Initial Certification Time Extension

Initial certification expires after 5 years. Once you have 3 years of teaching experience (which may include any experience received before or during your Master’s degree), you can apply for Professional certification.

If you have not completed 3 years of teaching experience, you can extend your Initial certification two times, for 5 years each.

The application fee is $50 per certificate and non-refundable. Applications for time extensions will not be accepted more than 6 months before the expiration date of the certificate.

How to apply:

1. Log into your Teach account.

2. Click on the link “Apply for Certificate”

3. Follow the drop downs until you get to “Select your Certificate Title”

• Select your Area of Interest – Classroom Teacher

• Select your Subject Area and Grade Level – [This depends on which certificate you would like to extend. Please refer to our instructions for initial certification here.]

• Select the Title – Initial Certification

• Select the type of certificate – either Initial Reissuance (First) or Initial Reissuance (Second), depending on which extension this is

4. You will be prompted through another series of screens, which includes a payment page. Your application cannot be reviewed until it is paid.

5. Once you have an application on file, you will also need to fill out this attestation form by completing Section One and Section Three, and checking off the first box in Section Two (“I do not have three years of acceptable teaching experience”). Send the form to [email protected] with the subject line of either “First Initial Reissuance” or “Second Initial Reissuance.”