Licensing and certification checkup

Do you know what state certificate you hold? Your requirements under that certificate? Your deadlines for completing requirements? What city license you’re appointed under?

The UFT gets many questions from newer teachers looking for clear and reliable answers about certification, licensing and appointment. More importantly, you could run into trouble and even lose your job if you don’t understand and meet all your requirements before your deadlines.

To help teachers find their way, the UFT offers workshops in schools or UFT borough offices and responds to teachers’ questions in person, by telephone and via email.

This article covers the basics. For more specific information, call 212-420-1830 for an appointment with the UFT Certification Services Department at 52 Broadway; call an educational liaison in your UFT borough office; or call or email TeacherLine.

Check your credentials and requirements

Check certificates at TEACH online. If you haven’t already done so, register on the New York State Education Department website at www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/teach for a TEACH online account. The TEACH online system serves as the official record for all certificates so go there to check which certificate you hold and when it expires.

Know the license you are appointed under. First-year teachers should consult a recent DOE email that clearly identifies individual appointment, licensing and certification details, including codes. For everyone else, ask your school secretary to confirm the license under which you were appointed. This information is crucial for excessing and layoff purposes.

Keep track of requirements and deadlines. Once you know your certificate type and expiration date, you can determine your requirements and how much time you have to complete them.

Initial Certificate. With this time-limited certificate, you have five years from the issue date to complete the following requirements and qualify for a Professional Certificate:

• A master’s degree;
• 12 graduate credits in the certificate area’s content core or a related field;
• three years of full-time teaching experience;
• one year of mentoring; and
• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.

(Remember, the state no longer prints and mails these certificates to you.)

Professional Certificate. With this advanced certificate, you have met all current state requirements. The SED will print and mail this certificate to you.

• To maintain your Professional Certificate, you must complete 175 hours of professional development within five years of the issue date. (The UFT is urging the DOE to count toward this 35-hour annual requirement mandated professional development that teachers take, in accordance with the current contract, during staff development days and at other times during the school day.)
• Keep in your personal file a log, signed by your principal, showing the professional development you have taken starting the July after you receive your Professional Certificate. [See the Q&A about this requirement.]