Forms-Initial VA Teaching License:

Information and Application Forms for Virginia Initial Licensure

Because you have completed or soon will be completing one of Virginia Tech's Approved Teacher Education Programs, you are eligible to apply for teacher licensure in the State of Virginia. I encourage you to do so. You should begin the process described below during the semester in which your student teaching/internship occurs. The steps listed below will guide you through the process of application. Normally someone from the Center for Teacher Education will visit your class or your professor will distribute the appropriate forms.

1. Complete Form DOA 034, Application for Initial Virginia Teaching License. Use your permanent mailing address. Print your name as you wish it to appear on your license. List the colleges from which you have (or will) received degrees. Also list any college(s) where you have taken courses that you are using to fulfill discipline specific content requirements. Only teaching under a contract counts as teaching experience; substitute teaching does not. Submit to Office of Academic Programs, 106 War Memorial Hall (0313). Do not forget to sign the form.

2. Complete the Request for Teaching Endorsement form. Please complete, sign and date it. This states the teaching area and any other possible endorsements you may be able to add (we will review your transcript to determine whether you meet requirements for additional endorsements you request). Submit to Office of Academic Programs, 106 War Memorial Hall (0313).

3. Submit a $50 non-refundable fee if you are an in-state resident or a $75 non-refundable fee if you are an out-of-state resident. Make checks and money orders payable to the VA Department of Education. Certified checks, cashier's checks or money orders are preferred.

Personal checks also will be accepted. If you use a personal check and it is returned by the bank, a charge of $25 will be assessed and you, as well as the employing school division, will be notified of the returned check immediately. Your license file in Richmond will be flagged, noting that a $25 charge for the returned check will need to be submitted in the form of a money order, cashier's check, or certified check.

This fee and accompanying procedures are determined by the State Board of Education. You should wait to submit this fee until approximately one month before you finish your program. Submit to Office of Academic Programs, 106 War Memorial Hall (0313).

4. Order an official (seal affixed) transcript from Virginia Tech. It must be ordered from the Registrar's Office, 248 Burruss Hall. A request form is available in the Center office and one will be given to you when you fill out the application for a license. Make sure the box is checked requesting the Registrar to hold the transcript until grades for all semesters prior to graduation and the degree completion statement are on the transcript. List the semester in which you expect to graduate.

If you have previously completed your degree and are now completing coursework just for licensure, do not check the box to hold for degree completion statement. Instead, indicate the semester in which you will complete all licensure requirements and request that the transcript be held until the end of that semester.

5. If you are a transfer or graduate student and did all or some of your undergraduate or graduate work at another college or university, you must request a transcript from those colleges or universities. Occasionally, students also have taken courses at community colleges to fulfill discipline specific requirements for licensure and have not transferred those courses to Virginia Tech because they were not meeting degree requirements. If so, do not forget to request transcripts from those colleges. (If you transferred such courses to Virginia Tech, those courses will appear on your VT transcript and, therefore, a transcript from the other college is not needed.) Transcripts should be sent to the Office of Academic Programs, 108 War Memorial Hall (0313), Blacksburg, VA 24061.

6. Passing scores for Praxis II (if applicable) must be in the Office of Academic Programs prior to the time the Center sends the application to the Virginia Department of Education.

When all of the above materials have been collected, the office will complete the application package and forward it to the Virginia Department of Education. You can expect to receive a license from the Virginia Department of Education approximately four to six weeks after the materials have been sent from the Center.

Rev. 10/02