Advanced Certificate in Special Education (EC-12)

(15 hours – excluding prerequisites)

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 according to the national standards from the Council for Exceptional Children, one must possess a content area certification: EC-6, English language arts, reading, math, science, or history, and special education certification.

REQUIRED COURSES (excluding prerequisites)

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.