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Teacher Certification

Fingerprinting

New York State law requires that the Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability conduct fingerprint-supported criminal history background checks for applicants for certification and all prospective employees of school districts, charter schools, and BOCES.

Note: Set up your TEACH account prior to getting fingerprinted so that your fingerprint clearance has a place to get reported to! Fingerprint clearance is required for fieldwork and student teaching placements.

Campus-Specific Instructions

Westchester Students
New York City Students

Westchester Students

Set up your (do this first) and get FINGERPRINTED IMMEDIATELY. All teacher candidates must be fingerprinted before going into public schools. This is your responsibility to take care of as soon as you鈥檙e admitted to the SOE.

NYSED only accepts fingerprint clearance from .

  • Click on 鈥淕ET FINGERPRINTED鈥
  • Search for the closest location by zip code
  • You must pre-register. You cannot just show up.
  • You will be asked for a fingerprint code: 14ZGQT

Note: If you have been previously fingerprinted by any agency/police department/company other than the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE) or the NY State Education Department, NYSED is legally unable to use those fingerprint results to verify your security clearance.

New York City Students

All teacher candidates must have a TEACH account and be fingerprinted before going into public schools.

This is your responsibility to take care of as soon as you鈥檙e admitted to the SOE.

Step #1: Create A Teach Account

Set up your before getting fingerprinted so that your fingerprint clearance has a place to get reported to! Teach is a service developed by New York State to maintain and record all of your information needed for teaching certification. It鈥檚 your portal of communication with NYSED.

Step #2: Start The Pets Process

You must be entered in PETS (Personnel Eligibility Tracking System) before you are fingerprinted.

Email the NYC Director of School Partnerships, Jill Weinberg at: jweinberg@pace.edu to schedule an appointment (a Zoom or a phone call is fine) so she can add you into PETS as a Pace fieldwork student/student teacher. You will need to provide your social security number, so please have that ready.

Step #3: Complete Applicant Gateway Forms and Get Fingerprinted

Once you are added into the PETS roster, you will receive an email from PETSAdminsupport@schools.nyc.gov within 24 hours. Please look for this email and check your spam folder. You should be checking the same email address that was entered into PETS. This email will direct you to the Applicant Gateway and will include specific instructions you must follow within ten (10) days. Please complete all the required forms in Applicant Gateway. The Applicant Gateway will then prompt you to be fingerprinted by IdentoGO.

Documents required