(This replaces Fact Sheet 24-7)
This Fact Sheet provides a summary of the changes for teachers in the 2024 APPR reform law signed by the Governor on June 28, 2024, and the corresponding regulations approved by the Board of Regents on March 11, 2025.
Regulations
The Board of Regents a have adopted final regulations relating to the evaluation of classroom teachers and building principals to implement Chapter 143 of the Laws of 2024. The regulations are in effect as of March 26, 2025. The regulations indicate that districts can negotiate new plans under these new regulations immediately but have an eight-year window, through the 2031-2032 school year, to transition to the new system. SED has officially opened the plan submission portal and is asking districts that are ready to start the process of transitioning to a new plan to e-mail educatoreval@nysed.gov so that SED staff can have a preliminary conversation about the new plan and how it will adhere to the statute and regulations. The deadline for submission of 3012-e plans for the 2024-2025 school year was March 1, 2025. Plans submitted between now and March 1, 2026, can be applicable to the 2025-2026 school year and beyond.
Eliminate Connections Between
APPR scores and the Granting of
Tenure and Expedited Discipline
Prior to this change in the law, school districts could not grant tenure if a teacher received an Ineffective rating in their final probationary year or did not receive sufficient Effective or Highly Effective ratings during their probationary period. This requirement is removed going forward for all school districts unless there is specific collective bargaining agreement language or appointment letter language addressing this requirement. As a result, school districts may now grant tenure irrespective of the APPR scores awarded to a probationary teacher.
Previously teachers and substitutes could qualify for a shortened probationary period only if the
teacher had proof of tenure and 3012-d APPR ratings in their final year(s) at the previous
assignment. The required proof of APPR rating(s) are removed under Chapter 143, allowing
previous tenure (one year) or prior substitute (up to two years) service to be the trigger for a
shortened probationary period, unless there is local collective bargaining agreement language
requiring APPR ratings.
Further, the education law previously had an expedited disciplinary process (Section 3020-b) if
teachers received multiple Ineffective ratings in a row. These provisions have been eliminated with
the enactment of Chapter 143, and these changes apply to both the existing 3012-d plans and all
new 3012-e plans, unless there is local language that maintains this requirement.
Eliminate the State Aid Penalty
The State aid penalty for the failure to submit documentation that an APPR plan is in place each
year is permanently eliminated for all current and future APPR plans. This is applicable to both
3012-d and 3012-e plans.
New 3012-e APPR System
Section 3012-e plans, dubbed Standards-based Educator Evaluation and Professional Support (STEPS) by the State Education Department (SED), must be collectively bargained and no longer must include the previous requirement to use student performance as part of the plan. Instead, these plans will be developed locally and must include multiple measures that are aligned with each State Teaching Standard (Educational Leadership Standards for Principals). The NYS Teaching Standards include knowledge of students and student learning; knowledge of content and instructional planning; instructional practice; learning environment; assessment for student learning; professional responsibilities and collaboration and professional growth.
Rating Bands
Under a STEPS plan there are still four rating levels for APPR but they are numbered 1-4 (4 being the highest), rather than Highly Effective, Effective, Developing, Ineffective (H,E,D,I) as contained in 3012-d plans.
Eight-Year Transition
Districts will be able to transition to their STEPS plans once they have negotiated the new plan and have submitted the STEPS plan to SED for review and received notice that the plan meets the regulations. Districts may continue to implement and modify their current evaluation system under 3012-d through the 2031-2032 school year. Districts must negotiate and submit a STEPS plan to the Commissioner of Education by June 30, 2032.
Observations/Annual Evaluations
Based on the regulations districts with a STEPS plan must negotiate the number of observations with a minimum of two per year for probationary teachers and a minimum of two per cycle for tenured teachers. Evaluations can be differentiated, this allows for a circumstance where negotiations could result in a plan where tenured teachers would not receive an annual composite rating each year, even though some type of evaluation would be undertaken for every teacher each year. The regulations indicate that tenured teachers could be evaluated annually or on a multi-year cycle, where they are evaluated and scored on a subset of standards on an annual basis but would not receive an overall rating until the end of the cycle. Probationary teachers must be rated on each teaching standard and must have a composite rating annually.
All classroom teachers and building principals and anyone who conducts all or part of a performance review must receive appropriate training. The list of staff positions authorized to perform observations would be collectively bargained. NYSUT recommends including language in the newly developed plan that makes clear that observations are conducted in-person and by a trained administrator, independent evaluator, or peer reviewer (whatever is locally negotiated), and are not done using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
SED Review of Plans
Districts must file their STEPS plan with the Commissioner of Education for review. Once a STEPS plan has been adopted it remains in effect until a new plan is accepted by the Commissioner. SED has developed the following web page with resources on STEPS plans.
New York State Standards-based Educator Evaluation and Professional Support (“STEPS”) System (nysed.gov)
Availability of STEPS Plans
STEPS plans must be made available on school district websites. Under Section 3012-e, parents continue to have the right to obtain the composite score (Level 1-4), of the current teachers of their
children. This data continues to not be subject to FOIL.
APPR Comparison (Teacher Specific)
View the PDF version of the Fact Sheet for a side-by-side comparison between the previous APPR statute and the new 3012-e system.
3/12/2025 HA/mc