Dear Jordan District Employees,
Below you will find a message from the USBE. We wanted to share with you the most recent information that has been shared with us. While there is a disruption to some of the normal processing that takes place in new hiring, renewals, and upgrades in teacher licensing there is still much that can be done with people working at home. If you are trying to do any of these things and are struggling to make progress please let us know and we will see what we can do to help you move forward. We would encourage you to make what progress you can because when all of these offices are up and running they will be inundated with people trying to get their licenses in good status. Thank you for your help in moving forward and we hope that you and your families are safe and well!!
These are unprecedented times in education. The anxiety related to closures, pending deadlines, and unmet requirements for educator licensing is real. Testing centers, fingerprinting services, and as of this morning, the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) have all suspended public services.
As you may be aware, this poses significant impacts to educator licensing in Utah. The following groups of educators with immediate and urgent impacts are the following:
- Educators seeking initial licensure in Utah
- Recent education graduates
- New to the profession (Associate Educator License)
- Out-of-State Applicants
- International Guest Teachers
- Returning educators with expired licenses
- Educators whose license expires June 30, 2020
- Educators on an SAEP who need to take a content test for license and/or endorsement (SAEPs expire October 1st)
The licensing staff at USBE is working to identify all the issues at hand and find practical and legal solutions. Educator licenses will still expire June 30, 2020. However LEAS will have until October 31, 2020 an additional two weeks to fully license educators. This gives additional time for educators to count toward funding in the Legislative Salary Adjustment. The new licensing requirements are currently scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2020; we are extending the CURRENT educator renewal requirements (R277-500) to October 31, 2020.
In the table below, we have specified each of the individual solutions for different educator groups with respect to licensure.
| Educator Group | Concern | USBE Solution |
| Educators seeking licensure | Background checks; | Working with Utah BCI to determine a process for background checks |
| Content testing; | Content requirement completed before November 1, 2020 | |
| License expires 6/30/2020 | Background checks | License renewal requirements counted up to November 1, 2020 |
| Need content test for license/endorsement | Content testing | Content requirement completed before November 1, 2020 |
Hopefully, educators will be able to complete all testing requirements and background checks prior to October 31, 2020. We are working with Utah BCI to find ways for educators to obtain a current background check. We are monitoring all activities closely. It is possible that even these accommodations will need to be adjusted.
We are communicating these adjustments to educators who are directly affected. Should you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Malia Hite, Ed.D.
Educator Licensing Coordinator
Teaching & Learning | Utah State Board of Education