Council fights in court to keep $10,000 checks for school aides alive
A law promising city paraprofessionals up to $10,000 this school year is stuck in court. Here is what it would pay and when the checks would land.
Lawmakers are fighting to keep alive a one-time payout for the aides who work alongside New York City’s public school students. On Thursday the City Council filed its response in a Manhattan state court, urging the judge to throw out the Mamdani administration’s challenge to a law worth as much as $10,000 per eligible paraprofessional across this academic year.
Roughly 25,000 paraprofessionals work in the school system, providing instructional, behavioral and physical support, much of it for students with disabilities. As of March 2026, according to the Council, the system was short more than 1,000 of them, a gap the body says has left some children without services the law guarantees them.
What Local Law 129 would pay paraprofessionals
Branded the RESPECT Check Act when it cleared the Council unanimously on July 17, the measure directs the Department of Education to release the money in four separate installments rather than a single check. The earliest one has to reach workers no later than Jan. 1, 2027. The second is due two months after that, on March 1. Summer brings a third, due June 1, and a fourth closes out the cycle on Aug. 1. Each amount is prorated according to how many days an employee stays on the payroll during that stretch, and none of it counts toward pension benefits.
The law switches off once every eligible worker has been paid. It can also end sooner, if the city signs contracts that lift total yearly compensation by a comparable amount. Mayor Zohran Mamdani left the bill unsigned, and it took effect on its own 30 days after the vote.
Why the paraprofessional payments are in court
The suit landed Aug. 19, brought by the mayor along with the school system and its chancellor, Kamar Samuels. Their argument: under the Taylor Law and Education Law, compensation is settled at the bargaining table, and the Council has no authority to add to it by statute. Negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers are still underway.
“Instead of protecting that process, the City Council has passed legislation that undermines collective bargaining,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement.
The Council’s papers give the judge two ways out: end the case without deciding whether the law is valid, or rule that it is valid and enforceable. Nothing in the Taylor Law, the filing contends, stops a local government from improving what public employees earn, and the payments at issue are temporary rather than permanent wages or salaries. “The Council acted because this crisis demanded action,” Speaker Julie Menin said.
Quick answers
How much would NYC paraprofessionals get?
As much as $10,000 across the 2026-27 school year, sent in four prorated installments that do not count toward pensions.
When would the first payment arrive?
The earliest installment is due by Jan. 1, 2027, with three more following through the spring and summer, the last by Aug. 1.
Why is the law being challenged?
The Mamdani administration says compensation must be settled through collective bargaining under the Taylor Law and Education Law.
