1721-R, Student Teachers and Internships Regulation

1. North Colonie teachers shall be considered eligible to serve as sponsors for student teachers provided they have:
   • A minimum of three years’ total teaching experience.
   • Tenure in this district.
   • The approval of their Building Principal and/or department chairman.
2. Student teachers may be placed in the North Colonie Central School District with the approval of the appropriate Building Principal and/or department chairperson or at the discretion of the Assistant Superintendent, provided there are eligible teachers in the desired field willing to serve as their sponsors.
   • Student teachers must be able to fulfill the requirements of their respective college with respect to the total amount of time spent as a student teacher.
     • A six-week assignment must be spent in an assignment at one level only.
     • An eight-week assignment may be divided to include not less than four weeks in grades 7-12, the balance in grades K-6.
3. The department supervisor shall check with the Principal(s) and the teacher(s) involved before assignments are completed.

Use of Student Teacher as a Substitute

When a student teacher is fully capable of handling his/her assigned class on his/her own, it makes little sense to hire a substitute if the cooperating teacher is absent. Thus, from time to time our schools have made use of student teachers as substitutes. These regulations are to provide uniform guidelines for such situations.

Prerequisites for use of a Student Teacher as a Substitute:

• College approval for such activity – contact the Assistant Superintendent
• Cooperating teacher indicates that student teacher is fully capable of handling the class
• Cooperating teacher’s absence is short-term (maximum of two days)
• Student teacher agrees to act as substitute.

It must be remembered that the student teacher’s work in the district is to be an educational experience. Therefore, it is essential that such substitute work be kept at a minimum so that the student gets full benefit of a supervised student teaching experience. Should it become apparent that the supervising teacher will be absent for an extended period of time early in the student teacher’s experience, provision should be made to assign the student to another teacher if possible.

If the student teacher is used as a short-term substitute, as herein described, there is to be no compensation attached to such activity. (Most of the cooperating colleges expressly prohibit any compensation to the student teacher for such work.)

In the event of a projected longer-term absence by the cooperating teacher, a substitute would ordinarily be hired, unless circumstances indicate that the interest of the students would be better served by the use of the student teacher as substitute. (Such might be the case where the student is at or near the end of his/her student teaching assignment and is deemed to be better able to handle the class than available substitutes.) Situations of this type should be reviewed with the Assistant Superintendent.

Note: Prior regulations, Placement Procedures for Student Teachers 4133(a) and Use of Student Teacher as Substitute, 4133(b)

8NYCRR §80-5.4

January 27, 1987
February 24, 1997
Amended: September 26, 2016