Professional Development Policies

Guilford County Schools' "No Show" Policy

Employees, who register for GCS approved courses and fail to un-register for any "credit" or "non-credit" course prior to the start date, will be marked as a "No Show" participant. Any registrant identified as a "No Show" participant for two or more courses during a 12-month period will be blocked from registering for GCS courses for six (6) months. Employees may attend courses at their school, as required by the principal, but will not be allowed to enroll in a GCS approved course or receive renewal credit in GCS until the 6-month penalty period has expired.

In the event of an emergency participants may email or call The Office of Professional Development on the day of the workshop and ask to be unregistered. Once the course has begun participants may not unregister and will be identified as a "No Show".

Professional Development will not un-register participant's after the course start date.

Click here for directions on how to un-register

Professional Development Make Up Policy

GCS requires that participants complete a course during the school year in which the course was offered. Therefore, participants can only make up required time for courses offered this school year with a completion date between July 1, 2005-June 30, 2006.

GCS Course Registration Policy

1. Participants must register for approved GCS/site based courses. Any person who attends a course, but does not register before the last day of the course, will not receive CEU credit,

2. For security reasons, GCS no longer requires participants to provide their social security number when signing the attendance sheet. As a result, the only way renewal credit can be awarded to the correct person is for the participant to register online for the course they attend. Signed attendance sheets are matched to those who registered for the course. Participants who fail to register and sign rosters at each session will not receive credit.

• Renewal credit can be given only to participants who have registered.
• Renewal credit cannot be given to those who have not registered.
• participants have until the last day of the workshop to register.

3. CEU credit cannot be awarded for any course with less that 10 hours of instruction. CEUs are only granted for up to 6 hours of staff development per day.

4. Credit cannot be offered for instructors teaching a workshop, for leadership committee meetings, for accreditation committees or for workshops offered during planning periods.

5. Workshops must meet the following state standards:

• a minimum of ten (10) clock hours of direct training by an instructor.
• workshop meeting times must be a minimum of two (2) hours at a time. CEUs are only granted for up to 6 hours of staff development per day..
• for each 10 hours in a course, only one (1) of the 10 hours can be an outside assignment. Two(2) hours of homework assignments must be given to earn one hour of instructional credit.
• content and instructional activities designed in sequential manner to develop specified competencies of a specific population.
• must be led by qualified personnel and directly supervised by the sponsoring school unit.
• credit is granted on the basis of program completion and achievement of specified individual performance, which is determined by individual evaluation of specified competencies.
• no partial credit can be given to any workshop participant. Participants who miss more than 30 cumulative minutes of any workshop are not eligible for credit.
• participants must register for approved GCS/site based courses. Participants who attend, but do not register before the last day, will not receive CEU credit.
• For all-day workshops, a one-hour lunch break must be provided to all participants. It is not acceptable to cut the lunch break short in order to release participants early from the workshop.

6. Participants with scheduling conflicts with more than one course should only register for courses in which they can attend 100%. Participants cannot receive partial credit for most workshops. However, if a makeup session is made available, participants should contact the instructor providing the make up session.

7. Instructors are not eligible to receive renewal credit for teaching a course. They may only receive credit for taking a course.

8. Substitutes, tutors, or retired personnel (non-GCS employees) may register online for courses if space is available and receive a confirmation, but available seats will be given to GCS employees first. If course registration fills, the instructor may un-register non-GCS employees if additional seats are needed prior to the start date.

9. Site based make up policies are set by the schools. If a course is taught at a school the make-up policies are set by that school. However, instructors do not have time, and schools do not have funds to pay for providing "make up" sessions.

10. CEU credit cannot be awarded for any workshop with less than 10 hours of instruction. The maximum allowed per day is 6 hours of credit.

11. Participants cannot earn CEU credit for any one-day workshops.

12. Workshop instructors can only receive compensation if the workshop occurs after regular school hours or on a weekend.

13. Partial credit cannot be awarded for any course that is less than 10 hours. If the course is greater than 10 hours you must get prior approval from the instructor and the Office of Professional Development to award partial credit.

14. Completion of National Board Certification is the equivalent of 15 CEUs for one renewal cycle (including reading requirement). You can choose to use the CEUs for your current renewal cycle or “bank” them for the next renewal cycle. In order to receive credit, submit a copy of your congratulatory letter from NBPTS to the Staffing Department and indicate if you wish to use your credit for the current renewal cycle or the next cycle. You cannot use portions of the NBPTS CEU credit for the current renewal cycle and “bank” a portion for the next cycle.

15. Attending a school field trip with students does not qualify for CEU credit.

16. Book clubs do not qualify for Reading CEU credit .

Outside GCS Event Policy

1. Renewal credit can be awarded only for courses, workshops, seminars or activities that are directly related to an employee's area(s) of licensure and/or professional responsibilities. However, such responsibilities as serving on curriculum or accreditation committees, chairing departmental meetings, sponsoring student activities, attending certain conferences and clinics, and serving as presenters at workshops do not carry license renewal credit.

In addition, consistent with Guilford County Schools' desire to minimize disruptions to the instructional process, the Office of Professional Development will avoid approving renewal credit for activities that occur during student instructional time unless attendance by the employee at such activity carries the endorsement of the principal.

2. Prior approval is required for all renewal credit events that are offered by any entity other than the Guilford County Schools, including state/DPI sponsored events, colleges, universities, technical schools and community colleges. "Prior Approval" means that an employee desiring renewal credit for a particular event must request approval before the start date of the event. Employees are encouraged to request approval three (3) weeks before the event begins.

Requests submitted after the ending date of the event will not be approved. Prior approval is necessary to comply with state regulations, which require an LEA to determine the appropriateness of awarding renewal credit for a specific event in advance of the event. Prior approval also helps to avoid misunderstandings regarding qualifying events and reduces the possibility of an employee paying to enroll in an event for which renewal credit will not be awarded.