(Updates and replaces 17-11)
Overview
The 2015 New York State budget included requirements for certain certificate holders to register with the State Education Department (SED) and complete Continuing Teacher & Leader Education hours (CTLE hours). Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2015 specified that these requirements were to be in effect as of July 1, 2016. These regulations are Part 80-6 of Commissioner’s Regulations.
Registering with the State Education Department
As of July 1, 2016, any holder of a certificate that is valid for life must register with the state every five (5) years. Registration is done using the State Education Department’s (SED) TEACH system. See the state’s Registration & CTLE Requirement Chart for an overview of who is required to register.
Permanently or professionally certified classroom teachers, educational leaders (i.e., School Administrator/Supervisor, School Building leader, School District leader, School District Administrator, School District Business Leader or School Business Administrator) and Level III Teaching Assistants who are practicing in a NYS School District or BOCES must select a registration status on their TEACH account.
Practicing is defined as employed 90 days or more during a school year by a single applicable school in New York in a position requiring state certification. A day of employment includes a day actually worked in whole or in part, or a day not actually worked but a day paid. An applicable school is defined as a NYS public school or BOCES.
Since July 1, 2016, registration cycles are automatically created when a professional certificate or a Level III Teaching Assistant certificate is issued. If you obtain multiple professional certificates, the registration cycle is connected to the professional certificate that was issued first.
For additional information on registering with SED, please visit their website Registration:OTI:NYSED.
Educators subject to registration requirements select one of the following registration statuses:
- Registered - Active: These educators are registered and are practicing in an applicable school.
- Registered - Inactive: These educators are registered and are not practicing in an applicable school.
One’s registration status can change during a five (5) year registration period. For example, a professionally certified teacher may take a one (1) year leave. For that year, the teacher should change the registration status to ‘Registered – Inactive’. At the completion of the leave and the resumption of teaching duties, the teacher would change the registration status to ‘Registered – Active’.
The state may assign other registration statuses including:
- Registration Expired: These educators were registered, but their registration period expired. They have not re-registered.
- Not Registered: These educators have never registered and did not begin the registration process.
- Registration/Re-Registration Incomplete: These educators began the registration/re-registration process but did not complete it.
Continuing Teacher & Leader Education (CTLE) Requirements
As indicated below, professionally certified classroom teachers/educational leaders and Level III Teaching Assistants are required to complete Continuing Teacher & Leader Education hours during each five (5) year registration period.
|
|
Required to Complete
CTLE Hours
|
Hours Required per 5-Year
Registration
|
|
Permanently certified classroom
teachers/educational leaders
|
NO
|
None
|
Professionally certified classroom teachers/educational leaders
|
YES
|
100
|
|
Teaching Assistant Level III
|
YES
|
100
|
See the state’s Registration & CTLE Requirement Chart for a complete list of who is required to complete CTLE hours and who is not. Note that when School Counseling certificate titles change to Initial/Professional in 2023, school counselors will be required to register and complete CTLE hours.
Acceptable CTLE is study in the content area of any certificate title held by the individual or in pedagogy and include study in language acquisition addressing the needs of English language learners. The state also determined that a peer review teacher or a principal acting as an independent evaluator within a teacher evaluation system may credit such time towards his/her CTLE requirement. Similarly, achieving National Board certification during a registration period will satisfy the CTLE requirement for that five (5) year cycle.
Professionally certified ESOL teachers and holders of the bilingual extension are required to complete a minimum of 50% of their CTLE hours in language acquisition that addresses the needs of English language learners. All other CTLE certificate holders are required to complete minimum of 15% of their hours in language acquisition. Districts with less than 5% (or 30 enrolled) ELL students can obtain a waiver for this 15% - see CTLE Language Acquisition Requirements:OTI:NYSED.
What counts for the CTLE hours’ requirement is a local determination and should be reflected in a district’s Professional Learning Plan to the extent possible. CTLE activities are offered by SED-approved sponsors which include districts, BOCES, and a variety of other providers – see Approved CTLE Sponsors:OTI:NYSED.
