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Office of Educator Licensure

The Department is Authorized to Reissue the Emergency License

In the Supplemental Budget, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department) has been authorized to be able to reissue the Emergency license.

Based on previous statutory language, the Department had to stop issuing the Emergency license as of December 12, 2021. We anticipate that following modifications to ELAR, individuals will be able to begin applying for this new Emergency license on Friday, May 27th.

The new Emergency license is similar but not exactly like the previous version of the Emergency license. For example, the new Emergency license will be valid for one calendar year from the date of issuance and can be extended twice so long as the individual is making progress towards obtaining a license. In addition, in order to obtain an Emergency license in a special education field or in English as a Second Language (ESL), the applicant will need to demonstrate that they have satisfied the subject matter knowledge requirements (see the enclosed attachments for the requirements for all Emergency licenses).

In addition, applicants seeking a vocational teacher Emergency license will now be able to obtain an Emergency license with education that is equivalent to the requirement of a Preliminary license. For example, under the old emergency license, someone seeking a license to be a Plumbing teacher was required to have a bachelor's degree despite the educational requirement for a Preliminary license of a high school diploma.

As referenced above, this new Emergency license can be extended up to two additional times so long as the individual is making progress towards obtaining a license. An example of a teacher demonstrating progress for their first extension would be:

Since obtaining the emergency license, the educator has completed an induction program provided by their school district and completed one of the following:

  • Passing the C&L test
  • Passing a required content test
  • Enrolling in an approved preparation program
  • Having completed coursework within an approved preparation program

Following the relaunch of the Emergency license, the Department will work on additional modifications to ELAR to accommodate this new extension process and develop the requirements to obtain an extension. We anticipate having the process to apply for an extension available in the summer.





Last Updated: May 18, 2022



 
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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