California teacher licensure for out-of-state applicants

Route

There are three routes that out-of-state-prepared teachers may use to qualify for the California Single Subject Teaching Credential.

California is not an ITMC member state. Which route you fall into is not a preference — it follows from the evidence you hold.

Order of steps

When completing fingerprint cards, please submit your direct online application first. After paying for your online application, you will receive a confirmation email that states your unique 10-digit "Stamp Number" at the top of the email. Write your Stamp Number on a cover letter and mail it with your completed fingerprint cards and $49 fingerprint processing fee (check or money order, payable to ‘CTC’) to the address listed below to ensure your fingerprints are paired with your online application.

Getting fingerprinted first — the intuitive order — produces cards with no Stamp Number that cannot be paired with an application.

Who qualifies

The preliminary credential is issued for a maximum of five years.

Leaflet CL-560C carries a printed revision date of May 2021.

Who qualifies

Examinations

This is why Californian applicants often have examination evidence available for a destination state’s test-exemption route.

Who qualifiesTo confirm with the agency

The Multiple Subject Teaching Credential authorizes the holder to teach all subjects in a self-contained classroom, such as the classrooms in most elementary schools, in grades preschool, K-12, or in classes organized primarily for adults.

What is unresolved: every receiving state we have researched asks whether the incoming certificate is “comparable” in subject and grade level. Texas’s Core Subjects is EC-6, Colorado’s Elementary Education is K-6, Florida’s is K-6. California’s is none of those — it is a setting authorisation. How a receiving state maps it is that state’s determination and no published text we have found resolves it.

Who qualifies

Individuals prepared outside of California who have less than two years of out-of-state full-time teaching experience (see Terms and Definitions) may qualify for a California teaching credential by documenting all of the following in their application packet:

The out-of-state credential does NOT have to be valid at the time of application, and a photocopy front and back is acceptable verification. Both are unusually forgiving.

Who qualifies

Letter from the out-of-state employer verifying at least two years of out-of-state full-time teaching experience accompanied by two satisfactory performance evaluations (see Terms and Definitions).

The performance evaluations are the part people cannot retrieve later. Request them before leaving the district.

Exemption

If all requirements for both the preliminary and the clear credential are met with the initial direct application submission, the individual will be issued the clear credential and not the preliminary.

This is the best outcome available in the California system and it is stated in a single sentence buried inside an accordion panel.

Exemption

Individuals applying for their initial California credential under this route are exempt from the basic skills requirement and all other credential requirements except fingerprint clearance.

The out-of-state credential accompanying the National Board certificate “does not have to be in the subject area of National Board Certification”. This is the strongest National Board provision found in any state in this project.

Who qualifies

An individual issued a professional level teaching credential by another state or U.S. territory with a middle school or departmentalized classroom teaching authorization that is not comparable and that does not list a comparable authorization may verify subject matter competence for the Single Subject Credential with a degree major or 32 semester units (or the equivalent in quarter units).

Thirty-two semester units is roughly a full academic year of study. It is the price of a grade-band or subject mismatch.

Who qualifies

Earn an authorization to teach English learners by one of the following methods:

A teacher whose home-state credential already carries a full English learner authorisation can submit a copy of it. Whether a particular state’s ESL or bilingual endorsement counts as “full” is not defined in this leaflet.

Exemption

Out-of-state prepared individuals who have earned a Clear California Education Specialist Credential and also earned professional level certification from another state in a general education single subject area may apply for the Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential without first obtaining a preliminary credential, provided they have met the California English learner requirement.

Relevant to the many special education teachers who also hold a subject credential — a combination New York’s July 2021 rule actively produces.

Teaching meanwhile

If the subject matter course work has not been completed, a preliminary credential will be issued but the applicant will be required to meet California subject-matter requirements (see Terms and Definitions) before the clear credential will be issued.

CL-560 (Single Subject, prepared out of state), Routes 1 and 2. Route 1 holders must also complete an induction programme and hold an English learner authorization before the clear credential.

What to gather

Official transcripts showing the conferral of a baccalaureate or higher degree from a regionally accredited college or university.

What to gather

A photocopy of the out-of-state credential is acceptable verification of this requirement (front and back as applicable).

Route 2 (two or more years of experience) also needs a letter from the out-of-state employer with two satisfactory performance evaluations — see Route 2.

Fee

mail it with your completed fingerprint cards and $49 fingerprint processing fee (check or money order, payable to 'CTC')

How long

Standard Timeframe*3-7 days (DOJ)10-12 weeks (DOJ)

The page adds: “The ‘Standard Timeframe’ noted above refers to DOJ’s processing of fingerprint forms once DOJ receives a form 41-LS or FD-258, but may be significantly longer. Please do not email the Commission within 30 days from the end of the above timeframe.” So the practical worst case is roughly four months before anyone will even discuss a delay.

Deadline

The preliminary credential is issued for a maximum of five years. … If requirements for the clear credential are not completed before the expiration of the preliminary, the holder will be unable to teach in California's public schools with that credential until those requirements are met and the document is renewed.

How it goes wrong

Individuals who have received fingerprint clearance through other agencies, employers, other states, or government agencies are not exempt from this process and must fingerprint for the Commission.

How it goes wrong

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is not able to process any out-of-state or out-of-country fingerprint submissions unless completed on the FD-258 cardstock provided by CTC. If the agency completing your fingerprints alters or changes the cardstock or type of paper used, DOJ will reject the submission and return your paperwork without processing.

A local police department or private fingerprinting service using its own stock costs the applicant the entire 10–12 week wait, twice.

How it goes wrong

If the subject(s) listed on the out-of-state credential is for middle school instruction only, a preliminary credential may be issued but the applicant will be required to meet California’s subject-matter requirement before the clear credential may be issued.

This catches Texas Mathematics 4-8, Florida Mathematics (5-9), New York Mathematics 5-9, New Jersey middle school 5-8 and Colorado Mathematics - Middle School (6-8) alike. Every middle-grades credential in this project lands on this sentence.

Not publishedNot published by the agency

Complete a Commission-approved Teacher Induction Program (see Terms and Definitions).

This is the single largest difference between the two routes and it turns on the two-year line. A teacher with 23 months of experience faces an induction programme a teacher with 24 months does not.

Not publishedNot published by the agencyTo confirm with the agency

ambiguous_confirm_with_state. No application-fee amount is published on this site for California. It is knowable only by starting a CTC Online application, which is exactly the point at which an applicant would want to know it.