A district HR director in New York asked me last week where she could find "the Praxis cut score" for her paraprofessional postings. There isn't one. New York does not use Praxis ParaPathways or ParaPro at all. It qualifies paraprofessionals on NES 519, formally titled Foundations of Classroom Support and Instruction, administered through NYSTCE, which is a Pearson program, not an ETS one.
That is not a small distinction. Most national test-prep material assumes Praxis, because most states that set a statewide number use it. New York is not one of them, and a candidate or recruiter who does not know that will prepare for a test they will never sit.
What is NES 519?
NES 519 is an 80-question, computer-based test with two hours of testing time inside a two hour fifteen minute appointment. Pearson sets the passing score at 220, though what a candidate actually receives back is a pass or did not pass result, not the number itself.
The exam covers four areas: reading, writing, mathematics, and a fourth subarea Praxis does not have at all, instructional support. That last one covers working alongside a teacher, supporting learners day to day, and the professional side of the role. Pearson has not published how much weight each subarea carries, so there is no breakdown to study toward, only the four areas themselves.
One thing worth knowing before you book it: NES 519 is new. Its first administration was January 27, 2026, so there is very little written about it anywhere yet, including by the vendor.
Why does the name matter?
Because New York has already changed the name on this test once. NES 519 replaced the Assessment of Teaching Assistant Skills, test 095, known as the ATAS. If a candidate was told to study for the ATAS, that advice is out of date, and it is also the kind of thing that sits uncorrected in old district paperwork and staffing agency onboarding packets for years.
NYSTCE's own materials also use a second name for the same test, Paraprofessional with Instructional Support (519). A candidate who finds one name online and then lands on a page using the other has no way to tell they are looking at the same exam. Naming both, every time, is the only way to not add to that confusion.
Does New York requiring NES 519 mean every district has to give it?
No, and that gap matters more here than in most states. New York sets the instrument, but whether a given role requires a qualifying exam at all, and which route counts for which position, is still a decision each district or employer makes. I wrote about that distinction in more depth here, and it applies in New York the same as anywhere a state has set a test.
For a district, that means the real work is not just "which exam do we use." It is documenting, in writing, for which roles a candidate must sit NES 519, who is exempt, and what happens when a candidate was prepared for the wrong test because nobody told them which one applied.
What should a candidate or recruiter actually do with this?
Confirm the exam name before assigning any study material. "The para exam" is not specific enough in New York, and neither is "Praxis," because that is simply the wrong vendor. Ask for the test code, 519, and the current name, not whatever a district's old hiring packet happens to say.
Then budget study time for the shape of the test, not the shape of a different one. A candidate who has read about Praxis ParaPathways will expect a heavily reading-weighted exam split across two separately scored subtests. NES 519 is one test, four subareas, with the instructional support section that the Praxis exams never ask about at all.
What does this mean for a multi-state employer?
If your district hires across New York and even one other state, do not assume a candidate who qualified in one state can walk into the other on the strength of the same prep. Our paraprofessional requirements page tracks what each state and jurisdiction actually asks for, sourced from each program's own published materials, so you can check New York against wherever else you staff before handing anyone a study guide built for the wrong exam.
If you are not sure which exam applies to a role you are filling in New York, or anywhere else, get in touch and we will work through it together.