We are UFT member-driven community of union proud and union strong paras and other UFT members seeking to fight for a living wage, a fair contract, respect and dignity for New York City Public Schools’ paraprofessionals.

We have united to run a slate of like-minded paras for the 2024 UFT para chapter election under the banner of: UFT PARAS FOR A FAIR CONTRACT.

Too many of us feel unheard by our current union leadership and the DOE and that they are disconnected from the many issues paras are facing, today.

New York City public school paraprofessionals/para-educators play an essential and invaluable role in our school communities by providing accessible, quality educational and support services to all of our schoolchildren.

And yet, New York City public schools are experiencing hundreds of para vacancies that may result in thousands of New York City school children not receiving federally mandated IEP services due to shortages of full-time, qualified paras.

The reasons for this are many. But, quite simply it’s because we’ve seen our profession no longer be respected as a life-long career by the City of New York and the Department of Education.

New City York public school paras are struggling to earn a living wage in our city and often have to work multiple jobs to survive.

According to MIT’s living wage calculator, a single person with no children needs to make at least $33 an hour to live in New York City. Entry level paras are making less than $30k a year and no more than $18.50 an hour.

Did you know that teachers make over $32k in longevity raises over their careers while paras barely make $3k in longevity raises over their entire careers?

There are also various other inequities that exist in our current contractual pay structures and our para job rights.

The current path can’t continue. Being a paraprofessional must be a sustainable career, once again , and not only viewed as a “career ladder” to another profession.

We need the DOE, Mayor and our union leadership to not only recognize and protect the important role we as educators play in our schools and in our students' lives, but we call for fairer pay, better benefits, workplace safety, job security and increased access to job training that will give our jobs, and us, the respect we deserve.

We must support related legislation and fight for these things at the collective bargaining table.