Teacher license renewal requirements by state

What does each state require to renew a teaching license?

The summary below gives the headline rule for a standard license in each state; each state guide has the agency source, the exceptions and the details of what counts.

What units do states use for renewal?

Renewal units fall into a handful of families, and the names hide how similar many of them are.

• Clock hours measure time in approved professional learning, one hour of activity for one hour of credit. Washington and Utah renew this way.
• Points (Virginia's professional development points, Maryland's and Tennessee's PDPs, Florida's inservice points) are a state's own currency. A state usually publishes a conversion that turns one semester credit into a fixed number of points.
• CPE hours are Texas's term for continuing professional education, logged against a five-year standard certificate.
• Semester credits are the university unit. Several states accept them directly, either as the only route or as an alternative to hours.

The conversion between them is where teachers lose time. Where a state publishes a conversion, use it: Arizona's education department, for example, counts one semester hour as 15 clock hours, and Oregon's standards commission counts one semester credit as 30 PDUs. Where it does not, as in Utah, keep the clock-hour total of each course with your records. Clock hours, CEUs and semester credits works through the conversions, and quarter vs. semester units covers the two-thirds rule for quarter credits.

Does renewal credit also move you on the salary schedule?

Sometimes, but never automatically. The state decides what renews a license. The district, usually through its bargaining agreement, decides which units move a teacher across salary columns. Those two rule books were written by different people for different purposes, so a workshop that renews a license may not count for pay, and a graduate-level course that moves a column may or may not be logged toward renewal unless you submit it.

The efficient approach is to choose coursework that satisfies both: graduate-level semester units, from an accredited university, in a subject your district counts, logged with the state as renewal credit and filed with HR as salary credit. Renewal credit vs. salary credit explains the overlap in detail, and the salary lane guide covers the district side.

How should you plan a renewal cycle?

1. Find your expiration date. Look it up in your state's educator-certificate lookup, not on the paper certificate, which may be out of date.
2. Read the current rule. Renewal rules change; use your state's agency page, linked from each guide, and note the date you read it.
3. Count in the state's unit. Convert any semester credits into the hours or points your state uses.
4. Make units do double duty. Where your district counts graduate-level units for salary, pick coursework that renews and moves your column at once.
5. Keep the records. Save transcripts, certificates of completion and any approval forms until the renewal is issued.

Reviewed November 11, 2026 by TeacherPayGuide editors.Report an error