Certification Renewal Changes

The State Department of Education's Certification Office sent the following memo to schools and districts regarding renewal deadlines. Here is the information if you did not already receive it.

Beginning September 29th, 2012, all late applications received for renewal of Idaho certificates will automatically be reviewed and processed as Reinstatement applications.

  • The Teacher Certification department will no longer accept late renewal applications for Idaho Certificates. All applications received after the August 31st certificate expiration date will be processed as a reinstatement.
  • A non-renewable, three (3) year interim certificate may be issued to an applicant reinstating his/her expired Idaho certificate. During the validity period, the applicant must meet all current requirements listed for the specific certificate and endorsement(s) including the appropriate content, pedagogy, and performance assessments. If the applicant meets all of the current certificate/endorsement requirements, a renewable five (5)-year certificate/credential may be issued.
  • Late applications that are received and that are eligible for reinstatement must be accompanied by a fingerprint card. A certificate cannot be printed until the applicant has completed a new background investigation check.
  • Please be reminded that the Teacher Certification department is not responsible to notify certificate holders of their credential expiration date.

The Rationale:
Due to an overwhelming amount of returned notifications, the Teacher Certification department has not mailed out renewal notices for the last five years. In that time, we have allowed a grace period to late applicants with a clear message that it is the certificate holder's responsibility to be aware of the expiration and to ensure that the proper steps are taken to renew their certificate within the five-year validation period. Since it has been five years since the last renewal notice was mailed, every certificate holder has renewed once without a mailed notice. As a result, we are confident that all educators are now aware that they will not receive reminders and have taken responsibility for renewing on time.

If you have questions, please contact the Certification Office at: (208) 332-6882.