Applying for Early Childhood Certification

It is strongly suggested that teachers apply for certification first. You will be notified of anything additional you need to take or any missing requirements.  Your credits don't "expire", so as long as you can produce a college transcript for the courses and the courses match the NYS requirements, you will be able to get credit for them. Therefore, send all your college transcripts to NYS for evaluation. You have nothing to lose. The evaluation process can take up to 3 months or more, so you should start the process right away. However, you can start taking course in the program before you have heard back from NY State if you are sure that you may not have taken the course(s) before.

You can start the process by going to the following webpage: NYS Office of Teaching Initiatives  and access the TEACH Online System at: http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/teach/. From there you would either create a TEACH account or sign-in to a TEACH account that you may already have and then follow these steps:

1. Once you are on the TEACH Home page, under, "Online Application", click, Apply for Certificate.
2. Read  through the "Instructions" on the page and click, "Next", at the bottom of the page.
3. Next, complete the information on, "Verify/Update Profile" and click, "Next", at the bottom of the page.
4. The follow page will then come up: "Step 2 - Select Certificate(s)".
5.  Under "New Certificate Title", there will be a number of questions with dropdown answers:

- Select your Area of Interest: select: Classroom Teacher
- Select Your Subject Area: select: Early Childhood Education
- Select the Grade Level: select: Early Childhood Birth -2
- Select Title: select: Early Childhood Education (Birth -2)
- Select the Type of Certificate: select the certification that you currently hold in your first certification area (usually either  initial certificate or professional certificate) 

6. Click "Add"
7. The page, "Educational Preparation for this application only" will appear.
8. Since you are not enrolled in a degree program, there is no program code, so please click: "No, I have not completed, nor am I enrolled in, an Approved Teacher Preparation Program at a New York State College or University for this certificate and this type."
9. Click, "Next".
10. Complete the information on," Interstate Reciprocity" and click, "Next"
11. Complete: Select Certificate(s): You should click: Pathway:Additional Classroom Teaching Certificate(Must hold a valid certificate) and click, "Next"
12. Complete Step 3 - Sign Affidavit
13. Complete Step 4 - Confirm and Sign Application
14. Complete Step 5 - Make Payment

There is a $100 fee to apply for certification, but once you have paid the fee you do not have to pay it again as long as you complete the process within three years and do not ask for more than two evaluations.

You will need to send your transcripts to NYS for them to evaluate. Please visit the following NYS webpage for information on where to send your transcripts: http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/certificate/transcripts.html 

NYS will be in-touch with you once they have done an evaluation of your transcript. To go through the details of what the various messages from NYS mean regarding your application status, please visit the NYS webpage at: http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/certificate/checkstatus2.html