II. Certification Summary: Types of Certificates and Licenses

Area of Interest: Certificates are divided into major groups, or categories. Examples are Administration and Pupil Personnel Services, Classroom Teacher, and Career and Technical Teacher.

Title: The certificate title denotes the subject and grade level that you are authorized to teach.

Type: The type of certificate issued to you depends upon your educational background and experience. New York offers two primary certificate types- initial and professional.

The information in the boxes below describes the types of certificates that are most commonly sought. You must select the appropriate certificate by category, type, and title.

Cerfificate	Certificate Description	Validity
Initial Certificate	The entry-level certificate for classroom teachers, issued in specific subject/grade titles. Leads to Professional Certificate	Valid for 5 years
Professional Certificate	The advanced-level certificate for classroom teachers (issued in specific subject/grade titles).	Continuously valid with completion of required professional development hours on a five-year professional development cycle.

3. Requirements for Certification in Specific Subject Titles

Teachers are required to hold a New York State certificate in order to be employed in the State's public schools. For purposes of certification, “teacher” means all classroom teachers, administrative and supervisory personnel, and pupil personnel service professionals. Certificates are issued in a number of titles in each of these three major categories: Administration and Pupil Personnel Services, Classroom Teacher, and Career and Technical Teacher.

Initial certificates are issued by the Office of Teaching Initiatives, and assure that the holder has met the State's requirements, which fall into the following general categories:

• Academic preparation-degree. A baccalaureate degree (Bachelor's Degree with a Minimum 2. 50 Undergraduate General Point Average);

• Professional Education. A concentration of 18 semester hours (s. h.) in professional education, which enables the teacher to create a productive learning environment, plan and execute instructional activities, and monitor and assess student learning in the middle level grades through grade twelve. Teachers must be prepared to address the special developmental needs of adolescents through young adults. The concentration must prepare the teacher to work effectively with students from minority cultures, students of both sexes, students from homes where English is not spoken, students with handicapping conditions, and gifted and talented students;

• Subject matter specialization. A satisfactory concentration of 36 s. h. of college-level credit in the area in which certification is sought;

• Student teaching. A college-supervised student teaching experience in both the middle level and high school grades or its equivalent, satisfactory to the commissioner, except in those certificate titles in which instruction is provided exclusively at either the middle level (7-9) or high school (10-12) level, in which case student teaching shall be done only at the appropriate level;

• Examination for initial certificate. Assessment-selected tests in New York State Teacher Certification Examination program series include New York State Teacher Certification Exam-Liberal Arts & Science Test (LAST), New York State Teacher Certification Exam-Secondary Assessment of Teaching Skills (ATS-W) and the appropriate Content Specialty Test(s) (CST).

Additional requirements:

• Child Abuse Identification workshop;

• School Violence Prevention and Intervention (SAVE) workshop.

All persons should have completed two clock hours of coursework or training regarding both the identification and reporting of suspected child abuse or maltreatment and in school violence prevention and intervention. The required training regarding the identification and reporting of suspected child abuse or maltreatment must be taken from an approved institution of higher education.

• Fingerprint Clearance

Applicants for certification will need to be fingerprinted and undergo a criminal background review before certification is issued. Once fingerprinted and entered into the fingerprinting database, there is no need to be fingerprinted again for future employment or additional certification applications.