New York State Education Department Bureau of Business and Distributive Education Application Files for Registration of Private…

Chronological by time period; thereunder alphabetical by name of school, then in reverse chronological order. Note: Chronological cutoffs are not absolute.

The authority for registering private business schools was contained in the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. When codified in 1942, Section 197 (renumbered as Part 127 in 1970) established facility, equipment, faculty, financial, and curriculum requirements for registration and annual reregistration of these schools. All new teachers at a school must also be approved by the Department under the same section. Until 1937 the work of registering these schools was carried out by a supervisor in commercial education under the Assistant Commissioner for Secondary Education. That year the Bureau of Business Education was established in the Division of Vocational Education. In 1950, it was renamed Bureau of Business and Distributive Education, and in 1963 was transferred to the Division of General Occupational Education I.

This series contains records relating to the registration and annual reregistration of private business schools and approval of teachers employed by these schools.

The files for each school contain: requests for approval to teach in a private registered business school, giving educational, teaching, and employment history of teacher, salary, and current teaching responsibilities; teachers' transcripts; application for registration of a business school; field reports of visits to schools, giving a narrative description of the school's history, facilities and equipment, enrollment, tuition rates, faculty, graduation requirements, and recommendation of visitor regarding registration; memoranda and correspondence regarding approval or denial of registration; copies of school catalogs and other advertising publications; and occasional blueprints of school facilities in file for initial registration.

At the end of the series are files for schools formerly registered, but subsequently denied or not requesting registration.

Restricted access: College transcripts must be removed before research use due to provisions of the Personal Privacy Protection Act.