Credential Online Links:

Effective January 1, 2007, teachers will be required to renew their credentials online. The automated credentialing system called The Virtual Credential Officer (VCO) can usually complete the renewal process within 10 business days. Clear, Professional or Professional Clear Credentials and 30-Day Emergency Substitute Permits can be renewed online. For more information, call the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) at 888.921.2682 or send an email.

With the passage of CTA-supported legislation, experienced educators will no longer need to complete 150 clock hours of coursework in order to renew their credentials.

At the same time, would-be teachers will only have to complete either a fifth year of university study or a teacher induction program — instead of both — to earn a preliminary credential.

Senate Bill 1209 by Sen. Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), which was recently signed into law, streamlines and improves the state’s teach­­­er credentialing system. The wide-ranging bill recognizes that the vast majority of California teachers are well-prepared for their instructional tasks, and those few who are underprepared are rapidly declining in number.

The law responds to the state’s need to recruit 100,000 new teachers — an estimated 27,000 of whom will be needed as early as 2007-08 — to replace the senior teachers who will be retiring over the next decade. It eliminates needless hurdles that have made it more difficult for persons wishing to enter the profession and for fully qualified teachers wishing to move to California from other states.

Among its provisions, SB 1209:

• Boosts funding for teachers in the Beginning Teacher Sup­port and Assistance Program (BTSA).

• Requires the superintendent of public instruction to fund candidates in teacher in­­duction programs for two full years, even if the candidates are able to complete their preparation faster than that. It encourages districts to help new teachers move through the program more quickly.

• Allows teacher candidates to substitute a passing score on the Graduation Record Examinations (GRE), the SAT or the Act Plus Writ­­­­­ing Test to satisfy the current requirement that teachers pass the California Ba­­sic Educational Skills Test (CBEST).

• Requires the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to examine the feasibility of consolidating several tests — such as the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET) for multiple subjects and single subjects — into one as a way of reducing the number of repetitive exams candidates must take to meet certain requirements.