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 opens on August 25th at 8 am during the Fall semester and on January 20th at 8 am during the Spring semester. 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. You MUST complete the volunteer forms and any other required documents for each county before going to the school.
  2. If you sign up for a school in Union County Public Schools, complete the Volunteer form prior to beginning at the school
    • If you book a school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), you MUST register as a volunteer. https://www.cmsvolunteers.com/ IMPORTANT: Please select the school(s) you signed up to visit so that your name appears on the school’s approved list.
    • After you sign up in Sonia for a school in Cabarrus County Schools, all students are required to complete the clearance process through the district’s Human Resources Department. Please complete the Clinical Observation Student Teacher’s 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). Please contact Angie McClain (Angie.Mcclain@cabarrus.k12.nc.us) with any questions about the application.
    • 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 Resources Department. You will contact Rachel Bustle at abills4@charlotte.edu.
  3. The contact person in all other districts (not listed above) may be emailed once the clinical portal opens. Instructions for locating this person’s contact information are 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 any county not listed above should use the Employed or Distance Education Form on the Clinicals Homepage.

After signing up:

  1. The confirmation page provided when you register your clinical site in Sonia serves as permission to contact the selected school through the listed contact person. 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 Requirements outlined in our Policies.

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