• Certification

Certification Information

All Hall County Public School teachers, school administrators, service personnel and paraprofessionals are required by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) to hold an appropriate certificate for their field, subject, grade level, or assignment. The GaPSC establishes regulations and procedures to evaluate the credentials of prospective teachers, as well as other professional employees in the schools, to ensure they meet specified preparation standards and requirements.

State certification provides a standardized base-level of professional knowledge and skills for the educators working in public schools. Like many other states, Georgia has adopted a combination of individualized requirements and some commonly used standards developed by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC). The GaPSC outlines the state certification system in rules and procedures for the Certification of Education Personnel. For information on eligibility, reciprocity, testing requirements, and applications, please visit the GaPSC website or contact the Commission directly at:

Georgia Professional Standards Commission
Certification Section
200 Piedmont Ave, Suite 1702
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-9032

Telephone: 1-800-869-7775
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Email: mail@gapsc.com

Or, review information on the GaPSC’s website: www.gapsc.com

Hall County Public Schools’ Certification office provides customer support with processing certification documents for new and current employees. All certification renewals and conversions of certificates are handled by the Hall County Certification office.

Certificate Upgrades

The GaPSC Certificate Upgrade Advisor, www.gapsc.com  can help educators find advanced degree programs closely aligned with their current fields of certification or find degree programs leading to a new field of certification while also earning a higher degree.

Instructions for Upgrading your Certificate Level

The process for applying for an upgrade is:

  1. Once you graduate, order an official transcript from your college. Make sure the degree is on the transcript as well as a graduation date. You may have the transcripts emailed to me through eScripts, Clearinghouse, etc.
  2.  Log into your PSC account and complete the Personal Affirmation questions.
  3.  When I receive the transcripts, I will process to PSC for you electronically.
  4.  After you receive an email from PSC, showing your certificate has upgraded. You must email a copy of the new certificate to Charlene.Young@hallco.org. She will process and send to payroll.

Renewal for current HCSD Employees

1) Those with professional certificates, who are employed, expiring 6/30/18 and beyond, must complete a Professional Learning Plan (PLP) or Professional Learning Goals (PLG) to renew, depending on the specific needs of the educator. This includes paraprofessionals.

2) Professional certificate holders who are not employed and whose certificate expiries 6/30/18 and beyond must complete six (6) semester hours of college credit, 10 approved Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or 10 Professional Learning Units (PLUs) to renew (or, the GACE content assessment can be retaken and passed for the field being renewed).

3) Employment is required to renew unless the educator has at least one (1) year of acceptable verified teaching experience in Georgia on their Professional certificate at any time in their career.

Paraprofessional Certification Information

All Georgia Paraprofessionals must hold a valid state license issued by the Professional Standards Commission.

Applicants for paraprofessional must: OR
1. Hold an associate degree or higher;
2. Have at least 60 semester hours or 90 quarter hours of acceptable college credit; OR
3. Have passed either the GACE Paraprofessional Assessment, www.gace.ets.org or Georgia Paraprofessional assessment (no longer available) or the Praxis