Teacher candidates must apply one year in advance of the semester in which they are planning to complete their clinical or student teaching experience. 

Pre-Student Teaching Clinical Application

After attending a CEST information session, teacher candidates must complete an online clinical application. Teacher candidates in academic programs which require multiple clinicals only need to attend one CEST Clinical Information Session, but must submit an online clinical application for each clinical experience.

To help Northeastern Illinois University teacher candidates better understand their role and responsibility as a mandated reporter, the College of Education requires all teacher candidates to complete the online Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Mandated Reporter Training as part of their clinical application. Candidates will receive instructions on how to complete this online training with their clinical application materials.

All teacher candidates must also successfully complete the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Field Experience Registration. Candidates will receive detailed instructions for how to complete this process the semester prior to their clinical experience.

Student Teaching Application

Teacher candidates must complete and submit an online student teaching application one year in advance of the semester in which they plan to complete their student teaching. All teacher candidates are required to attend a CEST Student Teaching Information Session where they will receive information on the student teaching application as well as instructions for how to prepare their application materials.

In addition to completing a student teaching application, all NEIU student teachers are required to complete a CPS Student Teaching Application. Student teaching applicants will receive detailed instructions for how to complete the CPS Student Teaching Application the semester prior to their student teaching experience.