Educators holding an Induction certificate expiring June 30, 2023, may convert the certificate upon earning three years of experience. The GaPSC will accept 120 days of experience earned during school years 20-23 in lieu of successful experience for these years.

If you determine that any induction educator is not meeting performance expectations, you will follow local procedures for performance related issues, as conversion will not be prevented unless the educator has two or more unremediated low performance ratings. If so, a waiver must be requested for remediation if continuing employment with your LUA.

Only holding a Clearance certificate is not acceptable for remediation purposes.

Educators with two or more unremediated low performance ratings earned during the validity of their certificate (prior to school year 20), are not eligible for renewal unless the LUA affirms that a remediation plan was successfully completed by the educator and the low performance ratings are marked as remediated in the UNSAT portal in www.gapsc.org.

Otherwise, the LUA must request a Waiver certificate to allow the educator additional time to successfully complete a remediation plan.

Only holding a Clearance certificate is not acceptable for remediation purposes.

To better understand the information listed on Georgia certificates and certification files, please see the following:

• Understanding Georgia Certification (dates, levels, and codes)
• Levels and Degrees (listing of degrees and corresponding levels)
• Certification Fields and Endorsements (explanation of field types: Teaching, Service, and Leadership)
• Tiered Certification (Pre-Service, Provisional, Induction, Professional, and Advanced/Lead Professional)

Expresslane:

All certification requests made by local school systems must be submitted through your GaPSC.org employer account using Expresslane. A tutorial on how to use Expresslane may be found at the top of the welcome screen of the Expresslane portal; however, the following tips and links may be useful:

• Documents Required for Each Certification Transaction
• Expresslane submissions are rejected if all required documents needed for the requested transaction are not included in the submission, or if the submitted documents are unacceptable for one or more reasons listed below. If the submission is rejected, the reason for rejection will be listed in the Status column to the right of the educator’s name in Expresslane:
  
  

Reasons for document rejection may include:

• The last page of the Initial Employed Educator Application is not hand-signed and dated
• Information on the Employed Application was entered digitally and did not transmit through Expresslane
• Personal affirmation questions were not completely answered on the last page of the Employed Application
• VLP submission did not include the notarized affidavit and/or supporting identification documentation
• GACE scores have not been received electronically directly from our testing supplier ETS
• An electronic transcript reflects the educator as the recipient instead of their employer
• Illegibility:
  Images are usually illegible due to the original scan being made in high-resolution color. When the image transmits, the database removes color information and compresses the image. To ensure submitted images are received legibly, please only scan in high-contrast black and white.

If the reason for rejection requires more detail, a GaPSC staff member will contact the ExpressLane operator (individual who submitted the ExpressLane documentation) at the time of rejection.

Application Submission Guidance:

• Renewal requests for employed educators must be made through Expresslane on or after December 1 of the school year in which the certificate expires. Please do not advise your employees to apply on their own. For more information on certification renewal, please see Certificate Renewal.
• Induction certification conversion requests may be made through Expresslane on or after March 1 of the school year in which the certificate expires. Please do not advise your employees to apply on their own.
• Clearance certification should only be requested for educators in positions that either require certification or would require certification that is being waived. Personnel such as substitutes, bus drivers, school nurses, etc. do not require a clearance certificate.
• If a transaction is not present for an educator in Expresslane, it indicates the request does not apply to their certification. Examples include:
  • Renewal will not be present for 5-Year Induction, Non-Renewable, Provisional, or any certificate type with outstanding requirements that must be met for conversion to renewable certification. Please review the issuance letter posted to the educator’s file for conversion requirements.
  • Retired educator certification is not an available transaction in Expresslane being that it must be requested by the educator through MyPSC after retirement.
  • Upgrade is not available for certification that is not eligible for a level increase based on a non-certification program such as Provisional, Permit, International Exchange, etc.
• Note that our office cannot accommodate expedite requests. However, certification may be backdated to the beginning of the fiscal year (7/1), or when requirements were met (if after 7/1) regardless of when the case is processed. You may view further information on certificate dating in the Validity Rule.

To view the status of an educator’s case, please locate the 'Status' column in Expresslane:

Status Indication	Meaning
Uploaded – awaiting check-in	The documents you submitted have transferred successfully, but are awaiting initial review and acceptance.
Case created (date of creation)	The documents were accepted and a case was created that will be evaluated. You maybe view the date we are currently working on here.
Rejected – (reason for rejection)	The documents were not acceptable or the submission was incomplete. See the 'How to Apply' topic above for more information.
Case on Hold	The documents were received and evaluated, but further documentation is needed to complete the evaluation.

