Certification

Advancing from the Provisional Certificate to the Permanent Certificate


If you hold (or held) a New York State Provisional Certificate and you want to advance to the Permanent Certificate, there are two possible pathway options for you.

  1. Pathway: Approved Teacher Preparation Program – Certificate Progression (if your New York State college is entering a recommendation on your TEACH account for the Professional certificate)
  2. Pathway: Certificate Progression (all others)

Step 1 - Determine the correct pathway for your application

Pathway: Approved Teacher Preparation Program – Certificate Progression

If you completed a Master’s (or higher) degree certification program at a New York State college and your college entered a recommendation for the Professional Certificate onto your TEACH account, then this pathway option is for you. If a recommendation has been entered, you will be able to view it in your TEACH account (Account Information page, College Recommendations tab). If you don’t see a recommendation, or you don’t know the program code for your application, contact the Certification Officer at your college.

         OR

Pathway: Certificate Progression

If the pathway above does not describe you, then Certificate Progression is the correct pathway for you. Please follow the steps below.

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Step 2 - Research the Requirements

It is your responsibility to research the requirements and complete them in order to become certified. To research the requirements for your certificate:

  • Log into your TEACH account,
  • Go to Search Certification Requirements at the top of the screen
  • Select your certificate and click Search.
  • Search will list all available application paths. Once you find the correct pathway, you can click on each requirement link for further information.

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Step 3 – Submit the necessary documentation.

The following must be submitted for all applications:

  1. Certificate application
    You must submit your permanent certificate application via your TEACH Online Services account.
  2. Master’s degree
    Either via a college recommendation being entered on your TEACH account, or submission of an official transcript containing a Master’s degree conferral date.
  3. Verification of Experience form
    In order to qualify for a Permanent Certificate, the applicant must complete two years (360 days) of acceptable experience. Verification of paid experience must be submitted directly by the employer(s).
    NYS public schools, BOCES and NYS charter schools must verify experience by entering an electronic Superintendent Statement onto the applicant’s TEACH account. The statement entitled “Pupil Personnel Services Exp” should be used for pupil personnel service applications and “Verification of Adm Exp” should be used for School Administrator/Supervisor applications.
    Approved nonpublic schools in NY and schools located outside NY may use these forms: Verification of Pupil Personnel Service Experience;
    Verification of School Administrator Experience
  4. Workshops
    Information regarding workshops can be found at: Workshops
  5. Citizenship status
    Answer the Resident Status question in the Personal Information section of your TEACH account. More information can be found here: Citizenship

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Step 4 – Check the status of your application.

After you submit your application, you must check its status throughout the review process (Account Information page, Certificates tab, View Evaluation History). A few notes on this:

  • If your application history does not list a “Manual Evaluation”, then your application has not been evaluated yet.
  • College coursework, work experience and citizenship status (among other requirements) are not verified until an evaluation has been completed.
    If your application is “Ready for Review”, it is in line to be evaluated and will be updated accordingly when the evaluation is complete.
  • Check your account to see when documentation has been entered (Account Information page, highlight all options).
  • Monitor the status of your application regularly (Account Information page, Certificates section).
  • You must monitor the status of your application prior to calling the Office of Teaching Initiatives office.
    Applications are evaluated based on when the application entered “ready for review” status. Average processing time for an application is at 12-16 weeks.
  • For more info: How to Check Status of Application

 

 

Last Updated: August 24, 2023