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Texas Advanced Certificate in Special Education (Early Childhood-12)

(15 hours – excluding requisites)

The special education certificate program is designed with three options available to the candidate:

  1. Texas-certified teachers can fulfill requirements leading to special education certification through the prescribed courses and by taking the state certification exam.

  2. Degree-seeking students can apply the courses to the following degree tracks: MED in Special Education, MED in Special Education with Educational Diagnostician Specialization

  3. Texas-certified teachers may fulfill the requirements for the specialization of teaching children with learning differences in inclusion settings without seeking special education certification.

The special education courses provide academic and professional training for candidates seeking one of these three options. To be considered a highly-qualified special education teacher, one must possess a content area certification: EC-6, English language arts, reading, math, science, or history, and special education certification.

Once admitted to the University, students seeking Texas certification need to complete the criteria to become officially accepted and admitted to the Dorothy M. Bush College of Education Educator Preparation Program (EPP). Prior to applying to the Educator Preparation Program, a degree plan must be selected by the candidate and a College of Education program director/advisor. The College of Education faculty and staff are dedicated to helping you achieve academic success and assisting you in achieving your educational goals.

REQUIRED COURSES (excluding requisites)

course

SPED 5310 - Introduction to Exceptional Learners
SPED 5330 - Legal, Procedural, and Program Practices in Special Education
SPED 5334 - Studies in Diagnosing and Clinical Correction of Reading Difficulties (S-L)
SPED 5350 - Educating Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities
SPED 6360 - Supervision of Special Education Instruction

In addition, it is recommended that students take the DBU computer-based TExES preparation course SPED 6010 to prepare for the state certification exam.

International students must provide a TOEFL exam score of 213 (computer-based), 550 (paper-based), or 79 (Internet-based) in order to take the special education concentration. If there is no prior special education teaching experience, international students must take SPED 6360 Supervision of Special Education Instruction to gain classroom experience to qualify for the Advanced Certificate in Special Education (EC-6) from DBU.

(S-L)=Course(s) with field-based service-learning component.

Refer to individual course descriptions for course requisites.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Find course descriptions by category under the Graduate Course Descriptions section in the navigation panel.