Urgent Action Required: Special Education Survey Deadline Approaching!!!

While the DOE continues to put its head in the sand, we refuse to accept these learning conditions for our students and working conditions for our members!

MaryJo Ginese is the UFT Vice President for Special Education and a member of Unity Caucus

Last week, UFT President Michael Mulgrew sent an urgent letter to Dr. Betty Rosa, Commissioner of Education and President of the University of the State of New York, highlighting the city's failures to meet its obligations to students with special needs and demanding that the State intervene. President Mulgrew made it clear that the UFT “refuses to accept these learning conditions for our students and working conditions for our members.” 

The first step is ensuring your voice is heard so the UFT can fully report the extent of this crisis. A survey was emailed to all chapter leaders and paraprofessional representatives to capture the ways the DOE has failed to service students with special needs in individual schools. If you are a chapter leader, we need you to work with the paraprofessional representative to fill out and submit the survey today so we know how your school and your students are impacted! Each survey gives the Union data it can use to protect our most vulnerable students and fix the issues our students and staff face on a daily basis. We can and will use this information to hold the DOE accountable for delivering the legally mandated services that students desperately need and that they have already received funding to provide.

If you’re not the chapter leader, reach out to your chapter leader today and offer to help gather the necessary information.  Together, we can get this done.

In Unity, we stand strong, and in Unity, we will win this fight!