Can you get NYC teaching certificate with a valid foreign one?

June 15, 2009 8:03 PM

A friend of mine is a teacher, living in China. How difficult would it be for her to get NYC teaching certificate?

Is there any chance some of her credits would be counted? Looks like China is not on the list of accepted countries: http://schools.nyc.gov/TeachNYC/requirements/international/Countryinfo.htm

Or is her only choice pretty much the standard 4 years of school?

posted by zavulon to Work & Money (3 answers total)

I think the more important question would be how she can get the appropriate immigration status. The NYC public school system is pretty desperate for good teachers, but not so desperate that they'll hire people who cannot legally work in the US. Unless she's already a US citizen, this can be quite a trick.

Other than that though, you really haven't given enough information to answer your question. More to the point, NYC doesn't actually handle teacher certifications directly; that's done by the New York State Department of Education. Their page on teacher certification can be found here.
posted by valkyryn at 4:20 AM on June 16, 2009

Also, in May, New York instituted a hiring freeze except for teachers at brand new schools. This might not be the best time to consider it.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:07 AM on June 16, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks for your responses. Yes, she is going to have legal status with the right to work, so that's not an issue.
posted by zavulon at 6:33 AM on June 16, 2009