Licensing Changes 

by David DeGuire, DPI

As you likely know, there have been many changes to licensing rules over the past year.  If I were still a middle school principal, here are the things I would most want to share with my staff, plus things that can better address staffing challenges.

The state budget bill (2017 Wisconsin Act 59) included some major changes to licenses:

  • Lifetime licenses – The expiration dates on all valid Professional and Master Educator licenses will be removed in the ELO system.  This will take us some time to work with our vendor to accomplish, but educators will not need to do anything.
  • Initial Educators can stop working on their PDPs, as they will not be required for licensure anymore.  Educators who hold an Initial Educator license will automatically receive 3-year provisional license and will be eligible for a lifetime license after 6 semesters of successful experience in a school district.  We are hoping to be able to accept experience from before the budget was passed, so we are carefully reading through the budget bill to make sure there is nothing that would prohibit that.
  • Faculty from public and private colleges and universities (including WCTC campuses) can teach high school courses without a DPI license.
  • Virtual course providers need only have their teachers licensed in their home state.  Wisconsin licensure is no longer required.
  • Individuals with an associate degree and substitute teacher training can be issued a short-term substitute permit.  Current paraprofessionals may be a new pool of substitutes.

Emergency and permanent changes have been made to PI 34 over the past year that also allow the following:

  • Greatly expanded options for adding teacher licenses based on a content test (see https://dpi.wi.gov/tepdl/pathways/content-test)
  • Emergency licenses (now called 1-year license with stipulations) can be issued in many cases when an educator has not yet passed required tests.
  • New 3-year license with stipulations allows a district to have an experienced teacher teach in a different subject and/or grade level by providing appropriate professional development and supervision for teacher to become proficient in the new license area
  • Short-term substitutes can remain in the same assignment for up to 45 consecutive days.  After 45 days, the district should request a 1-year license with stipulations. 

Additional changes to make PI 34 more streamlined and easier to understand will be proposed this fall. The best way to keep up-to-date on licensing information is to follow our blog/newsfeed at https://dpi.wi.gov/tepdl/news

Read more at:

Elementary Edition - Secondary Edition - District Level Edition