Professionally certified teachers are required to complete 100 Continuing Teacher & Leader Education (CTLE) hours during each five (5)-year registration cycle. Individuals whose professional teaching certificates are issued by SED after July 1, 2016 will be automatically registered by SED. For additional information on the registration process and CTLE requirements, please visit NYSUT’s website at www.nysut.org/certification.
School districts or BOCES are also required to continue their compliance with regulations that govern the development, content, and implementation of professional development plans – Part 100.2(dd) of Commissioner’s Regulations. School districts or 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 based upon successfully completing 100 hours every five (5) years as prescribed in Part 80.6 of Commissioner’s Regulations.
The Professional Development Plan (PDP) as defined in Part 100. 2(dd) of Commissioner’s Regulations requires that each school district and BOCES develop a professional development 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 175 hours of professional development or 100 hours of continuing teacher and leader education, as required every five (5) years under Part 80 of this Title”.
Thus, districts that employ certificate holders who require CTLE hours and who work full-time (90 or more days in a school year) are required to provide opportunities for these certificate holders to accumulate the required 100 CTLE hours necessary to maintain their certificates.
As indicated on the chart below, professionally certified classroom teachers/educational leaders and Level III Teaching Assistants will be required to complete Continuing Teacher & Leader Education hours during each five (5) year registration period. Note that the CTLE hours replace the pre-July 1, 2016 professional development hours’ requirement.
These new Registration and CTLE requirements do not apply to holders of Continuing Teaching Assistant certificates and Pupil Personnel Services (PPS) certificates, such as School Attendance Teachers, School Counselors, School Psychologists, School Social Workers, School Dental Hygiene Teachers and School Nurse Teachers.
Acceptable CTLE shall be study in the content area of any certificate title held by the individual or in pedagogy, and include any required study in language acquisition addressing the needs of English language learners. CTLE activities are designed to improve the teacher or leader’s pedagogical and/or leadership skills, targeted at improving student performance, and should be aligned to district goals for student performance.
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. As CTLE cycles had started as of July 1, 2016 and SED had not yet finalized its list of approved sponsors, SED indicated in its June 1, 2016 Field Memo that:
“...professional development completed on or after July 1, 2016, but before the individual’s birthday month will be counted toward the 100 CTLE hours’ requirement for the first 5-year cycle.”
Individuals who are issued their first Professional certification after July 1, 2016 will be automatically registered for their first five (5) year registration period. The registration period will begin the first day of their birth month and end on the last day of the month prior to their birth month in the 5th year of the registration cycle.
If a certificate holder is unable to complete the required CTLE hours within her/his registration period, a conditional registration (allows individuals up to one year to complete missing CTLE hours) may be granted by SED. The application process for the conditional registration will be done using the TEACH online system.
If a certificate holder stops working during a five (5) year registration period, she/he is required to complete a minimum of 20 hours of CTLE for every year that she/he was working in a public school or BOCES during that five (5) year registration cycle. Note: SED considers working 90 days or more in a single year as full-time employment and therefore CTLE hours are required.
The CTLE hours continue to include targeted hours designed to address the needs of English language learners (ELLs). Professionally certified ESOL teachers and holders of the bilingual extension are required to complete a minimum of 50% of their CTLE hours in areas that specifically address the needs of ELLs. All other certificate holders required to complete CTLE hours must complete a minimum of 15% of their hours in areas that address the needs of ELLs. An exemption to the 15% requirements still exists for districts with less than 5% (or 30 enrolled) ELL students.
Adjustments to the CTLE requirement may be granted by SED for a limited number of reasons, including poor health as certified by a health care provider and extended active duty in the Armed Forces.
Note 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 5-year cycle.
CTLE Sponsors (approved providers)
SED regulations require that the CTLE activities be rigorous and offered by SED-approved sponsors. The rigorous portion of this requires that CTLE be aligned with the NYS Professional Development Standards - http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/pdf/pdstds.pdf.
A list of SED-approved CTLE sponsors is available on SED’s website. 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 years to the State Education Department to continue as CTLE sponsors.
The application to be an approved sponsor is available on SED’s website at http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/resteachers/CTLE_Sponsor_Home.html .
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 still 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. 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. At the end of each five (5) year registration cycle, CTLE certificate holders will attest to completing 100 CTLE hours on their TEACH accounts. SED may randomly audit both CTLE sponsors and CTLE certificate holders to ensure compliance with regulations.
The regulations governing Registration and CTLE requirements are found in Part 80.6 of Commissioner’s Regulations.