Overview
The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) Session Time Application(Open external link) is open each Spring for schools to enter their session times..
All NYCDOE principals are required to use this application to provide important information about their student and teacher schedules for the following school year.
Principals must indicate:
- The start and end times for their regular school day.
- The duration of the student lunch.
- Number of minutes of passing time (the aggregate).
- If a school is a multi-session school.
- Their teacher work schedule, including the Professional Development (PD) and Other Professional Work blocks for the 2024-2025 school year.
- School Based Option (SBO) requests, if they are changing the standard workday configuration.
In order to avoid a potential reduction in State aid, schools must work to maximize student instructional time and prioritize time in the classroom. This may include reducing minutes of passing time between periods and eliminating homeroom if it is not operationally necessary.
The deadline to submit SBO information and requested session times is announced each Spring. Any requests to change a session time made after this deadline will be reviewed in the order they are received; however requests that affect bus routing may not be able to be accommodated.
For assistance, please contact:
- Your Borough/Citywide Office Transportation Liaison(Open external link) for information about busing.
- Your Field Counsel(Open external link) or Karen Solimando (ksolimando@schools.nyc.gov) from the Office of Labor Relations (OLR), for support with SBOs and contract questions.
- Your Director of Operations(Open external link) for questions about student schedules, lunch times, and general guidance about the Session Time Application.
Single-session Contractual Workday
For single session schools, the teacher and paraprofessional workday is as follows: (A) each school day shall be 6 hours and 20 minutes Monday through Friday; (B) on Mondays, there shall be a 60-minute block of Professional Development (PD) after the instructional day; (C) on Tuesdays, there shall be a 40-minute block (35 minutes for paraprofessionals) of Other Professional Work (OPW) after the instructional day (note, IEP conferences can be scheduled during the 40-minute block of Tuesday OPW time); and (D) each week there shall be 55 minutes for remote Parent Engagement.
Multi-session and District 75 and 79 School Workday
In these schools, the teacher workday and student instructional day is 6 hours and 50 minutes, Monday through Friday. One professional activity period per week shall be converted to Other Professional Work as described in the collective bargaining agreement. Two (2) forty-minute afterschool conferences per term (i.e., October, January, February and April) have been reconfigured to be used for remote parent engagement. All other faculty and grade conferences are in-person and shall be scheduled consistent with the contract and practice. Faculty and grade conferences can also be used for PD.
Any workday schedule that deviates from the standard configurations above requires a United Federation of Teachers (UFT)-approved SBO. Detailed information on this process can be found in the Principal’s Digest. A new SBO is necessary for each school year; therefore, to continue a modification of the standard configuration, the school must have a new SBO for the 2024-2025 school year.
Instructional Time for Students
In accordance with State policies around funding, schools must provide all students in grades K–6 a minimum of 900 hours of instructional time per school year, and students in grades 7–12 a minimum of 990 hours of instructional time per school year.
In order to meet this minimum, schools must provide the following:
- For students in grades K–6, a minimum of 25 hours per week of instructional time
- For students in grades 7–12, a minimum of 27.5 hours per week of instructional time
These are experiences where students are:
- Receiving instruction from a teacher in an academic subject area
- Engaged in instructional experiences which are supervised by a qualified pedagogue
Schools must work to maximize student instructional time and prioritize time in the classroom. This may include reducing minutes of passing time between periods and eliminating homeroom if it is not operationally necessary.
The principal determines a school’s schedule in alignment with contractual rules and the above instructional time requirements. Once a school’s overarching session times and contractual schedules are established in the Session Time Application, students must be programmed for all instructional time in the STARS suite of applications. For middle and high schools, this includes updating the bell schedule in the STARS client with accurate information to inform student programming. For more information, see the Elementary, Middle, or High School Academic Policy Guides.
Title-specific Guidelines for the Regular Workday
Substitute Teachers
For substitute teachers the workday is 6 hours and 50 minutes.
Paraprofessionals
Paras have the same workdays as teachers, except that on Tuesdays the OPW block is 35 minutes. All SBOs must reflect this difference in work time for paraprofessionals.
Nurses and Therapists
Nurses and therapists work a 6-hour 55-minute day, inclusive of a 30-minute lunch.
School Secretaries
School secretaries work a 7 hour and 20 minute day, inclusive of a lunch break and one 10 minute break. The lunch break is equal to the length of the lunch period of teachers in the school.
School Psychologists and Social Workers
School psychologists and social workers work 6 hours 50 minutes exclusive of a lunch period of no less than 30 minutes (and no greater than the length of a teacher’s lunch period).
Guidance Counselors
Guidance Counselors work 6 hours and 30 minutes exclusive of a lunch period.
Lab Specialists
Lab specialists work a 6 hour and 30 minute day, exclusive of a lunch period of no less than 30 minutes (and no greater than the length of a teacher’s lunch period) and a relief period of 20 minutes.
Attendance Teachers
Attendance teachers’ schedule is either 8:20 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. or 8:30 a.m. to 3:50 p.m. inclusive of a 30 minute lunch period.
Homebound
Teachers of the homebound have a 7 hour workday inclusive of a 45-minute lunch break.
Adult Education Teachers
Adult Education teachers work an additional 10 minutes per day of preparation time in addition to their regular schedule.
School Based Options (SBOs)
Conducting an SBO
An SBO is the process whereby a principal and the school’s UFT chapter leader agree to propose to the UFT represented school staff deviations from certain requirements of the UFT teachers’ contract. Only SBOs related to the daily session time/teacher workday are under review through the Session Time Web Application. Principals must meet with their chapter leader to discuss holding an SBO vote to change the default contractual time configuration of a 6 hour and 20 minute day followed by 60 minutes of Professional Development time at the end of the school day on Mondays, and 40 minutes of Other Professional Work time on Tuesdays. If the principal and the chapter leader do not agree on a specific change to the configuration, the proposal cannot be presented to the staff for a vote. After the principal and the UFT chapter leader reach agreement on the SBO proposal, the UFT chapter leader arranges for a vote and notifies all UFT staff members. The proposal must be approved by fifty-five percent (55%) of the staff who vote, and the SBO must specify which provisions of the contract will be altered.
Chapter leaders will submit the SBO to the UFT for UFT approval. They should receive a confirmation email when the SBO has been approved by the UFT. If the SBO has not been approved within one week of submission to the UFT, chapter leaders should follow-up with their District Representatives.
Schools must conduct SBO votes that are approved by the staff and UFT before submitting their request for changes to the standard schedule in the Session Time Application. When principals are ready to submit their UFT-approved SBOs into the Session Time Application they will be prompted to indicate whether they have an approved SBO, a description of the SBO, as well as the number of staff voting for the SBO.
The DOE and UFT have agreed to a menu of pre-approved SBOs. Please review the 2024-2025 Session Time Memorandum.
All other unique SBOs must be reviewed by UFT and NYCPS prior to a school vote.
Only upon receiving final DOE approval from the OPT Session Time application should principals notify parents of the schedule.