Educator Resources
Expedited Service Requests
Expedited requests may only be submitted by a public school or BOCES.
New York State public school districts and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) may request expedited service for priority processing of certificate applications. All other applications are reviewed based on the order in which they go in line for review (i.e., - the “ready for review” date listed next to the application in TEACH). Candidates must monitor their TEACH account to see when their application gets evaluated. They can do so by going to the Account Information page, Certificates section.
Eligibility
To be eligible for expedited service, the application must be in "Ready for Review" status (e.g., paid application, college recommendation or transcripts in TEACH). If the application is not in "Ready for Review" status, the candidate must either pay the application fee, receive a college recommendation, and/or have transcripts submitted to the Office of Teaching Initiatives to place the application in this status.
Teaching Assistant and "Certificate Progression" applications are not eligible for expedited service. "Certificate Progression" refers to applications where the applicant is advancing from the Provisional to Permanent certificate or from the Initial to Professional certificate.
Individuals on active US military duty, or dependents of active military who have been issued a DD Form 1173 (not to be confused with a DD Form 1173-1) may request expedited review of their application by emailing OTIexpedite@nysed.gov, provided that the application status in their TEACH account is “ready for review”. Dependents will need to include in their email a copy of their valid DD Form 1173 having the same name as listed in their TEACH account. A DD Form 1173-1 is not acceptable.
How to Send a Request
- The District Superintendent or BOCES Regional Certification Officer (RCO) must check TEACH to determine if the application is eligible to be expedited. It must be in "Ready for Review" status and cannot be a Teaching Assistant or “Certificate Progression” application.
- If the application is eligible to be expedited, the District Superintendent or RCO would send the Expedited Service Request Form to OTIexpedite@nysed.gov with “Expedited Service Request” in the subject line. All fields on the form must be completed thoroughly and correctly.
Note: If the application is not in "Ready for Review" status, the applicant must pay the application fee, receive a college recommendation, and/or have transcripts submitted to the Office of Teaching Initiatives to place the application in this status.
Review Process
After the request has been received and noted on the candidate’s account, the application should be evaluated within 5-10 business days. The candidate should monitor their account to see the results of the evaluation and any correspondence that was generated in their account (Account Information page, Correspondence section).
Per regulation, applications are active for three years or two manual evaluations, whichever comes first. As such, any applications that are expedited twice and are not approved (i.e., - issued) may be disapproved and will no longer be active. If that occurs, and the candidate is interested in pursuing that certificate in the future, they would need to submit a new application and application fee via their TEACH account. Then, they would need to submit documentation that satisfies all requirements listed on the application at that time.
Note: As of October 3, 2024, The Office of Teaching Initiatives will no longer accept expedited service requests from any other educational entity unless they are a public school or BOCES.