Why Are Permanent Certification Holders Now Forced To "Register" Their Licenses Every Five Years?

There is some conjecture that I have misinterpreted the budget provision that I said seems to force New York State teachers with permanent licenses to "register" with the state and complete 100 hours of "rigorous" professional development every five years or lose their teaching certification.

A commenter wrote:

I'm as angry as the next person, but I disagree with your interpretation.

There are two separate sections in the law, Subpart C Section 1 which applies to "Valid for Life" certifications and Subpart C Section 2 for "Professional" certificate holders.

The permanent certificate holders need to register every five years to continue teaching.

Professional certificate holders have to do 100 hours every five years instead of 175. The hours we can submit are subject to the Commissioner's approval now.

So it still sucks, but not quite as much as you've described here.

I was working off the Jessica Bakeman summary of the education provisions in the budget, not the actual budget language.

Here is what she wrote:

 TEACHER CERTIFICATION:Teachers and administrators with lifetime certification must register with the state every five years.

Applicants for registration must complete 100 hours of continuing education or professional development every five years. “The department shall issue rigorous standards for courses, programs and activities that shall qualify as continuing teacher and leader education,” according to the bill.

Principals or teachers who perform observations for the purpose of the state’s teacher evaluation system may count those hours toward the total.

If educators don’t complete the state-approved professional development, they will not be able to maintain certification.

The Capital NY article suggests that lifetime certification holders must do the 100 hours of PD or risk losing their licenses.

But the budget langauge is different than the way Bakeman wrote it up at Capital NY.

Here is the actual langauge in the budget (sorry for the mish-moshed excerpt - I'm doing this during lunch!):


Section 1. Section 3006 of the education law is amended  by  adding  a
     9  new subdivision 3 to read as follows:
    10    3. Registration. a. Commencing with the two thousand sixteen--two
    11  thousand seventeen school year, any holder of a teaching certificate in
    12  the classroom teaching service, teaching assistant certificate, or
    13  educational leadership certificate that is valid for life as prescribed
    14  by the commissioner in regulations shall be required to register with
    15  the department every five years in accordance with regulations of the
    16  commissioner. Such regulations shall prescribe the date or dates by
    17  which applications for initial registration must be submitted and may
    18  provide for staggered initial registration and/or rolling re-registra-
    19  tion so that re-registrations are distributed as equally as possible
    20  throughout the year and across multiple years.
    21    b. The department shall post an application for registration on its
    22  website. An application shall be submitted for a registration certif-
    23  icate. Except as otherwise provided in this section, the department
    24  shall renew the registration of each certificate holder upon receipt of
    25  a proper application on a form prescribed by the department. Any certif-
    26  icate holder who fails to register by the beginning of the appropriate
    27  registration period may be subject to late filing penalties as
    28  prescribed by the commissioner. No certificate holder resuming practice
    29  after a lapse of registration shall be permitted to practice without
    30  verification of re-registration.
c. Any certificate holder who is not engaging in the practice of his
    32  or her profession in this state and does not desire to register shall so
    33  advise the department. Such certificate holder shall not be subject to
    34  penalties as prescribed by the commissioner for failure to register at
    35  the beginning of the registration period.
    36    d. Certificate holders shall notify the department of any change of
    37  name or mailing address within thirty days of such change. Willful fail-
    38  ure to register or provide such notice within one hundred eighty days of
    39  such change may constitute grounds for moral character review under
    40  subdivision seven of section three hundred five of this chapter.
    41    § 2. The education law is amended by adding a new  section  3006-a  to
    42  read as follows:
3006-a. Registration and continuing teacher and leader education
    44  requirements for holders of professional certificates in the classroom
    45  teaching service, holders of level III teaching assistant certificates,
    46  holders of professional certificates in the educational leadership
    47  service. 1. a. Commencing with the two thousand sixteen--two thousand
    48  seventeen school year, each holder of a professional certificate in the
    49  classroom teaching service, holder of a level III teaching assistant
    50  certificate and holder of a professional certificate in the educational
    51  leadership service shall be required to register every five years with
    52  the department to practice in the state and shall comply with the
    53  provisions of the continuing teacher and leader education requirements
    54  set forth in this section.
2006--B                         113                        A. 3006--B

