This timeline includes the requirements to ensure your Transitional-B certificate is issued by early fall. Trans-B certificate is valid for two years, while you are completing your graduate program at Relay GSE. In order to be eligible for Initial Certification, which allows you to teach in NY for five years, you may need to complete additional exams and requirements. As your nominating body, Relay will provide you with additional information during your two year commitment.

• Early Onboarding

  • Receive license areas you qualify to teach in NY State

• Mid Onboarding

  • Complete online certification workshops

  • Apply for Relay GSE

  • Complete fingerprinting

  • Create TEACH account

• Summer to Early Fall

  • Complete DASA workshop 

  • Apply for Transitional-B license(s) (once hired)

  • Relay recommends corps members for Transitional-B license to New York State

We will share more details in your bi-weekly corps digest regarding NY State certification overview, the exams you need to take, workshops you need to complete, and webinars you will attend to engage with Relay and learn more about NY State certification. We will also share resources you can utilize to prepare for your exams.

While Teach For America will support you in this process, we are not your certifying body. Our responsibility is to ensure we provide all the tools and next steps for you to be certified, but ultimately you will be responsible for completing all certification requirements with Relay and the state of New York. Over several years, the requirements to earn a New York State teaching license have become more rigorous, including certification exams. As we support in you taking exams, we aim to help maximize your passage rates, ensure you are qualified and flexible to earn appropriate positions in our partner schools, and minimize your costs.

In the spring, you will complete your Relay enrollment and begin to submit your completed certification requirements on their platform. Relay will provide instructions in the summer which you will utilize to apply for your certification to NYS and request a university nomination have your certification issued in early fall.

This depends on the position you are hired into. Only corps members who are hired into SPED 1-6 or SPED 7-12 positions can, and are required, to be in Relay's dual certification cohort where they will complete actions to be dual certified in General Education and Special Education according to NY State guidelines. If a corps member is not hired into a SPED position by their school, they cannot be in the dual certification cohort. 

Depending on your hiring path, there are 2-5 exams you must take and pass in order to apply for certification in New York State (NYS) before you begin teaching. 

• • One of these exams is the same for every corps member Educating All Students (EAS) and the other is unique to your hiring path and teaching license Content Specialty Test (CST), some of which have 3 parts. 

  • If you are hired into a special education position, you will be dually certified and may need to take additional exams. We will share exact information once you are hired.

You can take the EAS now, however we ask that all corps members hold on CST exams as you will first need to be hired to know which CST exam to take. Additionally, we advise you to devote proper study time. We find that rushing to take the exams without adequate study time results in corps members not passing on their initial attempts. Relay recommends dedicating at least six hours per exam. Review the 2023 Certification Guide to learn more.

Please review the Reimbursements page for details on how to qualify for reimbursement of certification exam retake. 

Check out the Certification Resources page for study materials. 

New York State law requires that all teachers complete three workshops in the following areas: child abuse and prevention, school violence prevention, and dignity for all students. The workshops provide basic training in how to identify, report, and manage situations you may encounter with your future students as well as support for all types of learners. You are required to complete, and submit evidence of having completed, three (3) different workshops in order to obtain a Transitional B certificate.

1. School Violence Prevention (online only, ~1 hour) (Cost: $25 with discount code)

Deadline: June 1, 2023

1. Sign up at www.violenceworkshop.com

2. Use code COLLEGE for discount

2. Child Abuse and Prevention (online only, ~2 hour) (Cost: Free through The New York Mandated Reporter Resource Center)

Deadline: June 1, 2023

1. Visit this website to take the course for free. 

2. This website lists the workshop as "Mandated Reporter Training" 

3. Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) (online/in-person, 6 hours total)

Deadline: August 31, 2023 

1. Register here to complete this workshop.

If you have opportunities to complete workshops through your current job or university, please feel free to do so as long as you can provide Relay a certificate of completion. We highly recommend you utilize the vendors we outline however, if you find another service to complete the workshop, please make sure it is through an Authorized Vendor. 

You will need to submit your proof of workshop completion directly to Relay. If you complete the workshops before the Relay application opens it is essential that you save the records of your workshop completion. 

If you have already completed these workshops, you will not need to take them again, however you will need to share your certificate of completion OR screenshot your TEACH account with Relay, so please make sure you have these to upload to Relay later.