The International Schools Review Forum

My wife and I are Canadians living and teaching abroad; we're from BC (our teaching certificates are from there). The thing is, we've been teaching overseas for the last 8 years and stopped paying our teaching certification dues a long time ago; our thinking was that it wasn't necessary or needed. The schools we've worked for are all proper international schools around the globe and we've never had a need to prove we have an active certificate. However, I just read a post here saying something about BC has changed its policy on certification payments and when I got to reading, I starting thinking...are we suppose to have an ACTIVE and registered and up to date paid teaching certificate linked to back home? I just thought, we've got a certificate from before back home, we've been teaching overseas and keeping up with our profession, why would we need to keep registering back home?

So now, in the midst of applying to new schools, I'm worried that we ARE suppose to be continually certified back home and that if a school goes to check and finds us without a paid-up certificate, they won't hire us...is this the case or am I freaking out for no reason? If we do need an active certificate, we'll have to completely re-apply..I hope this isn't the case.

In MI you can't simply re-apply for your expired certificate. You have to take college classes in order to obtain it again.

Even if you've been teaching actively?

FWIW-

In the US (Illinois) you need to complete professional development requirements and then register them. These can be a variety of options, but you'll need to have done this prior to your certificate lapsing. If your certificate is lapsed, you have to take classes.

At least in Illinois they do have an Emergency Certificate, which is good for one year- my wife used that while taking the required coursework to get her certificate back. Doesn't matter if you'd been teaching.

If you do not renew your certification after the 5th year, you lose your teaching certificate in MI. We have to have 6 credits every 5 years in order to apply for renewal, but if someone does not, he/she loses the certification completely and would have to go back to college to get the degree back.

You have to renew even if you have been teaching all this time (I am talking about MI). This is done in order for teachers to keep taking classes to stay "up to date".

Why don't you call the BCCT (or the BC Teachers' Council as I think it will be called)?

http://www.bcteacherregulation.ca/Teach ... chers.aspx

And in the meantime, stolen from the BCC website (see #2):

Extending an Interim or Conditional Certificate
We do not usually extend Interim or Conditional Certificates beyond their expiry dates. We will extend a certificate in the following two circumstances only:
If your original evaluation letter stated that, due to the amount of coursework you needed to complete, you would qualify for a one-time extension if you completed half of the courses by the expiry date.
If you are within six months of the expiry date of your certificate, and you have been unable to complete the courses because of circumstances that you cannot control (for example, lengthy illness or maternity).
In both of these cases, you must send us a written request for a special extension to the expiry date of your certificate.
In the case of #1 above, send us your written request along with transcripts showing that you have completed at least half of the required courses.
In the case of #2 above, send us your written request describing your circumstances and include any applicable supporting documents (such as a letter from your doctor). We may give you a special extension of up to 12 months to complete the courses.

URL: http://www.bcteacherregulation.ca/Certi ... icate.aspx

You may have read another post i commented on in this forum. I am not canadian nor do i have my certificate from BC. The new practice fee is $80, and you must have a criminal background check done every 5 years.
As another update you may not be aware of is that the Teacher Regulation Branch of the Ministry of education has taken over the Colleges previous role:

http://www.bcteacherregulation.ca/OurFuture/QandA.aspx

From a legal standpoint, as an administrator if i go to the BC online certificate verification service:

http://www.bcteacherregulation.ca/Certi ... acher.aspx

and type in your information and your not there. You are not certified to teach, and not eligible for employment. Its really that simple, you may have a paper certificate but if not in that database, the certificate is invalid if it is not current. You may have been lucky so far and that no one has checked, but its only going to take one curious parent, administrator, or fellow teacher to find out your not certified. You could be dismissed immediately and possibly face criminal or civil penalties. Technically, its like practicing law or any other profession without a license.

If your certification has lapsed, for what ever reason, according to my understanding you will be required to reapply for a new certification, under the current requirements. if those requirements are substantially differnet then when you were first certified, you may not be able to simply apply, but may be required to take additional coursework, etc.

Sadly, one of our teachers that we hired for at Bangkok, was because a canadian teacher had failed to pay her registration fee several years ago and was no longer certified, she needed to complete some remedial work, but there was no temporary license she could get in the mean time. We had to dismiss her over the winter holiday break, and rehire her as a relief (substitute) teacher. Same job, much less money and fewer benefits.

It was the previous thread regarding the BC teaching certification that influenced me to check our faculty's credentials, in addition to the case above three other teachers were found with invalid/expired credentials. two of them were able to just renew them, after paying a fee and submitting some documentation. The other had to apply for a temporary/provisional permit, while he completed 80 hours of continuing education coursework through an online community college.

Actually its a good question. Go to the BCCT website and see whether your certification actually expired or simply the right to teach in BC is gone. You can enter your certificate number and check your status. I think its probably the first, especially with the new rules that have been enacted, including a hike in the fee ( I know its a minor hike but still for the services we get get I find it irritating).

Technically, if you do not have an active, current certification from somewhere, you are not a certified teacher (you are a formerly certified teacher I guess) and some school or government is going to call you on that sometime.

In FL (and most US states I'd imagine), your certificate is good for 5 years and has an end date right on the certificate and I always assumed employers would care about that. AND I still almost screwed up by thinking I had another year left this year. Luckily I made the late renewal period or I would have had to re-take subject area tests etc.

Anyone know of a state that still offers a "lifetime" or permanent certification?

PsyGuy,
I only know of Alaska. However, I think you must retire from the states to apply for it.

According to the Alaska department of education they do have a lifetime certificate, and you must be retired to qualify, but it only allows you to substitute teach for no longer then 20 days. Not much of a certificate, in my opinion.

http://www.eed.state.ak.us/teachercerti ... ation.html

Did you ever stop to think that if you don't have an active license bc you are not currently registered, that technically, you don't have a license that works? If it doesn't work, then obviously, you can't teach?! After all, you are a teacher wherever you go.

Android, I'm not really sure I understand your statement..it seems to contradict?

Anyway, I've asked a lot of the teachers at my school here and all of them said they don't pay dues to the membership back in Canada; and why would they pay for something that they aren't benefiting from? This makes sense to me. Other teachers (not from Canada) laughed at the notion that your teaching certificate can 'expire'. You went to school; you earned it. It's a certificate that says you're qualified to teach.

What's the difference between a piece of paper whose membership is paid up yearly, vs someone's whose isn't? I certainly don't see a difference. They can't 'take away' your licence (unless of course you do something really stupid that warrants a licence suspension).

After contacting the ministry of education in BC they told me that any foreign school just wants to know if you ever had your licence canceled or withdrawn due to disciplinary reasons and that they shouldn't care if it's currently 'active' or not. Regardless, we'll reapply anyway, just to be safe.

Just for others who were interested to know.