applications and forms

Substitution of Experience for Student Teaching

Student Teaching or Internship Requirement
An evaluation of your credentials may indicate that you have not completed supervised fieldwork (student teaching, internship, etc.) as part of your pre-serve program of preparation.

While fieldwork is regarded as one of the most beneficial components of a professional education program, it is appropriate at times to substitute paid, school based, experience for this requirement.

To permit the Office of Teaching Initiatives to consider this substitution on the basis of such experience, it is necessary that your chief officer (superintendent, headmaster, etc.) completes the Substitution of Experience for Student Teaching form and returns it directly to this office.

To the Superintendent/Chief School Officer
A candidate for certification may not have completed supervised fieldwork as part of an approved pre service program of preparation. To consider substituting paid experience for this requirement, the Office of Teaching Initiatives requires completion of this form by the superintendent/chief school officer-validating one year of full-time, paid satisfactory experience (for a Provisional Certificate) or 40 days of full-time, paid satisfactory experience (for an Initial Certificate).   (For administrative positions, full-time experience is interpreted as the major duty assignment.)

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

1. The appropriateness of experience offered in lieu of the fieldwork required for the certificate will be determined by this office.
   
   

2. Substitution of employment will be considered for the fieldwork requirement only on the basis of appropriate experience in which the applicant is legally employed according to current Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.
   
   

3. For teaching certificates, two years of employment as a licensed teacher assistant may be considered in lieu of the fieldwork requirement.

Please complete this form and return it to the State Education Department, Office of Teaching Initiatives, Albany, New York 12234, only after one school year of paid service has been concluded for a Provisional Certificate or 40 school days paid service has been conducted for an Initial Certificate.

NOTE: The completed form must be shown to the applicant by this office if he/she so requests. 

The following forms are in Portable Document Format (PDF). In order to read an Acrobat PDF file you first must install the proper version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader in your computer. Free copies of the Acrobat Reader 4.0 may be obtained from Adobe via the Internet. Click here to obtain your free copy of Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

If you already have the Adobe Acrobat Reader then you can click below to obtain the application.

Click this form if you have or will apply for the Application for Initial/Professional Certificate.

• Substitution of Experience for Student Teaching form for Initial/Professional Certificate

Click this form if you have or will apply for the Application for Provisional/Permanent Certificate

• Substitution of Experience for Student Teaching form for Provisional/Permanent Certificate