Professional Development Opportunities

Madison County School Board

In-service Credit Policies and Procedures

WHO DO I SEE WITH QUESTIONS?

Robin Hill – Employment and salary information (ext. 1531)

Linda Irvine – Certification/recertification and employment records (ext. 1532)

IN-SERVICE CREDIT

In-service is a generic term that applies to training which a teacher attends while he/she is in service as a Florida Certified Teacher. Generally, one hour of training is equivalent to one in-service credit point.

This is one point of re-certification credit toward the 120 points required every five years for Florida teacher re-certification.

RE-CERTIFICATION

In-service training credit is used for renewing your Florida teaching certificate and is also known as re- certification credit. Teachers certified in one or two areas must earn 120 points to renew their certificate every five years.

SCHOOL-SPONSORED TRAINING

You earn in-service credit whenever you attend professional development training at your school. This training is submitted to our department by your Professional Development/PD System Coordinator. Be sure you sign in on any rosters at your school.

ONLINE COURSES

Online courses must be on the list of Approved Out-of-District Online Class Providers to earn credit.

District- or State-Sponsored/ Online Courses

Completion of any district- or state-sponsored or district-recognized online course earns in-service credit. The following courses are recognized by the district:

o Any online class leading to endorsement in ESOL, Gifted, Reading, Autism, or Athletic Coaching

o PDA online courses

o CAR-PD

o Online coursework that leads to state-approved industry certifications.

UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE CLASSES

You may obtain re-certification credit for university/college coursework by asking the university to send your official transcript directly to Human Resources at the Sarasota School Board. The school or institution must be regionally accredited.

CERTIFICATION AREA EXAM

A teacher may satisfy 60 points of recertification credit by taking an FTCE exam within their current validity period in a subject area in which they are currently certified. An exam taken in a new area of certification must be added to your certificate before it can be used for the 60 points towards recertification.

SUBMITTING YOUR IN-SERVICE

In-service credit earned at district-sponsored workshops is entered into the professional development system by the class instructor/facilitator. You do not need to request or submit credit for school or district sponsored training.

In-service earned outside the district requires that you request credit using the appropriate form. You must seek approval first through the school administration and then through the district.

On the Professional Development homepage by the Online PD Opportunities is a link to the PD Request Form.

WHEN TO SUBMIT

Submit your requests for in-service credit for conferences and out-of-district workshops to Professional Development within 30 days of completion of those activities.

WHERE TO SUBMIT (for out-of-district-training)

In-service credit should be submitted to Robin Hill. Hard copies of the verifying documentation must be submitted for audit purposes.  In-service must be completed by June 30 of each year for recertification purposes.

CONVERSION OF POINTS

1 clock hour training = 1 in-service point

1 semester hour = 20 in-service points

1 CEU = 10 in-service points (dependent upon sponsoring organization)

IN-SERVICE HISTORY REPORTS

You may access your in-service history report in Track.  There is a record of all the training hours you have completed while employed with the Madison County School Board.