It is headed by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York (USNY) and administered by the Commissioner of Education.

[3][4][5][6] The general education and diploma requirement regulations (Part 100 Regulations, 8 NYCRR 100) require that every public school student be provided an opportunity to receive instruction in order to achieve the New York State Learning Standards.

The Board of Regents adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics and CCSS for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects on July 19, 2010, with the understanding that the state may add additional expectations.

[8][9][10][11][12] It incorporated New York-specific additions on January 10, 2011, creating the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS).

Students who decide not to study a foreign language may make up the regents credit by taking an appropriate number of business education, art, music, and technology classes.

The Regulations of the Commissioner of Education require that all public school students earn passing scores on State examinations in the areas of English, mathematics, United States history and government, science, and global history and geography to obtain a high school diploma.

On July 22, 2013 (and again at their October 21–22, 2013 meeting), the Board of Regents adopted regulations that established requirements to transition to the new Regents Examinations in English Language Arts (ELA) and in mathematics which measure the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS).

Each K-12 public school student is assigned a unique 10-digit identifier (NYSSIS)[22] which is captured in the SIRS database (NYS Student Information Repository System) for the purposes of data assessment in connection with state examinations and school report card analysis from state to the local level.

With much recent focus on school accountability, New York State Education Department published annual student report cards (data.nysed.gov) and uses a systematic approach to determining how tests and other assessment data can be reported by local schools and the communities they support.

(Information Only) and Civic Readiness (Informational Only) Indicator levels are calculated for the school and district as a whole and school and district subgroups, which include economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, English language learners, and racial and ethnic groups.

These professional development hours are decreased by a few percentage points for every year teaching in a non-public school.

Programs such as the New York City Teaching Fellows allow uncertified teachers to teach under a transitional license, provided that they have received a bachelor's degree, passed the LAST and the CST in their area, and are enrolled in a cooperating master's degree program.