Certification
backlog keeps teachers out of the
classroom
State has been
unable to process applications in time for school districts
to fill positions
Saturday, September 04, 2004 • BY BEV McCARRON
• Star-Ledger Staff
With a new school year
starting, the state is plowing through a backlog of
teacher-certification applications, but not fast enough for
some districts concerned that the teachers they need to hire
will not have their licenses in time.
Department of Education
officials said they've issued more than 11,000 certificates
this summer, in a record period of time compared with
previous years. But an informal poll by the New Jersey
School Boards Association last week still found a good deal
of hand-wringing in a number of districts.
"It would appear that in
some districts at least ... people are having serious
problems with new employees receiving their certificates or
licenses, and this has been going on a long time," said
Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the school boards
association.
The state Department of
Education has been installing an automated system to try to
speed up a licensing process that teachers and
superintendents have long claimed is too slow.
State school board member
Ronald Butcher acknowledged there are still delays, which he
said have been caused in part by understaffing in the
processing department. He said the state is within a month
of having its automated system fully
operational.
"I know we have a backlog
that's probably anywhere from three to four months in
licensing, but I would anticipate getting this new automated
system up and running, and getting that backlog rapidly
reduced," Butcher said.
Without their
certificates, teachers cannot sign employment
contracts.
Last month, as they were
trying to complete their staffing plans, school officials
were angered after the state sent a memo to all districts
advising them they could not hire teachers without
credentials and could not even interview candidates without
their certificates.
Department spokeswoman
Kathryn Forsyth said the memo was at odds with what
districts had been told, which is that they can hold
interviews with teachers whose applications are pending. The
memo was sent out by the state's three regional
superintendents hoping to clarify hiring procedures after
concerns that some districts were hiring unqualified
teachers, she said.
"But the wording did not
jibe with what we were telling people," she
said.
The new system will allow
applicants to apply online, which will dramatically cut the
wait time, said Forsyth.
"Right now, they have to
hand- key in everybody's application," she said.
As the state works to get
the paperwork processed, school districts have been told
they can hire teaches as substitutes if they have an
application pending.
Tom Klemm, human resources
director for Bergen County Technical Schools and Bergen
Special Services, both part of the county's vo-tech system,
responded to the school board poll. He said one piece of the
state's new system is helpful. An online tracking system now
in place allows districts and teachers to plug in a Social
Security number and track the progress of an
application.
But he has several
teachers whose applications were submitted months ago but
haven't made it into the tracking system. As of now, he said
he has about 10 teachers still waiting for certificates who
have been advised to get their substitute teaching
credentials.
"We have people that have
to spend that additional money to get a substitute license
because they didn't have any certificate on them, and you
can't have someone in the classroom without a certificate,"
he said.
Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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