The CTLE hours may be completed at any time during the registration cycle, yet CTLE hours may not be carried over from one registration period to the next. If a certificate holder stops practicing during the five (5) year registration period, the state expectation is completion of a minimum of 20 CTLE hours for every year spent practicing in an applicable school during that registration cycle.
Note: Practicing is defined as “employed 90 days or more during a school year by a single applicable school in New York State. A day of employment includes a day actually worked in whole or in part, or a day not actually worked but a day paid.
Re-registering with the State
Registration cycles are five (5) years long and at the completion of a cycle, the certificate holder is expected to re-register on TEACH. The following screen shots can be found on Re-registration and Conditional Registration Directions:OTI:NYSED.
For educators who are required to register but NOT to complete CTLE hours:
For educators who are required to register AND complete CTLE hours, complete the process on TEACH following the steps outlined on Re-registration and Conditional Registration Directions:OTI:NYSED. You can view NYSUT’s summary of this process at Certification Re-Registration - July 2021.
As you re-register you will be prompted to report how many years within your five (5) year registration cycle you were required to complete CTLE hours. This is question #1 below. You are also prompted to enter the number of years during your five (5) year registration cycle that you were employed by a district/BOCES that had a waiver for the language acquistion hours. This is question #2 below.
Based on what you answer to questions #1 and #2 above, the TEACH system calculates how many CTLE hours you should have completed.
If you were unable to complete the required CTLE hours within your five (5) year registration period, request a conditional registration. This conditional registration provides you with an additional year to complete any missing CTLE hours and it does not require submission of any documentation; you just request it.
When you have completed the missing hours, you repeat the process on TEACH, indicate that all hours have been completed, and then begin a new five (5) year registration cycle.
CTLE Sponsors (approved providers)
SED regulations require that the CTLE activities be offered by SED-approved sponsors. A list of SED-approved CTLE sponsors is available on SED’s approved CTLE sponsors page. School districts, BOCES, teacher centers, many NYS institutions of higher education, NYSUT’s Education & Learning Trust and other professional organizations are included on this list. All CTLE providers must apply every five (5) years to the State Education Department to continue as CTLE sponsors.
Record-keeping and Reporting CTLE Hours
Districts and other approved CTLE sponsors are required to maintain records of the CTLE activities that they offer for a period of eight (8) years. Similarly, CTLE certificate holders are required to maintain records of their own CTLE hours for eight (8) years – the five (5) year registration cycle plus three (3) additional years.
District-based CTLE activities should be included, (to the extent they are known in advance), in the district Professional Development Plan (PDP) which is still required to be submitted to SED annually – see Part 100.2(dd) PDP regulations. These regulations stipulate that school districts and BOCES are required to provide CTLE hours so that faculty and staff remain current with their profession, meet the learning needs of their students, and are able to maintain their certificates in good standing.
Districts and other approved CTLE sponsors are required to provide CTLE participants with access to a 'certificate of completion' for each CTLE activity that the participant completes. SED guidance allows for this 'certificate of completion' to be paper or electronic.
Neither CTLE sponsors nor CTLE certificate holders are required to submit hours to SED unless they are specifically asked by SED to provide them. If the state asks for documentation, it will be during the re-registration process when CTLE certificate holders attest to completing or not completing the required CTLE hours. Original SED guidance was that this would be a random audit process, yet this process has not been implemented to date.
The regulations governing Registration and CTLE requirements are found in Part 80.6 of Commissioner’s Regulations.
Items for Local Leaders:
Members need to be able to access their CTLE hours if requested by SED. Members can request paper copies of CTLE Certificates of Completion or can have access to electronic copies of these certificates. Local leaders and members should consider the reliability of a district’s CTLE tracking system, (such as Frontline/My Learning Plan), when determining if paper or electronic copies are preferable.
The process of registering with SED includes a requirement for members to answer a series of ‘moral character’ questions. Local leaders and members should note that SED has the authority to ask these questions of certificate holders, as well as members of other professions in NYS.
Determinations as to what counts as a CTLE activity is a local decision and is typically handled by the Professional Learning Team.
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