Students: Signing Up for Your Clinical Experiences

Please read the information on this page before signing up for your clinical experiences. If you run into any issues, please email sonia-placements@charlotte.edu. We hope you have a wonderful field experience!

See information pertaining to Local Partners and DE/Employed placements below:

Local Partners:

You will sign up for your clinical sites in the Sonia Student Placement system. This Clinical Sign-Up Instructional Guide contains a step-by-step walkthrough of the process. Remember, you can sign up for two clinical placements. If you need to be removed from a placement that you signed up for, please email sonia-placements@charlotte.edu.

The Sonia Portal will open on August 25th at 8 am. When it opens, you can sign up for clinicals here.

IMPORTANT: Please see additional notes for specific districts. Neglecting these steps could delay the process or prohibit you from completing your clinical hours in these districts.

  1. The Office of School & Community Partnerships arranges clinicals in the following counties: Cabarrus, Catawba, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell-Statesville, Kannapolis, Lincoln, Rowan-Salisbury, Stanly, and Union Counties.
    • If you book a school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), you MUST register as a volunteer. On the CMS website (www.cms.k12.nc.us) under the “Community” tab, click “Volunteer” then “Volunteering in CMS.” Students not registered as volunteers will not be permitted to enter the classrooms. IMPORTANT: Please select the school(s) you signed up to visit so that your name appears on the school’s approved list.
    • If you would like to book a school in Cabarrus County Schools, all students are required to complete the clearance process through the district’s Human Resource Department. Please complete the Clinical Observation Student Teachers application. The application can be found at https://cabarrus.schoolspring.com/ (note: students do not need to upload letters of reference, just provide names of references)
    • If you book a school in Lincoln County Schools, when contacting Rachel Frye at rachel.frye@lincoln.k12.nc.us, please indicate if your time in the school will total more than 20 hours.
    • If you booked a school in the Mooresville Graded School District, all students are required to complete the clearance process through the district’s Human Resource Department. You will contact Dr. April Kuhn at aprilkuhn@mgsd.k12.nc.us.
  2. The contact person in all other districts (not listed above) may be emailed once the clinical portal opens. Instructions to locate this person’s contact information can be found in the step-by-step guide at the top of this page.

Distance Education or Employed Teachers/TAs

  1. Students requesting placement in the following districts should email sonia-placements@charlotte.edu: Avery, Buncombe, Guilford, New Hanover, Randolph, Wake, and Winston-Salem Forsyth. When you email, please provide the following information: Preferred School and grade level/content, number of hours required for class and activities (e.g., 3 hours of observation).
  2. Distance education students requesting clinicals in all other counties not listed above should use the Employed or Distance Education Form.

After signing up:

  1. The confirmation page, provided when you register for your clinical site in Sonia, serves as permission to contact the selected school through the contact person listed. Email templates for establishing contact with your clinical site are provided on the Field Experience Resource Hub.
  2. Please print your confirmation page for your reference and bring it to the school.
  3. Take your driver’s license or government-issued photo ID when you travel to your clinical site.
  4. Search online for directions to your school site(s). Please do not call the school for directions.
  5. Dress professionally. Some schools have turned students away when they arrived in typical campus attire. Please refer to our “Professional Dress Code” policy in the Field Experience Resource Hub.

For questions or issues regarding clinical sign-up, please email sonia-placements@charlotte.edu. Thank you.