In December 2019, New York State’s Office of Teaching Initiatives released a memo to the field outlining a new subject area certification requirement for Special Education teachers who teach one or more subject areas in a special (self-contained) class in grades 7-12.  Effective July 1, 2021, all special education teachers who teach one or more subject areas in a self-contained class in grades 7-12, with some or no students under alternate assessment, must be certified in each subject area that they teach. For example, if you teach mathematics and ELA in a self-contained class in grades 11 & 12 and at least one of your students is taking the Regents, you must be certified in Secondary Mathematics and Secondary ELA in addition to Students with Disabilities 7-12.

As a result of this rule change, we advise all partners who employ enrolled Relay students teaching on a Students with Disabilities: Adolescent Grades 7-12 Generalist Transitional B certificate that they should not place them in a self-contained classroom as the teacher of record while enrolled at Relay.

If you are interested in teaching a self-contained class with students in grades 7-12, you may be eligible to apply for a supplementary certificate in other subject areas upon completing testing and coursework requirements for the subject field. If you are interested in exploring your eligibility for a supplementary certificate upon program completion, please reach out to your school leader. To this end, Relay does not currently offer subject-level extension coursework. Should this change, we will send out a similar mailing.