     1    b. Any of the certified individuals described in paragraph a of this
     2  subdivision who do not satisfy the continuing teacher and leader educa-
     3  tion requirements shall not practice until they have met such require-
     4  ments and have been issued a registration or conditional registration
     5  certificate.
     6    c. In accordance with the intent of this section, adjustments to the
     7  continuing teacher and leader education requirement may be granted by
     8  the department for reasons of health certified by a health care provid-
     9  er, for extended active duty with armed forces of the United States, or
    10  for other good cause acceptable to the department which may prevent
    11  compliance.
    12    d. Any certificate holder who is not practicing as a teacher, teaching
    13  assistant or educational leader in a school district or board of cooper-
    14  ative educational services in this state shall be exempt from the
    15  continuing teacher and leader education requirement upon the filing of a
    16  written statement with the department declaring such status. Any holder
    17  of a professional certificate in the classroom teaching service, holder
    18  of a level III teaching assistant certificate and holder of a profes-
    19  sional certificate in the educational leadership service who resumes
    20  practice during the five-year registration period shall notify the
    21  department prior to resuming practice and shall meet such continuing
    22  teacher and leader education requirements as prescribed in regulations
    23  of the commissioner.
    24    2. a. During each five-year registration period beginning on or after
    25  July first, two thousand sixteen, an applicant for registration shall
    26  successfully complete a minimum of one hundred hours of continuing
    27  teacher and leader education, as defined by the commissioner. The
    28  department shall issue rigorous standards for courses, programs, and
    29  activities, that shall qualify as continuing teacher and leader educa-
    30  tion pursuant to this section. For purposes of this section, a peer
    31  review teacher, or a principal acting as an independent trained evalu-
    32  ator, conducting a classroom observation as part of the teacher evalu-
    33  ation system pursuant to section three thousand twelve-d of this article
    34  may credit such time towards his or her continuing teacher and leader
    35  effectiveness requirements.
Nothing in this section shall limit the ability of local school
    37  districts to agree pursuant to collective bargaining to additional hours
    38  of professional development or continuing teacher or leader education
    39  above the minimum requirements set forth in this section.
    40    c. A certified individual who has not satisfied the continuing teacher
    41  and leader education requirements shall not be issued a five-year regis-
    42  tration certificate by the department and shall not practice unless and
    43  until a registration or conditional registration certificate is issued
    44  as provided in subdivision three of this section. For purposes of this
    45  subdivision, "continuing teacher and leader education requirements"
    46  shall mean activities designed to improve the teacher or leader's peda-
    47  gogical and/or leadership skills, targeted at improving student perform-
    48  ance, including but not limited to formal continuing teacher and leader
    49  education activities. Such activities shall promote the professionaliza-
    50  tion of teaching and be closely aligned to district goals for student
    51  performance which meet the standards prescribed by regulations of the
    52  commissioner. To fulfill the continuing teacher and leader education
    53  requirement, programs must be taken from sponsors approved by the
    54  department, which shall include but not be limited to school districts,
    55  pursuant to the regulations of the commissioner.
The department, in its discretion, may issue a conditional regis-
     2  tration to a teacher, teaching assistant or educational leader in a
     3  school district or board of cooperative educational services in this
     4  state who fails to meet the continuing teacher and leader education
     5  requirements established in subdivision two of this section but who
     6  agrees to make up any deficiencies and take any additional continuing
     7  teacher and leader education which the department may require. The dura-
     8  tion of such conditional registration shall be determined by the depart-
     9  ment. Any holder of a professional certificate in the classroom teaching
    10  service, holder of a level III teaching assistant certificate or holder
    11  of a professional certificate in the educational leadership service and
    12  any other certified individual required by the commissioner to register
    13  every five years who is notified of the denial of registration for fail-
    14  ure to submit evidence, satisfactory to the department, of required
    15  continuing teacher and leader education and who practices without such
    16  registration, shall be subject to moral character review under subdivi-
    17  sion seven of section three hundred five of this chapter.

The language in the budget does seem to say that "lifetime" certification holders have to "register" every five years but the 100 hours of professional development does not apply to them, only to professional certification holders - as the commenter at Perdido Street wrote in his comment.

You can imagine how easy it is to mistake what's actually in the budget, though, given that the bill itself was not released until very late in the budget process and the governor released this as part of his press release for the budget agreement finalized last night:

The State currently requires teachers to pass a teacher “bar” exam – and will now also require teachers to complete 100 hours of continuing education and recertify every five years or lose their licenses.

Gee, that does make it sound like everybody's got to do the 100 hours of PD or lose their licenses, doesn't it?

No wonder there's confusion over what's actually happening with permanent certification.

One way or the other, someone stuck a new mandate into the budget that forces teachers with permanent certification to "register" that permanent certification every five years, thus rendering it essentially no longer "permanent."

And you have to wonder, why is that suddenly in the budget?

I don't remember hearing Cuomo clamor about that as part of his Opportunity Agenda.

So, why is it there?