Adding Certification Fields

South Carolina educator certificates are issued in the following three categories:

  • Teaching Fields,

  • Service Fields, and

  • Leadership and Administrative Fields.

A certification field is defined as a content area or subject which may be issued on an educator credential and reflects an educator’s content and/or professional preparation. A list of Current Fields & Endorsements is available.

Exclusions and Limitations

Additional certification fields cannot be added to an Alternative Route certificate prior to advancing to a Professional certificate.

Additional certification fields cannot be added to a certificate issued in fields of Advance Fine Arts without completion of an approved educator preparation program.

If an educator is issued certification only for Montessori areas, the educator cannot add any areas without completion of additional MACTE programs (for adding more Montessori areas) or traditional educator preparation programs (for adding academic areas, such as Art and Math).

An educator seeking to add a service, leadership, or administrative field to an existing, valid South Carolina certificate may do so only by completing an approved preparation program at the master’s degree level or higher.

An educator certified only in the services fields of Library Media Specialist, School Counselor, or School Psychologist may add a teaching field only by successful completion of an approved program.

An educator certified only in the service field of Speech-Language Therapist may add the following teaching fields by coursework and/or exam as indicated below. All other classroom teaching fields must be added by completion of an approved program.

  • Special Education Fields (excluding Visual and Hearing Impairments)

  • English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) (not available to add by exam)

  • Literacy Teacher (not available to add by exam)

An educator seeking to add a new teaching field to an existing, South Carolina teaching certificate has several options for adding the new field, depending on the type of certificate the educator holds and the specific field to be added.

Methods for Adding Service, Leadership, or Administrative Fields

An educator seeking to Add a Service, Leadership, or Administrative Field to an existing, valid South Carolina certificate may do so only by completing an approved preparation program at the master’s degree level or higher and presenting qualifying subject area assessment scores. Leadership field add-on requirements also include experience criteria.

Methods for Adding a Teaching Field to a Teaching Certificate

An educator seeking to add a new teaching field to an existing, South Carolina teaching certificate has several options for adding the new field, depending on the type of certificate the educator holds and the specific field to be added.

  1. Approved Program

An educator may add a classroom teaching field to a current, valid Initial or Professional teaching certificate by successful completion of a state-approved teacher preparation program in the new field. The program must lead to certification in the state that has jurisdiction over the program and be completed at an institution that meets at least one of the following requirements specified in Regulation 43-51, Certification Requirements.

  • An institution that is accredited for general collegiate purposes by a regional accreditation association;

  • A South Carolina institution that has programs approved for teacher education by the SBE; or

  • An institution that has programs approved for teacher education by a national teacher education accrediting organization with which the SCDE has a partnership agreement or which the SCDE recognizes. 

       2. Coursework Requirements (Course-by-Course) and Exam

An educator may add a teaching field to a valid Initial or Professional certificate through successful completion of course-by-course requirements for the new teaching field as specified in the Guidelines and Requirements for Adding Certification Fields and Endorsements. 

       3. Exam

An educator may add designated certification fields to a current, valid Professional certificate by presenting a qualifying score on the subject area assessment adopted for certification purposes in the area by the SBE. Limitations and exclusions for adding a teaching field by method of exam are explained in detail in the Guidelines and Requirements for Adding Certification Fields and Endorsements and summarized in the Add-on Summary Chart.

Click this link for the South Carolina Department of Education