All universities are required by the Board of Regents (BoR) and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to redesign their Special Education Programs to address new state certification requirements, state/national content standards, state/national teacher standards, PRAXIS expectations, and NCATE requirements. Once programs have been redesigned, state and national evaluators will carefully examine all programs to ensure that they meet standards for quality. The review process will examine universities' plans to recruit and select strong teacher candidates, prepare high quality teachers, and support the retention of program completers as they move into new positions. Across all activities, the evaluators will look for research-based practices that have strong quantitative and qualitative support. The goal of the evaluators will be to support the efforts of the Board of Regents (BoR), Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), and the universities to increase the availability of well-prepared and effective educators for the PK-16+ system of education that Louisiana is developing. These coordinated efforts are ultimately designed to improve the achievement of students in all schools. The evaluators will review redesign proposals, interview university/district teams, provide feedback to universities regarding their proposals, and make recommendations to university system boards, the Board of Regents, and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education relative to acceptance of the redesigned plans. The evaluators ask that universities follow the structure contained in this document when submitting redesigned plans to facilitate an efficient, consistent, and clear process. The structure is described in detail in this document. The following are appended: (1) Certification Structure: Special Education Mild/Moderate Undergraduate Blended Program for Grades 1-5, Grades 4-8, Grades 6-12; (2) Early Interventionist Undergraduate Degree Program Certification Structure; (3) Master's Degree Alternate Programs for Special Education; (4) Non-Master's/Certification-Only Alternate Programs for Special Education Areas Areas; (5) Certification Add-on Policy for Special Education Areas; (6) Web Sites for Information Pertaining to National Standards; (7) Louisiana Components of Effective Teaching and Comments from the External Evaluators; (8) Competencies: Mild/Moderate Disabilities; (9) Competencies: Early Intervention; (10) Competencies: Significant Disabilities; (11) Competencies: Deaf/Hard of Hearing; and (12) Competencies: Visual Impairments/Blind.