The School of Education reserves the right to deny a placement, even if all items below have been submitted according to the instructions below.
Field Experience Hours are hours prior to student teaching. Students are required to read the information for each of the 4 steps provided below. ALL students will complete steps 1 , 2, and 3. Step 4 will only be completed by students who wish to be placed in one of the districts listed in that section. For more information on field experiences, please refer to the Field Experience Guide (link), and to the instructions provided on the field experience request forms.
Students will be required to check their FMU email address regularly as this will be what the Director of Field and Clinical Experiences (or their designee) will use should they need any additional information.
Step 1 – Criminal Background Check (SLED) Instructions (link)– Before you complete the SLED read ALL bullets for this step!!! Students who are unable to provide a “clear” (No Arrest Record) SLED Background Check will not be assigned a field experience placement. The student must work with the State Department of Education and/or SLED to provide a “clean” background check, or permission to move forward with field experience placements.
- To be completed by all students who are in a field experience course. PLEASE NOTE:
- Students may not submit a SLED report completed by an employer, school, etc.
- MUST be completed within 12 months of submission. If a student has completed a SLED for program acceptance, or the previous semester field experience, as long as that SLED is no more than 12 months old, you may resubmit it for field experience.
- The social security number is required (on the form to be completed it says that field is optional, but it is not optional for FMU’s SOE). Students will be required to submit a new SLED if the one submitted does not have the last five of the social security number.
- **For students who want a placement in a FSD3 school – FSD3 has requested to complete a background check for students who are requesting to complete field experience hours in that district. Students are to request a copy of the SLED report from FSD3 and upload it to the placement form.
Step 2– TB test – Students must submit negative TB test results with the application for their first field experience.
Step 3 – Complete the application emailed to students registered for field experience course(s). The application will be emailed to the student’s FMU email address. If you are in a field experience course and do not receive an email with instructions on how to complete the field experience request from, please reach out to your field experience course professor. This will help ensure all who are supposed to get the email receive it. You will be required to submit the SLED (step 1) and TB results (step 2) with this application.
Step 4 – Additional Paperwork (link) – Some districts require additional paperwork to be completed before a field experience placement will be issued. IF you are requesting to be placed in any of the following School Districts, you MUST complete the additional paperwork in accordance with the instructions provided by that district and attach it to your placement request form:
Darlington County School District
Florence County School District 3
Horry County School District
Marion County School District
Sumter County School District
PLEASE NOTE– If you are requesting a field experience placement in one of the above counties, and you do not provide the additional paperwork with your submitted placement request, a field experience placement will not be requested at that district for you. Also, should additional paperwork be requested by other districts not listed above, the Director of Field and Clinical Experience (or designee) will contact any student(s) this applies to via their FMU email address.