Responding to the growing shortage of special education teachers, the state Board of Regents is moving forward with plans to streamline the special education certification system - reducing the number of titles from 45 to just three.

The Regents endorsed the State Education Department's conceptual plan, which will now be drafted into regulatory changes that are expected to go into effect in the fall of 2009.

NYSUT has long been predicting the looming shortage, especially at the secondary level, since the adoption of the new certification structure in 1998 that changed a single special ed certificate to 45.

The SED will draft proposed regulatory changes to:

• Retain the current Early Childhood special ed certificate (birth to grade 2), but extend its coverage to grade 3;
• Retain the Childhood special ed certificate as currently structured, covering grade 1-6;
• Establish a Childhood special education extension and extensions for both Early Childhood and Adolescence;
• Eliminate middle childhood certificates (generalist and subject areas in grades 5-9);
• Replace the current subject-specific, special ed adolescence certificates (grades 7-12) with a single, special ed adolescence generalist certificate that will include an enriched academic core.

While looking at the barriers posed by the current certification structure is a positive step, NYSUT will critically review and comment on SED's proposed regulations.

The union wants SED to clarify the scope of practice of the adolescent certificate holder when providing core academic instruction in a special class setting and to clarify the ability of this proposal to meet No Child Left Behind requirements for demonstrating subject matter competency.

NYSUT will also recommend expanding the grade 1-6 Childhood certificate to include teaching pre-K and kindergarten (ages 4-5).