General Information:
The Georgia Professional Standards Commission was created by the Georgia General Assembly
on July 1, 1991, to assume full responsibility for the preparation, certification,
and professional conduct of certified personnel employed in the Georgia public schools.
Commission responsibilities have increased since 1991, to include such areas as: selected recruiting functions,
to include the TeachGeorgia.org website; and to administer, through a contract with
the State Board of Education, the Georgia Title II-A Teacher Quality Program under
the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.
GaPSC responsibilities outlined in legislation include:
- To simplify and make more efficient the process of certifying
educational personnel in Georgia;
- To attract the highest possible number of qualified personnel
to become educators in Georgia;
- To promote the hiring of qualified educators from other states
to work in Georgia schools;
- To improve the level of preparation of educators, both pre-service
and in-service, by requiring for purposes of certification those essential skills
and the knowledge needed to deliver effective education;
- To adopt standards of professional performance and a code
of professional ethics for educators, both of which shall represent standards of
performance and conduct, which are generally accepted by educators of this state;
- To investigate reports of specified criminal conduct, violations
of professional or ethical codes of conduct, and violations of certain rules, regulations,
and policies by school system educators;
- To enforce the requirement that local school systems promptly
report specified criminal conduct of school system educators to the commission;
- To impose disciplinary action or a denial of a certificate
against an educator
Mission Statement:
To build the best prepared, best qualified and most ethical educator workforce in
the nation.
The major purposes of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission are:
- To simplify and make more efficient the process of certifying educational personnel
in Georgia;
- To attract the highest possible number of qualified personnel to become educators
in Georgia;
- To promote the hiring of qualified educators from other states to work in Georgia
schools;
- To improve the level of preparation of educators, both pre-service and in-service,
by requiring for purposes of certification those essential skills and the knowledge
needed to deliver effective education;
- To adopt standards of professional performance and a code of professional ethics
for educators, both of which shall represent standards of performance and conduct,
which are generally accepted by educators of this state;
- To investigate reports of specified criminal conduct, violations of professional
or ethical codes of conduct, and violations of certain rules, regulations, and policies
by school system educators;
- To enforce the requirement that local school systems promptly report specified criminal
conduct of school system educators to the commission;
- To impose disciplinary action or a denial of a certificate against an educator
Click here for GaPSC Contact Information.