Guidance for NYS School Districts, BOCES, Special Act Districts and Institutes of Higher Education with Approved Teacher Education Programs for compliance with the Registration and Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) requirements effective July 1, 2016

Information about the Registration Requirements:

  • Registration and CTLE Requirements chartadobe portab;e format pdf (46KB)

  • Registration Status Definition

  • Definition of “Practice

  • Certificate holders who obtain certification as Level III Teaching Assistants, Professional Classroom Teachers or School Leaders on or after 7/1/2016 will be automatically given the status of “Registered.”

  • Holders of multiple Professional certificates - If the Professional certificate holder/ Level III Teaching Assistant is required to register, they are required to complete a total of 100 clock hours of CTLE during every five-year registration period.

  • Holders of a Level III Teaching Assistant, Permanent or Professional Classroom Teacher or School Leader certificate that practice in a NYS Special Act District are subject to Registration and CTLE requirements, go to a list of Special Act Districts

  • Substitute teachers should consider the “Definition of “Practice” as it pertains to Registration and CTLE when selecting a registration status of “Registered” or “Inactive.”

Information about the “175-Hour Professional Development (PD) Requirements”:

  • The 175-Hour PD requirements were repealed effective June 30, 2016.

  • NYS School Districts and BOCES should report PD in TEACH, as usual, for the 2015-2016 school year.
  • After the 2015-2016 school year, NYS School Districts and BOCES will no longer report PD hours in TEACH.  CTLE certificate holders are required to maintain proof of completion of all CTLE activities.

Who is a CTLE certificate holder? Definition of CTLE certificate holders

Becoming an Approved CTLE Sponsor:

Important
School Districts, BOCES, Special Act Districts, IHEs, organizations, etc. are NOT automatically approved.
 Important
  • The application process for a NYS School District or BOCES is signing a digital attestation and uploading a Professional Development (PD) plan through the administrator’s TEACH account.  Some facts about PD Plans and submission to NYSED:

    • PD plans must be submitted as customary to other offices within NYSED.

    • There is no specific template or format for our purposes.

    • If consultants or vendors are going to be utilized, the PD plan must show some basic contact information about vetted consultants and vendors (name or name of company and content to be offered).  Acronyms must be spelled out.

    • Amendments to a PD plan during the school year are not necessary for minor changes such as the name of a presenter within an organization or hours available.

    • If additional consultants or vendors are vetted and hired to present CTLE, an addendum to the PD plan should be uploaded to TEACH.

    • Inclusion of a consultant or vendor on a BOCES’, or NYS School District’s PD plan does NOT give that consultant or vendor “Approved CTLE Sponsor” status.  It only covers them for offering activities to employees or on behalf of that particular BOCES or NYS School District for that year only.  Such consultants or vendors should apply to become “Approved CTLE Sponsors.” 

    • If an organization is an Approved CTLE Sponsor, the Sponsor can award anyone attending CTLE credit.

    • If a vendor is an Approved CTLE Sponsor, they do not need to be included in the PD plan.

    • If a district does not include a consultant or vendor on their plan or addendum and the consultant or vendor is not a NYSED-Approved CTLE sponsor, the CTLE credit cannot be counted.

    • RSE-TASC and RBERN organizations that work with NYS School Districts or BOCES may wish to become “Approved CTLE Sponsors” on their own.  If they do not become an approved sponsor separate from the BOCES/District, the BOCES/District will be responsible for maintaining the records and issuing any certificates of completion for CTLE Activities.

    • When a School District’s or BOCES’ attestation is approved by NYSED for the purposes of becoming an Approved CTLE Sponsor, an e-mail will be sent from ctlesponsor@nysed.gov with your “Approved Sponsor Identification Number” to be used on all records and certificates of completion issued.  The administrator’s TEACH account should have current contact information and a valid email address.

  • The process for NYS IHEs with approved teacher education programs is signing a digital attestation through the administrator’s TEACH account.

    • When the attestation/application is approved by NYSED, an e-mail will be sent from ctlesponsor@nysed.gov with your “Approved Sponsor Identification Number” to be used on all records and certificates of completion issued. The administrator’s TEACH account should have current contact information and a valid email address.

  • The process for Special Act Districts, other NYS IHE’s and organizations is to submit the required attestation/application.

    • When the attestation/application is approved by NYSED, an e-mail will be sent from ctlesponsor@nysed.gov with your “Approved Sponsor Identification Number” to be used on all records and certificates of completion issued. The administrator’s TEACH account should have current contact information and a valid email address.
  • The process for Non-Public Schools providing instruction pursuant to Education Law §3204(2) located in New York State is a full, paper appilcation process.

Record Keeping

Some facts about record keeping for Approved CTLE Sponsors:

  • All NYS SED approved sponsors must issue a certificate of completion for each activity. The “CTLE Activity Hours Certificate of Completion” or a similar form is required. This may be electronic or paper.

  • Records of CTLE activities must be maintained for 8 years.

  • Approved CTLE Sponsors must maintain identifying information that will allow SED to properly attribute and validate CTLE Activity completions.  If you do not want to include the date of birth or the last four digits of the Social Security Number, you should include some type of identifier such as the month and date of the date of birth. The identifier cannot be the “Teacher ID.” 

  • NYSED has had preliminary discussions with “My Learning Plan” with regard to maintaining CTLE tracking for individuals and schools.

What “Qualifies” as CTLE?

CTLE activities must be:

    • Designed to improve the teacher or leader’s pedagogical and/or leadership skills, targeted at improving student performance, including but not limited to formal CTLE activities.  Such activities shall promote the professionalization of teaching and be closely aligned to district goals for student performance which meet the standards prescribed by the Regulations of the Commissioner.

    • Rigorous

    • Attributed to Content, Pedagogy, or Language Acquisition.

    • Completed through a NYSED Approved CTLE Sponsor, go to the Listing of CTLE Sponsors.

CTLE Language Acquisition Waivers

  • School Districts and BOCES may be eligible for a waiver from the language acquisition requirements.  Such waivers are issued through the NYSED Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages and are obtained by submitting the document(s) found on the Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages web site.

  • If a School District or BOCES obtains a waiver from the language acquisition requirements for English language learners, some CTLE certificate holders may be exempted from those requirements, go to the chart explaining the eligibility for a waiver Adobe Acrobat File (23KB).

  • Holders of Professional certificates in English to Speakers of Other Languages and Bilingual Extension Annotations are not eligible to apply a waiver to their language acquisition requirements.

  • Use of a language acquisition requirement waiver does not diminish the overall 100-hour requirement.
Last Updated: November 7, 2017