New York State requires all students in graduate-level teacher education programs to demonstrate they have earned a certain number of credits aligned to their teaching certification prior to graduation and receiving a recommendation for their Initial teaching license. These requirements are based on your certification area and are evaluated based on the post-secondary credits earned prior to being admitted to Relay Graduate School of Education.

Please Note: New York State regulations require that graduate students demonstrate they have earned the following credits aligned to the certification areas below:

State Guidelines for Course Acceptance: 

• Only credit-bearing courses can be accepted if the grade earned is at least C for undergraduate level or B- for graduate level
• Science courses must be biology, chemistry, earth science, or physics-related
• AP Exams can only be accepted if the credits were applied towards your undergraduate degree
• Please review the Credit Guide for additional guidelines on which courses can and cannot be accepted for each subject area
• The minimum passing score Relay can accept for CLEP exams is 50 

How to Satisfy Outstanding Prerequisite Credits:

Satisfying outstanding prerequisite credits are a graduation requirement.  In order to satisfy these credits, you can take an exam or a course at any accredited institution or program. You can review our Credit Guide for several exams or course options. Students typically take either CLEP exams or Online Penn Foster courses (Call 1-800-238-9554) to satisfy their credit requirements. 

You can submit official score reports or transcripts to us through one of the two ways listed below. 

• Electronic Transcripts - *Electronic transcripts are preferred*
  • Must be sent via a third-party website to [email protected]
  • Must be from a U.S.-based institution
• Hard-Copy Transcripts
  • If you CAN ONLY receive a hard-copy transcript from your institution, and you mail that into our office, please note that it will take 5-7 business days for processing as we can only retrieve transcripts once a week from our physical office. 
    • Please mail to Relay GSE, Office of Admissions and Enrollment, 25 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10004

Requesting a Re-evaluation of your Courses or Exams

If you believe that there are courses or exams on your transcript(s) that were not counted toward your outstanding prerequisite credit requirement, please submit an Outstanding Prerequisite Credit Re-Evaluation Request. 

If you may not agree with the decision of your prerequisite credit re-evaluation, you will have the opportunity to appeal the decision. In this case, please email [email protected] for information on your next steps.

Deadline to Satisfy Outstanding Prerequisite Credits:

In order to be eligible to graduate by the Spring term of your second year and receive a Spring conferral date, you will need to submit an official transcript/score report to us by the last day of the Spring term. If you need additional time, you can submit the materials to us by the end of the Summer Term that same year, to be eligible to graduate with a Summer term conferral date. You can review this article to reference Relay's Term Dates. 

If you have questions about your prerequisite credit status or your options to satisfy your outstanding credits, you can sign up for Relay NY Prerequisite Credit Office Hours or email [email protected].