six weeks of parental leave. Under the updated contract provision, this couple may now take a total of 12 weeks of parental leave.

The combined 12 weeks of parental leave can run concurrently (six weeks each, at the same time) or consecutively (six weeks for one parent, followed by six weeks for the other parent). However, one parent may not donate their leave time to the other to increase one's UFT parental leave period beyond six weeks. 

Any time a person is off payroll, their summer pay is reduced accordingly. In other words, if you are off payroll for 10% of the school year, your summer pay would be reduced roughly 10%. If you are on a UFT parental leave, this loss is compensated for in the check you receive from the Welfare Fund. Any time that you are out on a child care leave, or any time off payroll outside of the six/eight weeks of parental leave, will result in a vacation pay reduction.

See more information about leaves »

You can apply for a sabbatical by logging onto the DOE's Self Online Leave Application System (SOLAS).  SOLAS is available at https://apps.schools.nyc/solas.  

If you are a teacher with 7 years of service, you could be eligible for a six-month sabbatical.  People on six-month sabbaticals are paid 60% of their regular pay.  People who are on year-long sabbaticals (which require 14 years of service) receive 70% of their regular pay.

See the UFT's main page on sabbaticals for more information. 

You can stop working a week before your due date without any additional medical documentation. If you want to go on leave before that, you would need a note from your doctor that includes a diagnosis and prognosis.

When you return from a leave of absence, in most cases you return to your school or worksite.  In some cases, you may be excessed while on a leave, if you were the least senior person in your license area and your school experienced a drop in enrollment.  Some titles, like Guidance Counselors, Speech Teachers and Occupational and Physical Therapists have time limits for a right of return to your school or worksite.

Yes.  People who do not return from a UFT parental leave are responsible to repay the money they received while on this leave. If you do not return to active service for 12 calendar months, you will be required to pay back the UFT parental leave benefit.

People can borrow days before the birth in what is known as maternity disability. Once the baby is born, birth mothers can only borrow days if they take maternity leave. There is no right to borrow days if you take a UFT parental leave. 

UFT parental leave provides for six weeks of paid leave. Birth parents can supplement these weeks by using CAR days in their bank from the day of birth until either their available days run out, or six weeks’ worth (eight weeks for a C-section) have been used. If a birth parent has the days in their bank, they could receive a total of 12 weeks of paid leave (14 weeks for a C-section). Members cannot borrow days or use a grace period. Members must commit to returning to the DOE for a minimum of one year following the leave.

Maternity leave is a birth parent’s right to use CAR days following a birth for six weeks (eight weeks for a C-section). Birth parents are allowed to borrow CAR days and use a grace period within the six-week (or eight-week) window. There is no return-to-service requirement, though if a birth parent borrows days, they must either return to service or repay those days to avoid being billed for them. There is no additional right to take a UFT parental leave in this case.

Once you have determined which leave best fits your personal circumstances, be sure to choose the correct term when applying through SOLAS. The city continues to provide health insurance in either case.