Roughly 7,000 NEA members—from teachers to Title ! coordinators, school bus drivers to psychologists, cafeteria staff to college faculty, and aspiring educators as well—will convene in Denver, from July 3 to July 7, for the 169th National Education Association Annual Meeting and 105th Representative Assembly (RA).
The RA is the world’s largest democratic body and the top decision-making body for NEA’s nearly 3 million members. Every year, local unions elect and send thousands of delegates from around the U.S. to draft, debate, and adopt policies that set the course for the future of the NEA.
The 2026 RA, which will be held at the Colorado Convention Center, which last hosted the RA in 2014, will open with an address from NEA President Becky Pringle. This is Pringle’s sixth—and final RA—as she concludes the second of her three-year terms as president of the nation’s largest labor union. (Follow President Pringle throughout the event at @neapresident.bsky.social.)
This year, the delegates will meet just weeks after the Trump administration announced it is moving special education programs, which oversee $15 billion a year in funding for students with disabilities, out of the Education Department and into the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. It’s a step that NEA President Becky Pringle says will endanger students and “abandon families who rely on federal experts to navigate a complex system.” At the same time, the Trump administration also is sending the Education Department’s civil rights office to the Justice Department.
Meanwhile, state governors are weighing participation in a federal voucher program, which poses an untold and urgent danger to the financial health of public schools, Pringle notes.
In other words, this year’s RA comes as public schools and students face unprecedented threats from their own governments and elected politicians. Delegates will meet the urgency of this time through consideration of a new budget, as well as dozens of “new business items” and bylaw amendments, which inform how the union sets and funds its strategic priorities. This year, as they did last year during the NEA RA in Portland, Ore., delegates have reserved two days for in-person, expert-led workshops focused on enhancing their skills and building stronger local unions.
Follow all the latest RA news at www.nea.org/RA and #NEARA.
Pre-Conference Highlights
The RA is preceded by a few Denver-based events, including the annual meeting of NEA’s Aspiring Educators, from June 28 to July 1, which involves future teachers and leaders from around the nation. Attendees will connect with their colleagues and learn information that will help them to be better educators and leaders for their profession.
Additionally, the 2026 NEA-Retired Annual Meeting will be held from June 30 to July 1, in Denver. Members will consider legislative and policy priorities, elect leaders, and celebrate the winners of communications and distinguished service awards.
And, from June 30 to July 2, NEA members will convene at the 2026 Conference on Racial and Social Justice (CRSJ) to advance justice in education. The goals of attendees are to: 1) Build local power; 2) Be forward thinking; 3) Center intersectionality; and 4) Build community. This year’s CRSJ keynote speakers are Scot Nakagawa, executive director of the 22nd Century Initiative, and Ruha Benjamin, a Princeton University professor of African American studies and author of Imagination: A Manifesto.
Celebrating Educators
During the course of the RA, delegates will hear from several featured speakers and celebrate many notable education and labor advocates. These include:
- The 2026 Teacher of the Year Leon Smith, a NEA member who teaches AP U.S. History and African American studies at Haverford High School, in Pennsylvania, and who started an Educators Rising chapter to encourage his students to become teachers.
- The 2026 NEA Education Support Professional of the Year Ric Calhoun, a campus supervisor at Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Washington, who launched a racial justice video project on his campus and helped lead the development of the ESP Bill of Rights in Washington State.
- The 2026 NEA Higher Educator of the Year Clinton Smith, a professor of special education at the University of Tennessee at Martin who teaches future teachers how to “change outcomes for the most vulnerable students,” and who started a new, inclusive higher-education program on campus.
Delegates also will celebrate the winners of the 2026 Human and Civil Rights Awards, including Nebraska family liaison Brian Whitecalf, winner of this year’s Reg Weaver Memorial Award for Human and Civil Rights, and Education Minnesota, the winner of this year’s NEA President’s Award for Human and Civil Rights, whose members worked hard to protect and feed Twin Cities students and families during the Trump administration’s “Metro Surge” early this year.
Additional Business
As this is Pringle’s last term as president, RA delegates also will elect a new NEA president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer to three-year terms, as well as two NEA executive committee members.
Follow all the latest RA news at www.nea.org/RA and #NEARA.
