A number of Education Officer and Analyst chapter members have asked about the QIE exam. The law governing the qualified incumbent examination is spelled out in New York State civil service law.

CVS Section 65 - provisional appointments »

(c-2) Qualified incumbent examination.

(i) DCAS may administer a qualified incumbent examination (“QIE”) for appointment to any competitive title, consistent with subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph, exclusively to current employees who, at the time of application to take such examination, have served provisionally in such title for two or more years. Provided that the employee taking such examination shall meet the minimum educational and other specified requirements set forth in the notice of examination for the title in which he or she currently serves, as established by the DCAS employers, an employee with two years of provisional service may be appointed from the list resulting from such examination. Neither provisional service in a title performed by an employee during a period of time in which there existed an appropriate eligible list of candidates for the title, unless such list was not adequate to fill all positions then held on a provisional basis or was exhausted immediately following its establishment, nor service in a temporary title established pending proposed reclassification shall count toward such two years of provisional service.

(ii) DCAS may administer a QIE only for those titles that are set forth in section four of the chapter of the laws of 2016 that added this paragraph.

Read the list of titles »

(iii) DCAS shall not administer a QIE for any title for which (a) an examination has been administered but an eligible list has not been established [the law was adopted on Nov. 28, 2016. The exam was administered on May 29-30, 2015], or (b) there exists an eligible list resulting from an open competitive examination that contains three or more individuals.

(iv) A list resulting from a promotional examination for a title must be exhausted before a list resulting from a QIE for that title may be established.

(v) A list resulting from a QIE must be exhausted before an eligible list resulting from an open competitive examination for that title may be certified to any agency.

(vi) A person appointed from a list resulting from a QIE shall be credited with the time he or she served provisionally in that title toward the probationary period for that title up to a maximum of nine months.