Policy 6213

CERTIFIED PERSONNEL
6213 REGISTRATION AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 

Registration

All employees who are certificate holders must register with the State Education Department (SED) every five years through the TEACH system. An employee is a certificate holder if they hold a permanent or professional certificate in the classroom teaching service, a permanent or professional certificate in the educational leadership service (i.e., school building leader, school district leader, or school district business leader), or a Level III Teaching Assistant certificate. Only registered employees may teach or supervise in the District.

Employees who were certificate holders prior to July 1, 2016 had to apply for initial registration during the 2016-2017 school year and each subsequent five-year period thereafter.

Any individual who is issued a new certificate is automatically registered with SED. These certificate holders must renew their registration every five years during their birth month.

Any certificate holder who fails to register by the beginning of the appropriate registration period may be subject to late filing penalties.

Certificate holders must notify SED of any change of name or mailing address within 30 days of such change through the TEACH system. Any certificate holder who willfully fails to inform SED of changes to their name and/or address within 180 days of such change may be subject to moral character review.

Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) Credit Hours

All continuing teacher and leader education certificate holders (CTLE certificate holders) must successfully complete a minimum of 100 hours of acceptable CTLE hours during each five-year registration period to maintain a valid certificate. An employee is a CTLE certificate holder if they hold a professional certificate in the classroom teaching service, a professional certificate in educational leadership service, or a Level III Teaching Assistant certificate. This requirement may be completed at any time over the course of a five-year period. Credit hours cannot carry over to subsequent registration periods. 

SED sets high standards for courses, programs, and activities that qualify for CTLE credit, and it must approve all CTLE sponsors. Generally, acceptable CTLE will be in the content area of any certificate title held by an individual or in pedagogy. 

The District will describe opportunities for teachers and administrators to engage in CTLE in its professional learning plan. The District will annually certify, in a format and on a timetable prescribed by the Commissioner of Education, that the requirements to have a professional learning plan for the succeeding school year have been met and that it has complied with the professional learning plan for the current school year. 

The District will provide CTLE opportunities that are designed to improve the teacher or leader's pedagogical and/or leadership skills and are targeted at improving student performance, among other things. A peer-review teacher or principal acting as an independent trained evaluator who conducts a classroom observation as part of a teacher evaluation under relevant sections of the Education Law may apply the observation time to fulfilling CTLE requirements. Time spent mentoring may also be counted toward required CTLE credit hours.

Language Acquisition CTLE and Exemption

Employees holding an English to speakers of other languages (all grades) certificate or a bilingual extension are required to complete a minimum of 50% of the required CTLE hours in language acquisition aligned with the core content area of instruction taught, including a focus on best practices for co-teaching strategies, and integrating language and content instruction for English Language Learner (ELL) students. All other certificate holders must complete a minimum of 15% of the required CTLE hours dedicated to language acquisition addressing the needs of ELLs, including a focus on best practices for co-teaching strategies and integrating language and content instruction for ELLs. A minimum of 15% of the required CTLE hours for employees holding a Level III Teaching Assistant certificate will be dedicated to language acquisition addressing the needs of ELLs and integrating language and content instruction for ELLs.

Employees holding school district business leader certificates are exempt from the language acquisition CTLE requirements for each year that they are employed in the District. Instead, they must complete a minimum of 15% of the required CTLE hours dedicated to the needs of ELLs and federal, state, and local mandates for ELLs.

Employees may be eligible for a waiver of language acquisition CTLE requirements. Each school year when there are fewer than 30 ELLs enrolled in the District or ELLs make up less than 5% of the total student population, the District may obtain an exemption. If the District obtains this exemption, employees would be exempt from the language acquisition CTLE requirement for each year that they are employed in the District.

CTLE Adjustments

The Commissioner may adjust an employee's number of CTLE hours and/or time to complete them due to poor health, as certified by a health-care provider; extended active duty in the Armed Forces; or other acceptable good cause.

Any employee holding a certificate in the classroom teaching service who obtains certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards will be considered CTLE-compliant for the registration period in which they obtain this certification. However, the employee must still meet any language acquisition requirements.

Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements

Employees must maintain a record of completed CTLE hours for at least three years from the end of the applicable registration period. The record must include the title of the program, the total number of hours completed, the number of hours completed in language acquisition addressing the need of ELLs, the sponsor's name, any identifying number, attendance verification, and the date and location of the program. 

The District will maintain a record of any professional learning it conducts or provides for educators for at least seven years from the date of completion. These records will be available for review by SED. 



Policy References:
Education Law §§ 3006, 3006-a, and 3012-d
8 NYCRR Subpart 80-6 
8 NYCRR §§ 100.2(dd) and 154-2.3(k)

NOTE:  Refer also to
Policy 6160 - Professional Growth/Staff Development



Adopted: 6/22/99
Revised: 9/6/22, 2/28/23

Policy 6213