[ST. PAUL, MN] -- At its meeting on November 13, 2020, the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board discussed the challenges that preparation providers continue to face in securing clinical experiences during the pandemic.   

The Board voted to grant additional flexibility for preparation providers to meet clinical experience requirements.  Specifically, the Board adopted resolutions to support the following teacher candidates completing licensure programs during the 2020-2021 academic year:

• Candidates completing programs with two levels of clinical experience
• Candidates completing programs with three levels of clinical experiences
• Academic and Behavioral Strategist candidates

PELSB strongly encourages preparation providers to review the resolutions in full.

Additionally, the Board granted approval for a discretionary variance from St. Catherine University for up to 50 hours of replacement experiences to count towards the 100 required field experience hours with the condition that there be no more than 15 hours of a single type of experience (e.g. video transcript analysis, case studies) and a recommendation to prioritize experiences that are most similar to field experiences.

Individuals may review all COVID-related variances and resolutions that have been approved to date in the updated COVID-19 Manual. 

Please contact michelle.sandler@state.mn.us with questions.