LDA Minnesota has recently secured a grant from the Office of Higher Education to develop an alternative teacher licensure program. LDA’s enterprise will focus on licensing Academic and Behavior Strategist (ABS) teachers. This is a newer licensure area for special education working with students who have mild to moderate needs in the areas of academics, behavior, social, emotional, communication, and functional performance including autism spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental cognitive disability (DCD), emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD), other health disorders (OHD), and specific learning disabilities (SLD).
The State of Minnesota recently passed laws allowing for Alternative Teacher Licensure programs that would not be mandated to align with institutions of higher education, which previously were the only licensing institutions. LDA will be among a small group of initial alternative licensure sites in the state.
Training highly qualified teachers for placement in schools aligns closely with our mission to ensure children, adults, families, and communities impacted by specific learning disabilities, attention deficits, and/or learning differences are equitably supported and empowered through assessment, intervention, education, advocacy, and outreach.
Updates on the development of this program and application to Minnesota’s Professional Educator Licensing & Standards Board (PELSB) will be shared as we progress through development of this new program. LDA’s plan is to launch the program with our first cohort of teacher candidates in September 2019.