Contact:

Gail Ensher, 150 Huntington Hall, 315-443-9650, glensher@syr.edu

The Early Childhood Special Education program leads to certification in both general early childhood and early childhood special education, birth through grade 2.  This program reflects the most up-to-date thinking about teaching infants, young children, and primary-age children (with or without special needs). The primary goal of the program is to prepare teachers to work effectively with children of a variety of ages and cultural and linguistic abilities, and serve children who live in diverse family systems in a range of home, community, and educational settings. We seek to accomplish this through collaboration and teamwork among professionals of diverse disciplines and in partnership with the families we serve.

The ECSE program draws upon the expertise and scholarship of faculty members who are leaders in the fields of child and family studies, early childhood, special and elementary education, literacy, and other related professional disciplines, including neonatology, physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. The program has a long-standing history of providing training that infuses clinical practice with current research. As they study areas such as early assessment and intervention with infants, students work closely with faculty members who have extensive clinical experience.  Syracuse ECSE has developed close ties and strong relationships to community educators and other professionals who serve high-needs populations of young children and families.

The graduate program in ECSE admits students who have backgrounds or certification in childhood special education as well as qualified students entering the program from other fields.

It meets the academic requirements for both New York State early childhood birth-grade 2 and students with disabilities birth-grade 2 teaching certificates. We admit:

• students who have backgrounds or certification in one (but not both) of these areas (early childhood or children with disabilities);
• students who have certification in another teacher certification area;
• qualified students who do not have previous education coursework. Each student’s credentials are evaluated on an individual basis, but here are some general guidelines concerning the length of the course of study.

Each applicant will have undergraduate transcripts reviewed (we encourage this to take place before applying) for the liberal arts requirements listed below. Missing coursework does not need to be completed before applying and in most cases can be completed during graduate study.

A liberal arts major or concentration of at least 30 credits, of which at least 15 credits represent upper division courses;
A college writing course completed with a grade of B- or higher or an equivalent demonstration of writing competency, as judged by the program;
Two appropriate college-level mathematics courses, with grades averaging at least B- and neither grade below C.
Two appropriate natural science courses with laboratories, with grades averaging at least B- and neither grade below C; in some cases, appropriate non-laboratory science courses may be substituted, as judged by the program:

- A social science course other than psychology or history;

- A humanities course other than history or artistic expression;

- An artistic expression course or significant experience in one or more of the arts, as judged by the   program;

- A history course;

- A language other than English (which may be American Sign Language) through the first level of
college study. This requirement can also be met through the passing of a Level 3 course of a language in high school.

Those who have an active New York State initial certificate in childhood 1-6 or early childhood B-2 are considered as having met many of the requirements listed above. We do continue to review the writing, mathematics, and natural sciences requirement.