Student Teaching and Internship Placement Processing

Tempe Union High School District values our educational partnerships with colleges and universities.  Placing student teachers and interns in our high schools provides valuable educational experiences for these future members of the workforce.  It is equally important that our District provides students with a safe educational environment.  As educators, we must do all we can to ensure that individuals who are on our campuses do not present a safety risk.  TUHSD has a process for clearance of student teachers, interns, and students who are completing observations in District classrooms.  It is important that this process is completed before any student teacher or intern is cleared for placement in a TUHSD classroom.

Any college or university student who is on campus more than once to observe, intern, or student teach in a classroom must first be cleared by Human Resources.

Tempe Union High School District will place students from colleges and universities with a valid intergovernmental agreement that has been approved by the Governing Board. 

The District clearance process is applicable to all student teachers and interns from every area – speech pathologist, psychologist, guidance, athletic trainers, administrators, and all others.  No one should be on campus unless his or her name appears on your list of cleared student teachers and interns!

The following processing steps must be completed before any student teacher or intern is cleared to be on campus:  

• The college or university must provide the Assistant Principal for Academics on the campuses and the district Human Resources Department with written verification of the placement request, including number of hours required, beginning and ending dates, and other requirements.  (Typically this is done via email and the college/university works with the Assistant Principal for Academics on each campus, or with Human Resources.)  Individual students are not permitted to arrange placements.  Contact with the college or university placement advisor allows us to verify authenticity of the student’s request. We do not accept walk-ins requesting student teacher or intern applications, without verification from the college or university.
  
  
• Students who come to the campus to request placement should be redirected to their college/university advisor to formally request the placement. Human Resources does not provide the application form to student teachers, interns or observation students and the application is not available on the TUHSD website. It can only be obtained from the college or university as part of the official placement process.
  
  
• The placement request is emailed to the Assistant Principal for Academics on each campus for processing and approval of placement.
  
  
• Upon approval of the placement request, student teacher/intern completes the student teaching/intern application which is obtained from their college or university.  Human Resources does not provide copies of this application to students.
    
• The student teacher or intern submits the student teaching/intern application form to Human Resources, accompanied by a copy of his or her valid DPS fingerprint clearance card.
  
  
• Human Resources reviews each application and DPS card, and adds the student’s information to an Excel spreadsheet.  HR also checks our employee database to verify whether the student teacher or intern is a previous employee or volunteer.
  
  
• Periodically the list of student teachers and interns is sent to the college liaison by Human Resources. We ask them to verify that the only students who are on the list are planning to be on campus.
  
  
• The Assistant Principal for Academics receives regular periodic updates of the Excel spreadsheet as student teachers and interns are being added. Once the person is marked “Cleared by HR,” they are permitted to be on campus.
  
  
• Student teachers and interns must update their applications and obtain clearance once every school year. Clearance from the prior school year is not valid!