If a case is on hold, you may view the missing items listed in the Hold Letter posted to the educator’s account by first clicking on the educator’s CertID in Expresslane:

Then click on View in the correspondence section at the bottom of the educator’s account:

Please view Paraprofessional Licensure Requirements to determine if an educator may be issued licensure upon your request.

Note that our office does not review transcripts by email for paraprofessional testing exemption purposes, and an official determination will only be made upon the submission of a complete application through Expresslane. However, if the transcripts reflect 60 semester hours or 100 quarter hours (or a combination of the two) above the remedial/developmental level with a “C” grade or better, the educator would be exempt from the paraprofessional assessment (please do not assume the total hours reflected at the end of the transcript is acceptable when a degree is not earned as you must count acceptable course hours). The institution(s) must also be found on one of the following accreditation sites:

CHEA

or:

U.S. DOE

If you are considering employing an educator who is certified in another state, the following links may be useful in determining if reciprocity is possible and what documentation will be needed for an evaluation towards Georgia certification:

• Professional Out-of-State Certification Eligible for Reciprocity in Georgia
• Out-of-State Educator Homepage with Documentation Requirements

Pre-approval for certification reciprocity will not be provided through phone or email to employers or educators prior to a complete application.

For those transitioning into education without completing all requirements for professional certification Provisional or Permit certification may apply. Please see the following links for more information:

• Provisional Certification Requirements (requires the completion of a teaching program within its validity)
• Permit Requirements (available for select fields and does not require the completion of a teaching program)
• Degrees and Corresponding Certificate Levels
• CTAE Field Requirements (Audio/Video Technology & Film, Healthcare Science, etc.)

Pre-approval for Provisional or Permit certification will not be provided through phone or email to employers or educators prior to a complete application.

Employees contracted through a third party are subject to the following:

• Those in a position normally requiring certification must hold a clearance certificate even if certification is being waived through a strategic waiver.
• The educator must be placed on a professional learning plan administered by the contracting school system or the educator must meet standard renewal requirements to maintain certification. Professional learning plans administered by a third party staffing agency cannot be accepted towards renewal.

The submission of a certification request through Expresslane and the Employer Assurance Form found through GaPSC.org specifically cover the employment of contracted educators. Certification requests and Employer Assurance Forms must be submitted by the contracting school system rather than the third party the educator is hired through. Note the GaPSC does not issue GaPSC.org employer accounts to third party staffing agencies, and certification requests that require employment must be made by the contracting school system.

To view what courses an educator may teach with a given certification field or which certification field is required for a specific course, please see CAPS (Certification/Curriculum Assignment Policies System). Note that special education fields may be present for many courses; however, it is listed with the assumption the course will be taught in a special education setting. Special education educators are not in-field while teaching regular education courses.

In most cases, non-renewable-type certification may be requested for an educator to give them time to meet requirements for an out-of-field assignment, initial certification testing, or to fulfill renewal requirements. However, non-renewable-type certification should only be requested if an educator is in a position requiring the field(s) sought. Certificate types/circumstances and available non-renewable-type certification is as follows:

Certificate Type and Circumstance	Non-Renewable-Type Certification Available
Standard, Performance-Based, and Advanced/Lead Professional educators assigned out-of-field and lacking testing and/or program requirements	3-Year Non-Renewable
5-Year Induction educators assigned out-of-field and lacking testing and/or program requirements	3-Year Induction
Educators coming from out of state with 3 years of experience and lacking content testing or: Professionally certified Georgia educators needing to meet renewal requirements	1-Year Non-Renewable
Educators coming from out of state with less than 3 years of experience and lacking content testing or: Educators who completed a preparation program and received a recommendation, yet did not pass the required content assessment(s)	1-Year Induction

Note that non-renewable-type certification is not available in all circumstances and the individual rule for the field required should be reviewed for availability. The following rules specifically offer more detail on the above:

• Non-Renewable Professional Certificate
• Induction Certificate

Waiver Certification is issued on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the GaPSC Certification Division Director for those lacking certain minimum requirements for full certification. Waiver certification issued by the GaPSC is separate from a strategic waiver, which is the absence of certification. Please note the following:

• Waiver requests must be made through Expresslane and include a letter from the employer addressed to the GaPSC Certification Division Director outlining the circumstances of the request
• The educator must hold the minimum degree level for the field sought
• Outstanding requirements must be possible to complete within 1 year
• Approved waivers are advertised on the Secretary of State website for 15 days prior to issuance
• A waiver certificate is issued for a maximum validity period of one year and may not be renewed

Pre-approval for waiver certification will not be provided through phone or email to employers or educators prior to a complete application.

Please utilize Check Certification Status to view sanctions that have been issued against a certificate. You can search by name or certification ID number. If you do not know the certification ID number, you can find it at Certification ID Lookup. If you need additional information, please view the Educators & Ethics webinar.