What Are the Pre-K Teacher Requirements in Alabama?

To teach lead Pre-K in Alabama, you need four things: a bachelor’s degree in an approved early childhood field with at least 18 credit hours of early childhood coursework, passing scores on three state-required assessments, a cleared state and federal background check, and a Class B Professional Educator Certificate issued by the Alabama State Department of Education. The Pre-K teacher requirements in Alabama apply to lead teachers in the state’s First Class Pre-K program, and every step has to be documented before a district can put you in a classroom.

Degree and Coursework

Your bachelor’s degree has to come from a regionally accredited institution and fall within one of three accepted fields:

Early Childhood Education (B.S., B.A., or graduate degree), or a bachelor’s program leading to P-3 certification, with at least 18 credit hours in early childhood or child development coursework.
Human Environmental Science with a concentration in Early Childhood Development or Child Development. The concentration itself satisfies the coursework requirement.
Special Education focused on Early Childhood, or a bachelor’s program leading to Early Childhood Special Education certification, again with at least 18 credit hours in early childhood or child development coursework.¹

The program itself has to be a state-approved educator preparation program. GPA floors apply: 2.75 overall, 2.75 in your teaching field, and 2.75 in professional studies with no grade below a C in professional studies coursework.²

The Three Required Assessments

Alabama’s traditional certification route requires three separate exams. Candidates sometimes plan for two and are caught off guard by the third.

Praxis Early Childhood Education (5025)

This is a content-knowledge test covering the developmental and academic areas Pre-K through third-grade teachers work in. It’s administered by ETS, and you register on the Praxis site.³ Have your scores sent electronically to the Alabama State Department of Education so nothing gets held up on the paperwork end.

Foundations of Reading

Initial certification in Early Childhood Education P-3 requires a passing score on the Foundations of Reading test, which is test number 890 in the National Evaluation Series. Pearson Education administers it, the passing score is 190, and you register through Pearson’s Alabama testing portal, not through Praxis.⁴⁵

edTPA

The edTPA is the portfolio piece. Instead of multiple choice, you submit video of your own teaching along with written commentaries and student work samples. Alabama requires it for anyone completing a traditional Class B program as part of the Alabama Educator Certification Assessment Program.⁴ Most candidates build the portfolio during their student teaching semester, because the evidence has to come from a real classroom.

Student Teaching

Every state-approved preparation program embeds a full-time supervised internship, usually a full semester, with an experienced cooperating teacher. Part-time work and informal experience don’t count. Your institution’s certification officer verifies that you completed the internship, and that verification becomes part of the program recommendation the university sends to the state.²

Because the edTPA portfolio is built from this same semester, student teaching does double duty. A well-run internship gives you both the verified hours the state wants and the lesson artifacts and video the edTPA requires.

Background Check

Alabama law requires every applicant for an initial teaching certificate to pass a criminal history check through both the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI. This comes from the Alabama Child Protection Act of 1999, which covers public school employees and staff in nonpublic school settings.⁶

You start by creating an AIM account through the ALSDE, then register for fingerprinting, pay the fee, and schedule an appointment. The fee is approximately $46, payable by debit card, credit card, or PayPal at registration.⁷ Refusing to consent to the check disqualifies you from being hired.

Applying for the Class B Professional Educator Certificate

The Class B certificate is the entry-level credential for teachers who finish a traditional bachelor’s-level program. When your degree, testing, and background check are all in place, your university’s certification office submits a formal recommendation to the ALSDE for you. That institutional recommendation is required for the traditional route and confirms your program met state standards.

You submit the application itself through the ALSDE’s online system. Log in to your AIM account, use the ACE dashboard to pay and upload materials. The statutory application fee is $30, plus a transaction fee for online credit card payments, and all application fees are nonrefundable.⁸ Your packet needs official transcripts, proof of passing scores on all three assessments, and the university’s program recommendation.⁷

Keeping the Certificate Active

A Professional Educator Certificate is valid from its issue date through the end of that scholastic year, plus five more consecutive scholastic years. The clock starts the year it’s issued, not the year you first teach. To keep it active, you have to complete renewal requirements by June 30 of the expiration year.⁹

Any one of the following combinations will renew the certificate:

Three years of experience plus 50 clock hours of approved professional development
Three years of experience plus 3 semester hours of approved college credit
50 clock hours of professional development plus 3 semester hours of approved credit
6 semester hours of approved credit
100 clock hours of approved professional development
National Board Certification initially issued during the certificate’s valid period

Miss the June 30 deadline and you’re in reinstatement territory, which adds requirements. Track the expiration date.⁹

Alternative Route for Career Changers

If you already have a bachelor’s degree in something other than early childhood education, you don’t have to start over. The Alternative Class A pathway lets someone with a bachelor’s in any field earn initial teaching certification at the master’s level. Several Alabama universities offer Alternative A programs specifically in Early Childhood Education P-3, usually blending online coursework with face-to-face sessions and clinical classroom time.¹⁰

Eligibility generally requires a bachelor’s degree with at least a 2.5 GPA. You still take the same three assessments, clear the same background check, and complete supervised teaching. The credential you finish with is a Class A Professional Educator Certificate, which places you on a higher salary schedule from day one than a Class B.

Auxiliary (Assistant) Teacher Requirements

Not every First Class Pre-K role requires a bachelor’s degree. Each classroom is staffed with both a lead teacher and an auxiliary teacher, and the auxiliary bar is much lower:

A high school diploma or GED
A Child Development Associate credential, or at least 9 credit hours in Early Childhood Education or Child Development from a regionally accredited institution

The auxiliary role can be a practical way in while you’re finishing a bachelor’s degree. Time in that seat doesn’t substitute for the formal student teaching internship, but it does give you working familiarity with how the program runs.¹

Head Start Is a Separate System

Alabama has a large number of Head Start classrooms alongside First Class Pre-K, and the qualification rules are federal, not state. Head Start center-based teachers must hold at least an associate’s degree in child development, early childhood education, or equivalent coursework, and nationally the federal government requires that at least half of all Head Start preschool teachers hold a bachelor’s degree in one of those fields.¹¹ An Alabama Professional Educator Certificate in Early Childhood Education exceeds those federal minimums, so certified Pre-K teachers can work in either system.

1
Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education. Workforce Development – Early Childhood Education
2
Alabama State University. Class B Programs for Teaching Fields
3
ETS. Praxis Test – Early Childhood Education 5025
4
ETS. Alabama Overview
5
Pearson Education. Alabama Foundations of Reading Test
6
Justia Law. Alabama Code Title 16, Chapter 22A, Article 1 – Criminal History Background Information Checks
7
Alabama State Department of Education. Teacher Certification
8
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 16-23-4 – Fee of Applicant
9
Alabama Administrative Code. Alabama Code 290-3-2-.29 – Renewal Requirements: Continuation or Reinstatement
10
Jacksonville State University. Early Childhood Education Alt-A
11
eCFR. 45 CFR 1302.91 – Staff Qualifications and Competency Requirements