As school bus drivers and escorts prepare to strike, we look at what drove the two sides apart. The union claims the city is reneging on a promise to include employee protections in future contracts that guarantee wages and seniority rights. But the city claims a 2011 court ruling nullified those protections.

Mayor Bloomberg is warning students and parents to prepare for a possible school bus strike as soon as January 2nd.

Teachers used Election Day, technically set aside for professional development, to offer help to people struggling in parts of the city devastated by Sandy.

Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott proposed on Thursday to offer buyouts to teachers in the “absent teacher reserve pool” and to get rid of those teachers who receive unsatisfactory ratings two years in a row.

Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott has expressed reluctance about releasing thousands of individual teacher ratings to the public, striking a different tone if not a different outcome from that of his predecessor, Joel I. Klein, who paved the way for their release.