The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has recently provided guidance on licensure flexibility and requirements for the 2020-2021 school year.
House Bill 197 granted flexibility on the timelines for educators to renew their credentials. For educators whose credentials were set to expire on July 1, 2020, the period for those educators to complete their renewal requirements and renew their licenses has been extended to December 1, 2020. House Bill 197 also granted ODE authority to issue a one-time, one-year temporary license for the 2020-2021 school year to applicants who meet all other qualifications for licensure but have been unable to complete their initial licensure examinations. The Office of Educator Licensure is currently accepting applications for the one-year temporary license and will accept such applications until December 1, 2020. All one-year temporary licenses will be effective for the 2020-2021 school year only and are non-renewable.
House Bill 164 also created flexibility for schools related to licensed educators. As a reminder, for the 2020-2021 school year only, a superintendent may employ or assign an educator to teach a subject area or grade level for which the person is not licensed as long as it is within two grade levels of the person’s licensure grade band. To qualify, an educator must hold a professional or resident educator teaching license and have at least three years of teaching experience. Importantly, this flexibility does not apply to assignments in special education or to employing or assigning educational aides.
ODE has also provided guidance on how to report a staff member as the teacher of record for a course in EMIS. Typically, the staff member listed on the Staff Course record type must be reported in EMIS with the Teacher (230) position code. Yet for the 2020-2021 school year only, EMIS also will accept staff with the Full-time Substitute Teacher (225) position code as the staff member assigned to a course. But importantly, any teacher reported with a 225 position code still must meet the same licensure criteria as a 230 position code staff member to pass the Teacher Licensure Course Status checks.
In response to extensive requests from educators and districts regarding licensure for remote instruction, ODE has clarified that the requirements for an educator to be properly certified or licensed are the same whether the instruction is being provided in person, virtually, or in a hybrid model. The educator still must be licensed to teach the subject area, grade level, and student population, or qualify for licensure flexibility under House Bill 164 (described above) to be properly certified or licensed.
ODE also identified the one important exception to the licensure requirement for computer-instructed courses. A course is considered computer-instructed “when the software application or website used by the student is directly completing most of the tasks normally completed by the educator.” For this exception to apply, the educator must not be providing direct instruction or direct assessment of the students enrolled in the course, but is, instead, serving the limited role of helping facilitate the students’ successful use of the software or website. For such computer-instructed courses, a staff member with certification or licensure as a teacher, counselor, principal, or superintendent will be considered properly certified or licensed to monitor the course, regardless of the grade level and subject areas of the credential or license.