Find the Perfect Path for Your Future as a Teacher
The Teacher Licensure programs at Fort Hays State University provide different routes for you to earn the credentials needed to become a licensed teacher. All of our programs have the education courses available online. In the undergraduate programs, Elementary Education, Early Childhood Unified, Business, History, Physical Education and Spanish are available entirely online. The other secondary areas have some of the coursework on campus.
Alternative programs that allow for working as a teacher while completing coursework for licensure are below. These are graduate level programs and require a bachelor’s degree, in addition to other specific requirements.
Options to Achieve Your Professional Teaching Goals
Routes to the Classroom Brochure
Traditional Programs
The traditional route requires completion of all major coursework, education coursework and a semester of student teaching prior to obtaining a teaching license. This is the only option for students seeking to become an early childhood unified teacher. Secondary programs listed below (6-12 and PreK-12) and Elementary Education (PreK-6) are available within the traditional route.
Alternative Licensure
PreK-12 and Secondary Transition to Teaching
The alternative licensure Transition to Teaching route requires the candidate to hold a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific subject area or have completed enough coursework to be equivalent to having a major in a content area. The candidate must be hired under contract in Kansas to teach the subject they qualify for to enter the program. The education classes are taken online while teaching. This is for middle school, secondary, and PreK-12 endorsement areas.
Elementary Education (PreK-6) Transition to Teaching
This pathway requires the candidate to hold a bachelor’s degree (any). After a semester of preliminary coursework, the candidate must be hired under contract in a Kansas classroom as an elementary education teacher. The coursework is taken online while teaching under a Limited Elementary Residency License (LERP). https://www.fhsu.edu/teachereducation/academic-programs/mse-k6
Special Education
Pathways to Special Education Licensure Flow Chart (PDF)
Licensure for Special Education usually requires completion of an initial teaching license program such as Elementary Education, English or Physical Education. FHSU also offers an alternative program for High Incidence Special Education and Low Incidence Special Education that does not require previous licensure, but does require the candidate to hold a bachelor’s degree (any), and a year of experience as a paraprofessional or long-term substitute. After a semester of preliminary coursework, the candidate will be able to obtain a Limited Residency License (LRL) while employed as a special education teacher. More information is available at https://sites.google.com/mail.fhsu.edu/special-education-programs
Additional Endorsements Added to a Teaching License
Graduate-level endorsements can be added to an existing Kansas teaching license through program completion and passing the relevant Praxis exam. https://www.fhsu.edu/aep/academic-programs/
Secondary content endorsements can be added to an existing Kansas teaching license through testing only. To see the tests Kansas requires, go to https://www.ets.org/praxis/ks/test-takers/plan-your-test/licensure.html
Coursework for Traditional Programs
The programs listed under the undergraduate column lead to an initial teaching license. The coursework under Professional Studies for Secondary Majors is required of all of the secondary education programs in the list. Graduate programs that do not require holding a teaching license before they can be completed are School Counselor, School Psychologist, Elementary Education, and the Limited Residency License route for High-Incidence Special Education.
Undergraduate
- Professional Studies for Secondary Majors (online)
- Agriculture
- Art
- Biology
- Business (online)
- Chemistry
- Early Childhood Unified (online)
- Earth and Space Science
- Elementary Education (online)
- Elementary Education with Special Education Minor (online)
- English Language Arts (online)
- Health (added endorsement only)
- History and Government(online)
- Mathematics
- Mathematics (grades 5-8)
- Music
- Physical Education
- Physics
- Spanish (online)
- Technology and Engineering Education
Graduate*
- Building Leadership (Principal)
- District Leadership (Superintendent)
- Driver Education
- Elementary Education
- English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
- Library Media Specialist
- Reading Specialist
- Secondary Education
- School Counselor (online and on campus)
- School Psychologist (online and on campus)
- Special Education
- High-Incidence Special Education (formerly Adaptive Special Education)
Includes mild intellectual disabilities, behavior disorders, autism, and learning disabilities - Low Incidence Special Education
- Gifted Education
- High-Incidence Special Education (formerly Adaptive Special Education)
*All are offered online unless noted.
