Memorandum of Law<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cFor years, New York City has faced a severe shortage of paraprofessionals that has left some of our most vulnerable students without the services they are legally entitled to receive,\u201d said Speaker Julie Menin. \u201cThe Council acted because this crisis demanded action. Our legislation was passed unanimously by the Council and provides a narrow, temporary workforce stabilization payment to address this emergency while fully preserving the collective bargaining process. We are confident in the Council\u2019s authority to enact this law and will vigorously defend it so that our paraprofessionals receive the support they deserve and our students have the professionals they need in their classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a crisis in the classroom,\u201d said Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers. \u201cThe UFT surveyed schools at the start of this school year and found thousands of paraprofessional vacancies. Unfilled positions are left empty or filled with a rotation of substitutes, which does not provide consistency for high-need students. Instead of solving this crisis we are fighting it in court. Make this make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
On July 17, the Council unanimously passed Local Law 129, sponsored by Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, which would require the Department of Education (DOE) to provide a workforce stabilization payment, totaling up to $10,000, to each eligible school paraprofessional for work performed during the 2026-2027 school year. The workforce stabilization payment would be prorated according to the number of days an eligible school paraprofessional was on payroll in the relevant payment period during the 2026-2027 school year. It would be paid in four separate installments. As of March 2026, there were over 1,000 paraprofessional vacancies. This crisis has led to students with disabilities not receiving their legally mandated services, contributing to the $1.5 billion the City most recently allocated towards due process cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe over 25,000 paraprofessionals serving our city face a dire affordability crisis of their own that the collective bargaining process with City Hall has yet to solve,\u201d said Council Member Carmen De La Rosa. \u201cThe City Council passed Local Law 129 unanimously to address this crisis with a one-time stabilization bonus while the bargaining process runs its course. Making a single payment of $10,000, in the face of billions in taxpayer funds being wasted due to unmet legal mandates in classrooms, is a constructive move forward. Our children deserve the best education our public school system can manage, and that includes taking care of the workers who run it. We, as legislators, cannot sit idly by as our municipal workforce pleads for help, and we hope the new administration can address this efficiently and swiftly in its process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Excerpts from the Memorandum of Law:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of this educational and fiscal emergency, the Mayor asserts he has the exclusive power to end this crisis, through collective bargaining. But he hasn\u2019t made it happen. He has not addressed the crisis by bargaining, nor by honoring his campaign promise to provide paras a \u2018$10,000 bonus\u2019 via local law. Instead, he has filed this legal challenge to Local Law 129, hoping that the Court will give him legal and political cover for his failure to address the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is well-settled that courts may decline to issue a declaration where, as here, (1) the underlying problem is one of plaintiffs\u2019 own creation; (2) the plaintiffs could address the problem but have failed to do so; or (3)\u00a0available administrative remedies have not been pursued. Any of those shortcomings is sufficient to warrant dismissal of the Complaint without issuance of a declaration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn their Complaint, Plaintiffs contend that (1) the Taylor Law requires the \u2018terms and conditions of employment\u2019 to be collectively bargained by the executive branch in all instances, and (2) Local Law 129 sets the \u2018terms and conditions\u2019 of paraprofessionals\u2019 employment without bargaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mayor\u2019s contrary reading of the Taylor Law finds no support in the law\u2019s text, history, or precedent. The Mayor\u2019s core textual argument hinges, counterintuitively, on the \u2018definitions\u2019 section of the Taylor Law. But nothing about these \u2018definitions\u2019 requires action or allocates responsibility or authority; they merely define terms used elsewhere in the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The definition of \u2018agreement\u2019 states that it is \u2018negotiated\u2019 by the chief executive. No one disputes that. But it says nothing about the scope, let alone the exclusivity of executive authority, the role of other actors, or what steps local legislative bodies may take outside of the bargaining process to help workers. The Mayor\u2019s misplaced reliance on the law\u2019s \u2018definitions\u2019 is insufficient to overcome the heavy presumption against preemption.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNotably, the Mayor, through his press office\u2019s statements about this litigation, correctly highlights that the Taylor Law\u2019s collective bargaining regime is meant to protect workers, not mayors: he defends collective bargaining as a key tool for workers to \u2018fight for the workplace they deserve.\u2019 The Mayor\u2019s framing in the press correctly reflects the structure of the Taylor Law, which helps workers by giving them a right to bargain while burdening public employers with a bargaining requirement. In this lawsuit, though, the Mayor takes a different tack\u2014he tries to turn the Taylor Law\u2019s worker-protection rules upside down, into mayor-protection rules. That logical leap finds no support in the Taylor Law\u2019s text or history, as detailed above.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cParaprofessionals are an essential part of our schools, and the Council was proud to stand up for them through the RESPECT Check Act,\u201d said Majority Leader Shaun Abreu. \u201cWe believe in supporting the workers who show up for our students every day, and we will continue to stand behind this legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cParaprofessionals are not an extra in our schools; they are essential educators who provide critical support to some of our most vulnerable students,\u201d said Majority Whip Kamillah Hanks. \u201cYet too many are being asked to survive on wages that do not reflect the value or difficulty of their work. I proudly co-sponsored the RESPECT Check Act because retaining experienced paraprofessionals is essential to protecting our students, supporting our classrooms, and strengthening public education across our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
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