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	THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 SENIOR DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION – P-16 Office of Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education Office of Higher Education
Date:	June 4, 2007
To:	District Superintendents; Superintendents of Schools; Building Principals; Charter Schools; BOCES Regional Certification Officers; New York City Department of Education; Big 4 Human Resource Directors; National Education Association of New York; New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; New York State Association of School Business Officials; New York State Association of School Personnel Administrators; New York State Association of Teacher Educators; New York State United Teachers; Other Interested Parties
From:	Johanna Duncan-Poitier
Subject:	Clarifying information regarding the date by which newly-certified teachers can begin employment

The new TEACH online computer system for teacher certification is available to all school districts and shows each teacher’s certification status.  Thank you for your efforts in working closely with us to transition to the new Web-based system. Having this information readily available has resulted in some questions regarding when a certified teacher is qualified to begin employment after his/her certificate has been issued.  I wanted to take an opportunity to provide some clarifying information.

The Office of Teaching Initiatives has a longstanding policy that once a certificate is issued, the teacher may begin employment in a public school under that certificate title.  Under Department regulations, teaching certificates must be assigned either a September 1 or February 1 effective date.  Once an individual qualifies for the certificate, the certificate is issued with an effective date of either the February 1 or September 1 date that will next occur chronologically.  Someone who satisfied the requirements for a teaching certificate on October 1, 2006 would be granted a certificate with an effective date of February 1, 2007.  Once an individual has met all the requirements and the certificate is issued, he/she is qualified to work in a New York State public school.  In the example above, a teacher who completed all requirements and was issued a certificate on the TEACH computer system (available on our Web site) as of October 1 is qualified to teach in a New York State public school on October 1, 2006 even though the effective date on the face of the certificate would be February 1, 2007.

I hope this information is helpful.  If you have any questions regarding this matter, you may contact the Policy Unit of the Office of Teaching Initiatives at (518) 474-4661.  Thank you again for your work to help us bring teacher certification information online with the new TEACH computer system and for your commitment to ensuring that all students across the state are taught by qualified, certified teachers.

cc:
Joseph P. Frey
Shelia Evans-Tranumn
Robert G. Bentley
Raymond Kesper

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