Pupil Services Professionals Have Licensing Options

By Joanne M. Haas
If you’re a pupil services professional wondering how the state’s new teacher preparation and licensing law will affect you when fully implemented, Laurie Derse says that’s for you to decide.

“It will affect you only as much as you want it to,” said Derse, the assistant director of the state’s Teacher Education, Professional Development and Licensing Team at the Department of Public Instruction, and one of the key players in the development of the three-tier licensing law known as PI 34.

Still in the implementation phase on nearly all levels, PI 34 emphasizes performance-based assessments and work with mentors and peer-review teams for license renewals. It replaces a system that has relied instead on earning college credits.

The law applies to pupil services professionals, administrators and teachers. Past OnWEAC In Print articles have focused on the impact of the law on teachers; this article examines how it affects pupil services professionals, including school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers and school nurses (although a district is not required by law to hire a registered nurse who holds a DPI school nurse license).

Just as with teachers, people who graduate after August 31, 2004, must follow the new requirements, and do not have the option of renewing their license through the traditional practice of earning six college credits. People currently in the profession can follow the new procedures or continue to renew their five-year license by meeting credit requirements, an option that remains appealing in districts that reward credits with pay hikes.

“The movement on the salary schedule will always be the influencing (factor),” said Ann Cattau, a counselor at Shattuck Middle School in Neenah and a key player in the development of PI 34. She stressed it is vital to remember PI 34 is “strictly license renewal and not part of the district’s evaluation plan” of staff.

Pupil services license renewal

Like a teacher, any pupil services professional who graduates after August 31, 2004, enters the profession with an Initial Educator license. The new employee has three to five years to fulfill a professional development plan based upon the seven standards defined in PI 34 and earn a Professional Educator license. (Teachers have 10 such standards, and the first of the seven for pupil services states the importance of being familiar with all the standards listed for teachers.)

A mentor is assigned to the Initial Educator-pupil services professional. The pupil services professional:

• Selects at least two of the seven pupil services standards.
• Maps out strategies for growth by developing a professional development plan.
• Has goals approved by a three-person team consisting of another pupil services professional, a college representative and an administrator appointed by the school board. That team reviews the plan and verifies its completion toward attaining a Professional Educator license. Derse said these teams likely will be created in collaboration between the district and the bargaining units.
  

In cases where the review team denies a license, the pupil services professional may appeal the decision to the DPI.

Ann Cattau

Laurie Derse

Once the Professional Educator license is earned, the pupil services professional moves ahead on a plan to renew the five-year license by crafting another PDP, which is verified by a three-member team of peers.

The new method “brings people together” versus the old way of completing college credits, said Cattau, who serves on the 19-member Professional Standards Council, which advises the state superintendent on licensing issues. “I can take six credits and nobody ever talks about it with me.”

Pilot being developed

Derse estimates the impact of PI 34 for pupil services professionals will be felt in the fall of 2005, since December graduation classes are typically smaller than those in May and June.

A pilot program addressing professional development plans for teachers is wrapping up its work (see the December OnWEAC in Print story). Derse said two more pilots are planned for this spring – one for pupil services professionals and the second for administrators.

Another key project under development would allow pupil services professionals who wish to renew their license using a PDP to do so under an extended pilot. “We hope to have a system in place so that the persons whose licenses expire in 2006-07 will have the opportunity to renew the license through a professional development plan,” Derse said.

Since the law only affects those graduating after August 31, 2004, Derse said school districts likely won’t have the structure in place to fully have the three-person teams ready to go until 2008. “That would be the first time for renewal,” she said.

But the goal is to encourage all pupil services professionals to try the PDP and the pilot project, which Derse said may involve some type of regional licensing centers.

Derse advises checking the DPI Web site (www.dpi.state.wi.us) for documents pertaining to mentor orientation and trainings, as well as other PI 34 licensing guidelines documents expected to be completed sometime in early summer.

Derse said the state and federal governments provide some funding for mentor training and professional development activities. However, she said, each district decides how it will fund implementation of PI 34.

A few key points

Beginning July 1, 2004, DPI will no longer offer clock hours for attendance at workshops, although clock hours earned prior to the cutoff can be cited for renewal.

“If you want to use workshop attendance, or some of the things you’ve done, you will have to put that into the PDP,” Cattau said.
Committee work – which was not recognized prior to PI 34 – can now be included in the PDP.

“Previously, people served on committees and were not given any credit for it. . . . Now (education professionals) can put them in professional development plans and . . . can get some kind of recognition toward licensure. So I think it will really encourage professionalism,” Cattau said.

Cattau noted that while teachers and pupil services professionals are treated the same under PI 34, a teacher comes into service with a bachelor’s degree while a pupil services professional comes into the system with a master’s degree. Both are considered Initial Educators and must follow the same relicensing procedures.

The same scenario plays out for the teacher or pupil services professional who opts to become an administrator. The professional enters the system as an administrator with an Initial Educator license, and proceeds according to the law.
“Anyone completing an initial program in the teacher, pupil service or administrator category, whether at the bachelor’s or master’s degree level, will be issued an Initial Educator license.”

Resource page on teacher licensing law

Posted February 10, 2004