{"id":375403,"date":"2026-10-17T02:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375403\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T02:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:56:16","slug":"nyc-teachers-union-cites-autistic-teens-death-in-fight-vs-mamdanis-para-pay-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375403\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC teachers union cites autistic teen\u2019s death in fight vs. Mamdani’s para pay lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City\u2019s teachers union on Friday urged a judge to dismiss Mayor Mamdani\u2019s legal challenge to $10,000 payments for public school paraprofessionals<\/a>, citing\u00a0the tragic death of a 16-year-old autistic student<\/a> as evidence of a dire need to fix the staffing shortage, according to new court filings.<\/p>\n

The City Council unanimously passed legislation earlier this year requiring the one-time bonus for low-paid school aides, who are represented by the United Federation of Teachers and support students with disabilities. As the bill lapsed into law, the mayor sued the Council, claiming the payments violated state law that mandates collective bargaining.<\/p>\n

In a 27-page memo in support of a motion to dismiss<\/a> Mamdani\u2019s complaint, the UFT pointed to the case of Adonis Jarvis, a student at P.S. 811X The Academy for Career and Living Skills in the Bronx, whose mother and grandmother were charged with murder in July<\/a> after the boy died of malnutrition and neglect.<\/p>\n

The mom pulled Jarvis and his twin brother out of school in January, claiming P.S. 811X did not have a paraprofessional who could help transport her children by yellow bus to and from school, which provides free breakfasts and lunches, the Daily News previously reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cA tragic event \u2026 adds both real world perspective and emphasis to the Council\u2019s findings,\u201d wrote UFT General Counsel Beth Norton, along with attorneys at the law firm Patterson Belknap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout enough paraprofessionals, one Bronx public school was unable to assign a paraprofessional to assist disabled students<\/a>, which led a single parent to withdraw her autistic child from school. No longer regularly observed at school, critical independent observation, report and intervention was lacking, the child\u2019s health worsened (unseen and unaided) and fatal malnutrition tragically developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe United Federation of Teachers logo. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n

A mayoral spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment. However, Mamdani has previously expressed interest in permanently raising paraprofessional pay<\/a> through the collective bargaining process.<\/p>\n

The UFT cited new data that there was a 160% increase in the reliance on substitute paraprofessionals over the last decade, based on a rise in the number of days subs worked between the 2014-25 and 2024-25 school years. The union said the increase can be attributed to the low pay and exodus of paraprofessionals from the school system.<\/p>\n

The filing also hit Mamdani for not only backing the payment as a mayoral candidate, but also supporting a costlier version<\/a>: \u201cThe Mayor repeatedly publicly championed a prior and more expensive version of the measure, namely a $10,000 recurring annual increase,\u201d the UFT\u2019s lawyers wrote, calling the final version, comparatively speaking, \u201can exercise in fiscal moderation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Mamdani speaks during a press conference at NYPD Headquarters Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The payments are expected to cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars, with the risk that expenses could balloon if other municipal workers similarly seek pay raises through legislation. A paraprofessional\u2019s starting pay is roughly $33,000 each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the low pay, the city\u2019s public schools have more than 8,000 paraprofessional vacancies this school year,\u201d Mulgrew said. \u201cThis means that thousands of our most vulnerable students are going without the services that they are legally entitled to. The City Council took legislative action to address this emergency and stabilize the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis law has one mission: attracting and keeping enough paraprofessionals in our schools to serve our kids. That mission is what the mayor is suing to stop,\u201d he added. \u201cWe are asking the court to dismiss the mayor\u2019s lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City\u2019s teachers union on Friday urged a judge to dismiss Mayor Mamdani\u2019s legal challenge to $10,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[138077,3100,138076,138078,1445,9,11,10,138074,37284,8229,138075,20772],"class_list":["post-375403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-autistic-teen","tag-lawsuit","tag-low-salary","tag-malnutrition-death","tag-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-ny-council","tag-nyc-department-of-education","tag-nyc-public-schools","tag-one-time-payment","tag-paraprofessionals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}