Sisolak signs regulation giving leeway on teaching license renewal

Gov. Steve Sisolak signed an emergency regulation that went into effect Monday to extend the expiration date on educator licenses for up to a year.

“More than 4,700 educators’ licenses are due to expire over the next four months,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert said in a Monday news release. “This emergency regulation enables school districts to hire a significant number of teachers who would otherwise have been unable to renew their licenses because of the impact of COVID-19.”

The regulation also provides some exceptions for mandatory exams for alternative teacher licenses, the Nevada Department of Education said in the release. Those with an alternative teaching license have a bachelor’s degree but haven’t completed a traditional teacher preparation program.

Teacher candidates are required to pass the state Praxis exam. Testing centers closed May 15 due to the pandemic and the statewide vendor that provides Praxis testing recently started allowing candidates to take certain exams at home.

But some of the tests haven’t been available, “meaning alternate teacher applicants are unable to complete all the required testing,” according to the release.

Sisolak’s emergency regulation also addresses a handful of other COVID-19-related issues related to educators, including delays in fingerprinting and processing background checks, the Nevada Department of Education said.

For more information about the emergency regulation, email license@doe.nv.gov.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.