Hiring Policy
Emergency License(s) Availability: Vermont allows teachers who have not met licensure requirements to teach under a provisional license if local superintendents cannot find a qualified applicant for a position. Applicants must either be licensed in another state, possess an expired Vermont teaching license, have a major in their teaching field or have passed a content assessment in their teaching field.
The state also allows superintendents who cannot find a qualified applicant for a teaching position to apply for an emergency license for an individual who holds a bachelor's degree.
Emergency License Validity Period: Vermont's provisional license is valid for two years. The state's emergency license is valid for one year and is not renewable.
Ensure that all teachers pass required subject-matter licensing tests before they enter the classroom.
All students are entitled to teachers who know the subject matter they are
teaching. Permitting individuals who have not yet passed state licensing tests
to teach neglects the needs of students, because it enables adults who may not be able to meet minimal state standards to earn teaching licenses. Vermont should ensure that all teachers are required to pass licensing tests — an
important minimum benchmark for entering the profession —before entering the
classroom as the teacher of record.
Limit exceptions to one year.
Although suboptimal, there may be limited and exceptional circumstances under which
conditional or emergency licenses are necessary. In these instances, it is
reasonable for a state to give teachers up to one year to pass required
licensing tests. Vermont's current policy puts students at risk by allowing teachers to teach on a provisional license for two years without passing required licensing tests.
Vermont recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
6B: Provisional and Emergency Licensure
Teachers who have not passed content licensing tests place students at risk. While states may need a regulatory basis for filling classroom positions with a few people who do not hold full teaching credentials, many of the regulations permitting this put the instructional needs of children at risk, often year after year.[1] For example, schools can make liberal use of provisional certificates or waivers provided by the state if they fill classroom positions with instructors who have completed a teacher preparation program but have not passed their state licensing tests. These allowances are permitted for up to three years in some states. The unfortunate consequence is that students' needs are neglected in an effort to extend personal consideration to adults who cannot meet minimum state standards.[2]
While some flexibility may be necessary because licensing tests are not always administered with the needed frequency, making provisional certificates and waivers available year after year could signal that the state does not put much value on its licensing standards or what they represent. States accordingly need to ensure that all persons given full charge of children's learning are required to pass the relevant licensing tests in their first year of teaching, ideally before they enter the classroom. Licensing tests are an important minimum benchmark in the profession, and states that allow teachers to postpone passing these tests are abandoning one of the basic responsibilities of licensure.