Beginning January 1, 2002, the Office of Professional Licensure will cease the issuance and adding of all approval areas to an Arkansas teaching License.
Teachers wishing to add areas of approval to their license will need to have all requirements completed and their application and transcript reflecting the coursework to add that approval area into the Office of Professional Licensure by December 31, 2001. Approval application forms are available through the Office of Professional Licensure upon request.
An approval is giving a teacher permission to teach a subject they are not fully licensed to teach by virture of holding a standard teaching license in a related area and having completed the required hours of coursework in the approval area.
An example would be an English teacher requesting an approval to teach journalism, speech or drama. If that teacher has completed at least nine (9) hours of coursework in speech, they could add speech as an approval area. They could add drama with six (6) hours of drama courses and journalism with six (6) hours of journalism courses.
Questions regarding approval areas should be directed to Margaret Zollar, Pat Brandt, Loretta Davis, or Saundra Beasley at 501-682-4342.