An important component of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation is the requirement for public and charter schools in the United States to have a highly qualified teacher for every subject area by June 30, 2006. According to the United States Department of Education, many teachers are teaching "out-of-field," or teaching in a subject area in which they are not content experts. This study was designed to explore the problem of assuring the ability to place highly qualified teachers in public and charter schools in the state of Florida; whether the school districts in Florida would be in compliance of having highly qualified teachers in all classrooms by the date specified; and whether the number of highly qualified and out-of-field teachers in Florida increased, decreased, or remained the same since the implementation of the legislation. The literature review includes a historical reference on teacher certification which traces the process of how teaching has moved from a profession in which anyone could teach a subject, to one that requires licensure and certification; historical review of public schools; certification requirements for Florida teachers; and changes in the certification process as a result of NCLB. The research method used for the study was a mixed method that is descriptive in nature for the quantitative analysis and historical for the qualitative analysis.