American Board requires that all certification candidates submit to a criminal background check and provide official college or university transcripts. Candidates who received their degree outside the United States agree to have a course-by-course evaluation performed to obtain a statement of equivalency. Please direct background or teaching credential questions to our certification counselors by calling 1-866-445-5258.

Submitting false information or omitting pertinent or material information in connection with your application is grounds for certification revocation or denial.

By submitting this application, you are certifying that the following statements are true:

• I have earned a Bachelor's degree or higher or will earn a Bachelor's degree in the next 6 months.
• I have never been convicted of any felony, misdemeanor, or military offense.
• There are no felony (or similar) criminal charges pending against me.
• I have never had a teaching credential, license, or permit suspended, revoked, or voided due to misconduct.
• I fully understand and will comply with the regulations set forth in the Candidate Handbook.
• I fully understand and will comply with the requirements for certification in my chosen state and/or subject.

If a candidate is unable to complete the program or obtain certification for any reason identified through their background check or violation of the handbook, the candidate is not entitled to a refund of any fees paid.

Refund Policy

American Board understands that a candidate may wish to end their pursuit of teacher certification.

American Board policy allows a full refund of the program fee if the Refund Request Form is requested within 7 days of payment and the completed form is received by American Board within 10 days of payment.

Forms submitted 11–30 days after initial payment qualify for a refund of 80% of the original program fee. After 30 days, no refunds can be granted for any reason.

To receive your refund, you must complete the Refund Request Form in its entirety. Responses will be kept confidential. American Board will maintain a record of this form for its files and recommends that you do the same. Please allow two weeks for your refund to be processed.

Privacy Policy:

American Board is committed to respecting the privacy of all candidates and donors. Personal information collected by American Board will be used to operate and provide services or to carry out transactions that candidates request or authorize. This information is collected, stored, and processed on servers located in the United States. Candidate payment information is processed on secure servers and encrypted.

American Board will not sell or rent any candidate's personally identifiable information to third parties. American Board will not share any candidate's personally identifiable information with third parties except in limited circumstances. These third parties are limited by law or by contract from using the information for secondary purposes beyond the purposes for which the information is shared. The circumstances under which candidates' personally identifiable information may be shared are:

• We share information with companies that help us process the transactions you request and aid us in protecting your transactions from fraud, such as sharing your credit card number with a service that screens for lost and stolen credit card numbers.
• We may use any information voluntarily provided by candidates through email correspondence for marketing and outreach purposes.
• We disclose information that we believe is in good faith believe is appropriate to cooperate with investigations of fraud or other illegal activity.
• We disclose information in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, levy, attachment, order for a court-appointed receiver, or other comparable or administrative legal processes, including subpoenas from private parties in a civil action.
• We disclose personally identifiable information directly to state departments of education, or their designated third party, in order to comply with score, licensing, and/or demographic requests as required by state and federal law.
• We may communicate with candidates’ state department of education, employing school, or potential employer at any time regarding candidates’ performance in the program.
• By submitting documents or other original materials to American Board for review, including materials submitted as part of an internal audit, the candidate assigns to American Board all right, title, and interest in the submitted materials, including applicable intellectual property rights. American Board may retain, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, distribute, incorporate, or otherwise use submitted materials for program administration, training, research, quality assurance, program development, educational resources, marketing, or other organizational purposes without additional permission or compensation to the candidate.
• We share aggregated statistical data for research and public relations. For example, we may disclose that a specific percentage of our candidates live in Florida; however, this aggregated information is not tied to personally identifiable information.

Background Check:

Background checks are run by First Advantage. If the background investigation vendor is unable to complete an investigation of your criminal history, American Board will then require you to complete an FBI background check. FBI criminal background check results must be sent directly to American Board from the FBI for review. These background reports may be obtained at any time after receipt of your authorization.

The information that may be included in your report includes: Social Security number trace, criminal records checks, public court records checks, driving records checks, and licensing and certification checks. The information contained in the report will be obtained from private and/or public record sources. You have the right, upon written request made within a reasonable time after receipt of this notice, to request disclosure of the nature and scope of any investigative consumer report.

I hereby authorize American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) to procure the release of any and all information pertaining to me in a First Advantage consumer report and/or investigative consumer report on me as defined under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

I Understand