Licensing Advisor Weekly Newsletter
March 16, 2006
Testing
There has been some confusion over the issue of whether applicants who already hold a license must take the appropriate Praxis II exam if they are adding something to the license at a higher developmental area. This was never promulgated into rule. Therefore, we will return to operating under our prior testing policy. Effective immediately, individuals will not be required to successfully complete Praxis II in order to add a content area to an existing license. This may be reviewed again in the future, but until further notice, this will be our policy.
Please note that institutions who wish to require Praxis II for each content area as part of their programs, may continue to do so at their discretion. (NOTE: ETS has indicated that use of the Praxis II as a graduation requirement could be a legal issue, as the test was not designed for this purpose.) In addition, please note that candidates may find that they will need to complete Praxis II in the content area to be viewed as highly qualified.
Rules 2002 School Services Licenses
In 2002, the decision was made to delay the implementation of the Rules 2002 Indiana Mentoring and Assessment Program (IMAP) requirements for all school services licenses until July 1, 2006. This was to allow each area to develop an IMAP system for their respective areas. In the interim, all four school services areas were issued Rules 46-47 licenses. As we approach July 1, 2006, I would like to update you on the plans for these licenses.
School Counselors have completed their work. The Counselor Portfolio Handbook and assessment is complete. They are currently training mentors and plan to send several people to the scorers training in June. They believe they will have enough trained mentors to begin the IMAP process. School Counselors will be ready to begin the IMAP process July 1, 2006.
Therefore, beginning July 1, 2006, all original school counseling licenses will be issued under Rules 2002. These license holders will receive the initial practitioner license and be required to complete IMAP.
School Social Workers are finalizing their work and are working to complete final revisions and additions to the Social Worker Portfolio Handbook and assessment. They have a plan to begin the initial mentor training and also plan to have people attend the June scorers training. There is concern about the ability to engage a sufficient number of initial mentors in appropriate geographical areas. Barring any unforeseeable problems, the school social workers will be ready to begin the IMAP process July 1, 2006.
Therefore, beginning July 1, 2006, all original school social worker licenses will be issued under Rules 2002. These license holders will receive the initial practitioner license and be required to complete IMAP.
School Nurses are finalizing their work on the Nurse Portfolio Handbook and assessment. They believe they will be able to use much of an existing framework; however they will need to implement mentor training as well as complete the handbook to be ready to begin the IMAP process July 2006.
Therefore, beginning July 1, 2006, all original school nurse licenses will be issued under Rules 2002. These license holders will receive the initial practitioner license and be required to complete IMAP.
School Psychologists are working on the process; however they have been waiting on new standards. This wait has delayed their work. School psychologists will not be ready to begin the IMAP process July 1, 2006.
Therefore, our recommendation to the advisory board and to Dr. Reed will be to delay the implementation of the Rules 2002 licensing program for school psychology licenses and issue Rules 46-47 licenses until July 1, 2007. Please note that this recommendation has not yet been approved. We will inform you when it is official.
Personnel Moves
Operations Manager
The Division of Professional Standards has been granted the approval to hire an Operations Manager, which is a new position. We are currently conducting a search for this person and hope to have the position filled by mid-May. This person will be supervising the processing and customer service areas in the DPS. Until this person is with us, as you have questions concerning license corrections, please refer them to Ms. Laura Capshaw in the Licensing-Evaluation section of the DPS at lcapshaw@doe.in.gov.
Questions other than corrections which you formerly sent to Jenni Ciasto, should now be directed to Ray Graves.
If you have candidates that might be interested in the position of operations manager, you will find the job description and application instructions at www.doe.in.gov/hr/operations_mgr.html.
Special Projects Coordinator
Terri Banks will serve as the special projects coordinator for the Division of Professional Standards. In her new role, Terri will work on research projects for the division and play a more active role in projects in the areas of teacher education and assessment, induction and continuing education. While Terri may still play a role in licensing, she will no longer be working with licensing on a daily basis. Therefore, licensing questions previously sent to Terri should now go to either Kent Stoelting or Robin Meyer.
Senior Education Consultant
Robin Meyer will now serve as the senior education consultant in the licensing division. Robin will continue working with licensing on a daily basis and play a bigger role in training with staff and with licensing advisors.
New E-Mail Addresses
Please note that all staff within the division of professional standards now have new e-mail addresses. The new addresses are attached. Please note that if you sent an e-mail to our old addresses, then they will be forwarded to our new ones.
Deadline concerning Rules 46-47
A reminder that if you will be recommending persons for initial licenses for prior rules (Rules 46-47, Bulletin 400), we must receive the application and your coding sheets no later than the close-of-business on June 30, 2006. This is a Friday. We will accept any mailed applications so long as they are post-marked June 30, 2006 or before. This deadline will be strictly adhered to.
We remain hopeful that the July 1, 2006 deadline concerning additions to and/or professionalizations of licenses issued under prior rules, will be rescinded.