Fact Sheet 21-19: Registration and CTLE - Teaching Assistant Level III

(Updates and replaces 21-15)

• Download complete document (PDF)

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

Beginning July 1, 2016, Level III teaching assistant certificate holders were required to register their certificates in TEACH every five (5) years. The State Education Department automatically registers Level III teaching assistant certificates issued after July 1, 2016 for the first five (5) year cycle. Teaching Assistant Level III certificate holders must re-register themselves for subsequent cycles.

Teaching Assistants with a Continuing Certificate or a Level I or Level II certificate are not required to register their certificates in TEACH. See the state’s Registration & CTLE Requirement Chart for a complete list of certificate types that are required to register.

Registering in TEACH creates a five (5) year registration cycle and depending upon the registration status selected, the Level III teaching assistant may be required to complete 100 Continuing Teacher & Leader Education (CTLE) hours during this five (5) year registration cycle. The registration cycle begins the first day of the teaching assistant’s birth month and ends on the last day of the month prior to their birth month.

Level III Teaching Assistants can select one of the following statuses when they register in TEACH:

Registered - Active: These Level III TAs are registered and are practicing in an applicable school.  

Registered - Inactive: These Level III are registered but are not practicing in an applicable school. 

The state defines practicing as: “employed 90 days or more during a school year by a single applicable school in New York State in a position requiring certification. For the purposes of this definition, a day of employment shall include a day actually worked in whole or in part, or a day not actually worked but a day paid.”

Some examples to clarify ‘practicing’:

• If you are a Level III TA and employed full-time, you are practicing according to the state’s definition.
• If you are a Level III TA and you work part-time every day of the school year, you are practicing according to the state’s definition.
• If you are a Level III TA and you are on a leave for a year, you are not practicing according to the state’s definition.

Other registration statuses that may be entered on TEACH by the state include:

• 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.

Near the end of the five (5) year registration cycle, the state will email the Level III Teaching Assistant, (using the email address entered in TEACH by the teaching assistant), a notification that the five (5) year cycle is coming to an end and the teaching assistant needs to take action.

For additional information on registering with SED, please visit their website Registration:OTI:NYSED.  

Continuing Teacher & Leader Education (CTLE) Requirements

As indicated on the chart below, Level III Teaching Assistants and professionally certified classroom teachers/educational leaders will be required to complete Continuing Teacher & Leader Education hours during each five (5) year registration period. 

CTLE activities are designed to improve the teaching assistant’s pedagogical and/or leadership skills and are targeted at improving student performance. CTLE activities address the content one teaches and/or how one teaches that content, and language acquisition that addresses the needs of English language learners.

What counts for the CTLE hours’ requirement is a local determination and should be reflected in the district’s Professional Learning Plan to the extent possible. The Professional Learning Plan or PLP (see Part 100. 2(dd) of Commissioner’s Regulations) requires that each school district and BOCES develop a professional learning plan that ensures “…how it will provide teachers it employs holding a professional certificate and/or level III teaching assistant certificate with opportunities to complete 100 hours of continuing teacher and leader education, as required every five (5) years under Part 80 of this Title.”

Level III teaching assistants are required to complete a minimum of 15% of their required 100 CTLE hours in areas that address the needs of ELLs. An exemption to the 15% requirements is available for districts/BOCES with less than 5% (or 30 enrolled) ELL students.

When a registration cycle is set to expire, Level III teaching assistants are required to re-register with the state to create a new five (5) year registration cycle. Level III teaching assistants will re-register on TEACH and attest to completing or not completing the required CTLE hours for their expiring registration period. For additional information on the re-registration process and CTLE requirements, please visit NYSUT’s webpage Frequently Asked Questions.

Re-registering with the State

To re-register, Level III Teaching Assistants follow 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 acquisition 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 completed the required CTLE hours, you proceed to answering the moral character and other questions and then register as either Registered - Active or Registered - Inactive. You can verify your new registration status by clicking on “View or Change Registration Status” from your TEACH home screen.

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, Level III Teaching Assistants 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 participants complete. Original SED guidance was that this was to be a paper copy; updated 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.

Resources

Teaching Assistant Certificates:OTI:NYSED - This state education department site provides an overview of the application process for teaching assistants.

New registration and continuing teacher and leader education (CTLE) requirements for classroom teachers and school leaders holding a Permanent or Professional certificate, and Teaching Assistant Level III certificate holders :OTI:NYSED - This state education department site, updated in June 2021, includes current information related to registering certificates with the state as well as CTLE requirements.

ELT - NYSUT Education and Learning Trust - Professional Learning - ELT offers a variety of professional learning sessions as well as course work that can be used to move from Level I to Levels II or III.

Nov 2021
DK/GJ/bjb
cwa1141