Education majors at New York state colleges will now be required to spend more time training in the classroom under new state regulations approved in April.

The state Department of Education’s Board of Regents, which sets education policy, unanimously approved new rules that extend minimum student-teaching time from 40 days to 70 days, equivalent to an entire semester.

A clinic practice workgroup, which studied the issue and advised the state Education Department on the changes, found multiple benefits to at least one semester of student teaching experience. The benefits include more retention of new teachers, higher level of teacher competence and improvement of teachers’ understanding of students’ lives, communities and cultures.

About 42,000 students statewide are enrolled in collegiate teacher education programs, federal education data show. For most, student teaching comes in the final year of their program, during which they spend time in public school classrooms working directly with children under the guidance of experienced teachers.

By the end of the student teaching experience, students will have a “solo” week where they take over leading the classroom.

For students enrolled at SUNY schools, though, this time frame has already been the requirement.

All SUNY school education programs have followed the New Vision guidelines since the fall of 2001, requiring a minimum of 75 days in classrooms and schools in two separate experiences, at least one of which is in a high-need school.

The change will take effect for students entering traditional four-year education programs in the fall of 2022.