BURNT HILLS & BALLSTON LAKE — A Saratoga Springs woman has been charged with altering and using her husband’s credentials to retain a job as a school social worker, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Maria Geizer, 38, of Grand Avenue, worked in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District from 1999 to 2007 through a contract with Community Human Services of Glenville, according to district spokeswoman Christy Multer.

“Although she worked in our schools, she was not a district employee,” Multer said.

John Irving, executive director of Community Human Services, said Geizer’s alleged deception was discovered when a check of her information revealed the identifying numbers actually belonged to her husband.

“I called her into my office and questioned her about it, and she requested the day off to supposedly go to Albany to straighten the matter out,” he said about her resignation last year. “That was on a Friday and on Monday she turned in her letter of resignation.”

He would not say how much Geizer was paid when she worked for the nonprofit organization.

“That’s confidential information,” he said.

Multer said she did not know how many students Geizer might have been in contact with during her tenure at the district.

“Our social workers have some students they see on a regular basis and some who only have one or two meetings following a death in the family or some other unusual event,” she said.

Geizer was employed as a social worker at the Charlton Heights Elementary School from 1999 to 2003 and at the Richard O’Rourke Middle School from 2003 to 2007.

Multer said she didn’t know the circumstances under which Geizer had left employment at the school in 2007.

“She’s been gone for over a year,” she said.

According to the attorney general’s office, Geizer applied for employment in 1999 as a social worker and falsely claimed on her employment application and resume that she held a master’s degree in psychology — a requirement to be a social worker.

Prosecutors said she also falsely claimed that she was licensed by the state Education Department — a requirement to bill Medicaid for counseling services.

Her alleged actions were caught during a random fraudulent-billing audit by the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General when Community Human Services and the school district requested copies of Geizer’s master’s degree and professional license.

She allegedly altered her husband’s master’s degree certificate and his state Education Department license to provide mental health counseling by removing his name and inserting her own name and presented them.

Her husband is not charged, and a call to the attorney general's office for further information was not returned.

Geizer was arraigned in Glenville Town Court on felony charges of unauthorized practice, grand larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument. She was released after arraignment and is expected to appear in Schenectady County Court at a later date.

The case is being prosecuted by an assistant attorney general. “Those who work in our educational system must meet the required criteria that the law has put in place,” said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. “We trust educators and other school personnel to be qualified and trained in order to properly interact with our children. Any breach of that trust not only violates New York state law, it may deprive our children of the care and quality services to which they are entitled.”