Out-of-State Educators

If you completed student teaching/clinical practice in Georgia, please see Induction.
If your out-of-state certificate meets certain requirements, it is possible to get a Georgia certificate based on interstate reciprocity (see below for how to apply). In order to qualify, you must hold a valid or expired certificate in a field that is comparable to one of Georgia’s certificate fields. The certificate must also meet the following conditions:
  • Issued by another U.S. state, the District of Columbia, or other qualifying jurisdiction such as the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA); if you hold an educator certificate in a U.S. territory or another country, please visit the International Educators page.
  • Is a professional certificate based on completion of a state-approved educator preparation program including pedagogy and clinical practice in the base field of certification. If you hold only a temporary or provisional certificate, please visit the Become a Georgia Educator page. If you do not know if your out-of-state certificate is considered “professional”, please click here to view a table of some acceptable out-of-state certificates.
It is important to note that reciprocity does not mean that an out-of-state educator will automatically qualify for a Georgia certificate. Like most other states, Georgia imposes specific state requirements on all educators, including those already certified out-of-state. If you come to Georgia with a professional certificate from another state, you may have to fulfill some Special Georgia Requirements before receiving your Georgia certificate, or within a certain period of time after receiving your first certificate. Please feel free to peruse the Special Georgia Requirements in order to determine what additional requirements you might face. However, if you hold a professional out-of-state certificate and submit a complete application package for Georgia certification, the GaPSC will evaluate your documents and outline any outstanding requirements you may need to fulfill.

How to Apply

When you are ready to apply, please submit the following items to our office:
  • Online Certification Application – Must be completed through your MyPSC account. Certification is going paperless.;
  • Verification of Lawful Presence Documentation;
  • Experience Verification Form:
    • Please use this form to verify any educator experience earned in another state while holding a professional certificate in the same field and state;
    • The form must be filled out completely, including indication of satisfactory performance evaluations, by a representative of the Human Resources/Personnel department of your current or former employing school system;
    • If you have less than one year of educator experience, you do not need to submit this form.
  • Copy of your professional out-of-state certificate, or a state website where your certification may be publicly verified;
  • Copy of the official score report(s) for any content/subject area assessments you were required to take for your out-of-state certificate:
    • Scores printed from an online educator account will not be accepted unless they are publicly verifiable. If you are unable to acquire official score reports, please ask the certification office in your state to write an official letter verifying the name and date of the certification assessments you passed.
    • If you are submitting Praxis scores used for certification in another state, please do not have the scores submitted electronically to the GaPSC from the testing provider. Please order a hard copy of the score report, then submit a copy of that score report to the GaPSC through your MyPSC account.
  • Official transcripts from all colleges/universities you have attended. Official college transcripts cannot be uploaded online through your MyPSC account. Official transcripts must be submitted in one of the following ways:
    • Transmitted directly by the college/university in a secure electronic format such as Parchment or E-Script to mail@gapsc.com.
    • Emailed to mail@gapsc.com directly from the institution.
  • If you completed a non-traditional certification program and/or student teaching and pedagogy is not shown on your official transcripts, please have your certification official with your college/university complete the Approved Program Completion Form, or contact your home state certification department for an official letter detailing how you received your out-of-state certificate.
  • $20 processing fee:
With exceptions noted above, documents must be uploaded through your MyPSC account. For more information about submitting application documents, please visit the How to Submit Application Materials page.

Once your complete application package is received, the Certification Division staff will evaluate it. If you are eligible for a Georgia certificate, it will be issued electronically through your MyPSC account. If further information is needed or you have outstanding requirements, correspondence will be issued electronically through the same account. In either case, you will receive an email alerting you to the presence of a new document in your account. Complete applications are processed in the order they are received. After you submit your application package, you may check the status by following the instructions found on the Application Status page.