Sec. 80-6.3. Mandatory continuing teacher and leader education requirements

(a) Requirements for CTLE certificate holders (holders of professional certificates in the classroom teaching service, educational leadership service and level III teaching assistant certificate holders).

(1) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (2) of this subdivision and subdivision (b) of this section, commencing with the 2016-2017 school year, a CTLE certificate holder shall be required to successfully complete 100 clock hours of acceptable CTLE during the registration period; provided that:

(i) a CTLE certificate holder who holds a professional certificate in the certificate title of English to speakers of other languages (all grades) or a holder of a bilingual extension under section 80-4.3 of this Part, shall be required to complete a minimum of 50 percent of the required CTLE clock hours in language acquisition aligned with the core content area of instruction taught, including a focus on best practices for co-teaching strategies, and integrating language and content instruction for English language learners; and

(ii) for all other CTLE certificate holders a minimum of 15 percent of the required CTLE clock hours shall be dedicated to language acquisition addressing the needs of English language learners, including a focus on best practices for co-teaching strategies, and integrating language and content instruction for such English language learners; and

(iii) for a CTLE certificate holder who holds a level III teaching assistant certificate, a minimum of 15 percent of the required CTLE clock hours shall be dedicated to language acquisition addressing the needs of English language learners and integrating language and content instruction for such English language learners.

(2) Exemption or modification of language acquisition requirements.

(i) For a teacher or school leader who is employed by an applicable school with an approved exemption pursuant to section 154-2.3(k) of this Title because there are fewer than 30 English language learner students enrolled or English language learners make up less than 5 percent of the applicable school's total student population as of a date as established by the commissioner, the teacher or school leader shall be exempt from the language acquisition CTLE requirements prescribed in this subdivision for each such year that they are employed in an applicable school with an approved exemption.

(ii) A school district business leader who is employed by an applicable school shall be exempt from the language acquisition CTLE requirements prescribed in this subdivision for each such year that they are employed in a school district or BOCES. Instead, a school district business leader shall complete a minimum of 15 percent of the required CTLE clock hours dedicated to the needs of English language learners and Federal, State and local mandates for English language learners.

(3) The CTLE requirement prescribed in this subdivision may be completed at any time during the registration period and CTLE completed during a prior registration period may not be carried over.

(b) Adjustments to the requirement.

(1) An adjustment to the CTLE requirement prescribed, in terms of clock hours and/or the time for completing CTLE, may be granted by the commissioner, provided that the CTLE certificate holder documents good cause that prevents compliance, which shall include any of the following reasons: poor health certified by a health care provider, extended active duty in the Armed Forces, or other good cause acceptable to the department which may prevent compliance.

(2) A peer review teacher, or a principal acting as an independent trained evaluator, conducting a classroom observation as part of the teacher evaluation system pursuant to Education Law section 3012-d may credit such time towards his/her CTLE requirement.

(3) A holder of a certificate in the classroom teaching service who achieves certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards shall be deemed to have met the CTLE requirement, for the registration period in which such National Board Certification is achieved, provided that the CTLE certificate holder must continue to meet the applicable required CTLE requirements in language acquisition as described in paragraph (a)(1) of this section.

(4) A teacher acting as a mentor to a new teacher in the classroom teaching service as part of a school district’s or BOCES’ mentoring program pursuant to section 100.2(dd) of this Title may, at the discretion of the school district or BOCES, credit up to 30 hours of such time toward his/her CTLE requirement in each five-year registration period.

(5) A teacher acting as a mentor to a teacher candidate pursuant to section 52.21 of this Title may, at the discretion of the school district or BOCES, credit up to 25 hours of such time toward his/her CTLE requirement in each five-year registration period.