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 emergency regulations approved by the Board of Regents on November 5, 2024.
Emergency Regulations
The Board of Regents adopted emergency regulations amending the Rules of the Board of Regents 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 November 5, 2024. As required under the State Administrative Procedure Act a Notice of Emergency Adoption and Proposed Rule Making will be published in the State Register on November 20, 2024, for a 60-day public comment period. It is possible that changes will be made to these regulations based on the outcome of the public comment. It is anticipated that the proposed amendments will be presented for permanent adoption at the March 2025 Regents meeting. The regulations indicate that districts can negotiate new plans under these new regulations immediately for the 2024-2025 school year but have an eight-year window, through the 2031-2032 school year, to transition to the new system. SED has said they expect to have the portal open and available for plans to be submitted in December of 2024.
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, 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 NYS STEPS by the State Education Department (SED), must be
collectively bargained and no longer 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 SED has adopted regulations and made
available the form and process for submitting a STEPS plan to SED for review. SED anticipates
completing this process by Fall 2024 so that Districts can negotiate a new plan under STEPS for the
2024-2025 school year if they choose. Districts may continue to implement and modify their
current evaluation system under 3012-d until the 2031-2032 school year. Districts must negotiate
and submit a STEPS plans to the Commissioner of Education by June 30, 2032.
The emergency regulations of November 5, 2024 establish one exception to the eight-year transition. The new regulations require districts who have 3012-d plans that use district-, school-, program-, or BOCES-wide measures for the student performance component to move to a team, linked, or individual and teacher-specific measure for all teachers and principals before the 2028-2029 school year. This change can be made by renegotiating the current 3012-d plan to align with the requirement or negotiating a new STEPS plan which does not require student performance as one of the measures used in the teacher evaluation system. NYSUT is aware that most districts have some, if not all, teachers covered under district-, school-, program-, or BOCES-wide measures for the student performance component and that those districts, under the language of the emergency regulations, will have a three-year window to make a change to their current plans. NYSUT believes this regulation is inconsistent with the statute and advocated to SED to remove this provision from the final regulations. SED has in writing stated that this amendment to 3012-d will be removed from the regulations so that all districts will have the eight years to transition to a STEPS plan. NYSUT will also officially comment, during the public comment period, on this to assure it is resolved in the final regulations.
Observations/Annual Evaluations
Based on the emergency 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 one-to-three-year cycle for tenured teachers. NYSUT believes the statute is clear that STEPS plans, including the number of evaluations and how tenured teachers would be evaluated over time, are to be collectively bargained. NYSUT will be advocating with SED to remove this prescriptive language from the emergency regulations. NYSUT will also formally comment on this item to request that it be removed from the final regulations.
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 must be evaluated on a cycle from one to three years, 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 one-to-three-year cycle. Probationary teachers must be rated on each teaching standard and must have a composite rating annually. The regulations establish a maximum of a three-year cycle to receive a composite rating. However, the statute specifies that the length of this cycle is the result of collective bargaining and NYSUT is advocating with SED to remove this limitation from the final regulations.
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.
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