Onboarding & Support for New Teachers

Onboarding describes the process of introducing your new teacher hire to your school community. It consists of cultivating, orienting, and managing new employees from the initial meeting through the official first day of school and beyond, and setting them up for success.

• Host a New Teacher Meet and Greet prior to the start of the school year.

• Host a student or teacher-led tour of the school prior to the start of the school year.

• Communicate at least once a month with new hires prior to the start of school year. 

• Ensure new hires are aware and have access to subject-related curricula. 

• Ensure new teachers have access to IEPs prior to the start of the school year.

• Introduce new teachers to student/school support personnel prior to the start of the school year (i.e. School Psychologist, Custodial Staff, etc).

• Provide professional development on:

  • how to navigate SESIS

  • STARS

  • other DOE-related systems Consider introducing new teachers to school support (i.e. School Psychologists, Custodial Director)

Integrating your new teachers into your school community is the first step towards a successful first
year experience and ultimately teacher retention. The Staffing Success Team has created a
resource document that provides guidance on how to successfully onboard your new teacher hires. This resource can be used for any type of new teacher hire, including new teachers to the NYCDOE, as well as transfer teachers who are new to your school community. Please click the icon below for a downloadable PDF with more information:

View PDF

In support of NYC Public Schools’ NYC Reads initiative, the Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality is partnering with Brooklyn College and The Reading Institute to provide newly hired teachers with the opportunity to complete a 10-hour micro-credential course in the science of reading.

This course was developed by Dr. Katie Pace Miles, an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College and the founder of The Reading Institute. The topics include reading science theory, oral language (including phonemic awareness), orthographic mapping, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and neurodivergence in literacy development. Each module focuses on multilingual learners, and the course is grounded in the context of NYC Public Schools.

Important things to note: 

• The course is free for new NYCPS teachers for the 2024-2025 school year.

• The course is hosted by Brooklyn College. It is fully asynchronous and can be completed anywhere, on the participant’s own time and schedule, before the start of the new school year.

• The course has been designed to be interactive and engaging. It includes video footage collected from NYCPS classrooms, mini-lectures, and short assessments.

• The course is designed for teachers of all grade levels and subject areas.

• Participants will have the option to earn graduate credit for completion of this course if they choose to deepen their learning through an additional portfolio assessment. 

Principals should encourage their newly hired teachers to register and complete the course  before the first day of SY 2024-2025. Principals with participating teachers will receive communication from TRQ with an update on the status of their newly hired teacher’s course completion.

Professional Development is an opportunity to extend learning by increasing knowledge about a subject matter, or earn or maintain a professional credential or license. New and veteran teachers can benefit from participating in professional learning on a myriad of education-related topics to improve pedagogy and stay abreast of the latest and most innovative information.

There are a variety of professional development opportunities for teachers and educators to engage in to expand their pedagogy. Here in the New York City Department of Education, there are three main types of professional development opportunities that we want to focus on:

• Professional Development opportunities shared or suggested by principals and school administrators  to incorporate for new hires and veteran teaching staff. These can be created by the school admin team, along with teaching staff or the use of already existing material from outside organizations and companies.

• Department of Education/United Federation of Teachers based Professional Development opportunities

• Professional Development opportunities to satisfy certification requirements required New York State Education Department 

UP Learning Catalog   

K-12 opportunities specific for each Borough/Citywide Office

(By your school district) 

Remote Learning Tech PD Calendar      

Professional learning for Tech Support 

Resources and Professional Learning Opportunities 

Resources for each Content Area, M/ELLs, SWD, and PL Videos 

TeachHub  

K-12 remote learning instructional resources for teachers and students

(With your DOE Log in)  

Early Childhood Professional Learning 

(Click on ProTraxx tile)

ITeachNYC home page.

I Teach NYC provides the latest career development and professional learning opportunities for educators in New York City

New Teacher Toolkit

This toolkit orients new teachers to some of the NYC DOE’s core priorities as well as highlights some resources to support the first year of teaching. 

Classroom Content

This resource allows teacher to search for lessons, professional learning resources, and more.

The New Teacher Toolkit will serve as a primer to all the essential resources needed to support the onboarding to the DOE and should be bookmarked for reference throughout the first year of teaching.

The Onboarding Roadmap is a step-by-step guide to all HR items and steps new teachers will need to complete as a new DOE employee. Ensure they review the guidance thoroughly and ask any related questions early in the onboarding process.  

Check out this First Class Newsletter previously sent to new teachers to help them get acclimated with the following:

• HR New Teacher Checklist

• HR Connect FAQ

• Paychecks and Salary

• Benefits

• Employee Self Service

• Employee Incentives and Discounts

The Teachers of Tomorrow (TOT) Recruitment Incentive Program awards eligible, newly hired teachers a one-time award of $3,400 for one year of service at a TOT-eligible school. This program is designed to encourage talented, newly hired educators to teach where they are most needed. Teachers at TOT-eligible schools are automatically considered for this incentive; no application is required. While TOT schools and requirements vary by year, you can view the list of TOT schools for the 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025 school years as well as program eligibility requirements here. The TOT program is contingent on annual funding provided by NYSED. School eligibility in one year does not guarantee eligibility in subsequent years. If you have any questions, please contact us at Teachersoftomorrow@schools.nyc.gov.