Anyone with a Masters in Spec Ed???

MANY years ago, I graduated with a BS in Elem Ed. I had a Prvisional Certificate. I subbed for about a year, because on Long Island there were no jobs at the time.

Then I took a job with much needed benefits in an unrelated field.

I am now thinking of going back to school for a Spec Ed Masters Degree.

I graduated almost 15 years ago. Do you think my credits for all of the core classes are still good, or will I need to re-take them? Back then, I took the LAST and ATSW, do they still have those, or is it another test?

I was looking into Touro, Dowling and LIU Brentwood. Where did you go?

I am not working now, so I would like to go in the day, is that an option, or are most programs in the evenings? If I went full tiime, how long would it take?

I would love to work in Early Intervention with an agency. How hard are those jobs to get?

Any feed back or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank You,
Tara

Message edited 1/10/2010 8:05:15 PM.

Re: Anyone with a Masters in Spec Ed???

The requirements are different now than 15 years ago. They no longer have a birth -12th grade license. Now it is early childhood (birth-grade 2) childhood (1st-6th) adolescent (5-9th) and high school. If you wanted to do early intervention, you would need to go back to get an early childhood license. However, to do early intervention in NYS, you need to be an approved provider from the state DOH. (it is not acceptable just to have your teaching license). For example, my brother did SEIT work for several years. He got a job in the NYCBOE and applied for his approved provider paperwork and was denied b/c he didn't have the acceptable number of years in early intervention since he only worked ages 3-5. If you haven't been doing so, I am not sure how you would get the approval.
I got my masters a while ago (before regs changed) in Hunter. My bro did his through Touro. There are several programs. . . however, I think a lot of them are during the evening to allow for people to have full time jobs as well. HTH!

Re: Anyone with a Masters in Spec Ed???

if you get your masters you will be able to teach. at this point your certification expired.

I got my masters in Students with Disabilities. I got it at adelphi. It took about 1 1/2 years doing the sunday program. I took 12 credits a semester (each semester was 16 weeks broken into 2 cycvles. so for 8 weeks you take 2 classes and then the other 8 weeks was 2 diff classes so I was able to do 12 in 1 semester)

Re: Anyone with a Masters in Spec Ed???

I have a Master of Science in Special Education with a concentration in emotional disturbance from Hofstra University. My program, though special ed, resulted in 2 certifications in both special eduation and elementary education. I have been permanently certified in both areas since 1998. My cert in special ed is not from birth but pre-k through 12 and pre-k-6 for the other.