Florida Professional Teaching Certificate Requirements: Exams and Pathways

To meet Florida professional teaching certificate requirements, you need a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution with at least a 2.5 GPA in your major, passing scores on three Florida Teacher Certification Examinations, a cleared fingerprint-based background check, and a completed application with a $75-per-subject fee.¹² The Professional Certificate is the state’s highest educator credential and makes you permanently eligible for employment in Florida public schools. Depending on your background, you can qualify directly or start on a five-year Temporary Certificate while finishing the pieces you still need.

Degree and Character Requirements

You must be at least 18 and hold a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited institution. Your cumulative GPA in your major field of study must be at least 2.5.³ The degree itself carries no subject-matter restriction at this stage; your field becomes relevant when you choose a subject area exam.

Every applicant also has to demonstrate good moral character. You sign an affidavit under penalty of criminal prosecution affirming that your application information is true, and you submit to fingerprint-based criminal background checks through both the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI.³ A conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude, as defined by State Board of Education rules, disqualifies you from any position with direct student contact.⁴

The Three Required Exams

Florida requires passing scores on three categories of tests through the Florida Teacher Certification Examinations program.⁵ The Bureau of Educator Certification confirms your exact testing list after reviewing your application, but nearly every applicant takes all three:

The General Knowledge Test covers English language skills, essay writing, reading, and mathematics.
The Subject Area Examination tests your depth of knowledge in the specific field you plan to teach.
The Professional Education Test covers classroom pedagogy, student development, lesson planning, and assessment.

Using GRE Scores Instead of the General Knowledge Test

If you have qualifying GRE revised General Test scores earned within ten years of your application, you can skip the General Knowledge Test. The minimums are a 4 of 6 on Analytical Writing (for the GK Essay), a scaled 147 on Quantitative Reasoning (for GK Mathematics), and a scaled 151 on Verbal Reasoning (for both GK English Language Skills and GK Reading).⁶ Other substitutes satisfy the general knowledge requirement as well: a valid professional teaching certificate from another state, a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certificate, or at least two semesters of documented successful college-level teaching.³

Pathways That Fit Your Background

The right route depends on where you’re starting from. Several pathways take you directly to the Professional Certificate without ever holding a Temporary one:⁷

Completing an approved teacher preparation program and passing the required FTCE exams.
Finishing an Educator Preparation Institute program, designed for career changers who hold a bachelor’s degree but no education coursework, combined with passing FTCE scores.
Holding a valid standard certificate from another state.
Holding a valid National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certificate.
Having two semesters of full-time college teaching experience, plus passing scores on the Professional Education Test and Subject Area Examination, for bachelor’s-level subjects.

Starting on a Temporary Certificate

If you can’t yet meet every requirement, Florida’s Temporary Certificate lets you teach full-time while you finish. It’s valid for five school years and cannot be renewed, so treat the window seriously.¹ To qualify, you need a bachelor’s degree and must show subject area knowledge through one of several routes: a passing Subject Area Examination score, a valid American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence certificate, a major in the content area, or qualifying coursework with a 2.5 GPA in that field.⁷ The Temporary Certificate is issued only after you’ve been hired by a Florida school and your fingerprints have cleared.

To upgrade from Temporary to Professional, most teachers complete a Florida Professional Development Certification Program through their employing district, or finish approved college professional preparation coursework combined with teaching experience and a classroom competence demonstration. All FTCE exams must still be passed.⁷ The upgrade fee is $75.²

How to Apply

Florida handles certification applications through the Department of Education’s online portal. The primary application document is Form CG-10, which captures your personal information, education history, and employment record. You can download it or submit online.⁸ Gather these before you start:

Official transcripts sent directly from each degree-granting institution to the Department of Education. Student-submitted copies aren’t accepted for final processing.
Live-scan fingerprints through an authorized vendor. Results are checked against state and federal criminal databases. The cost may be covered by your employer or paid by you.⁴
A $75-per-subject application fee, nonrefundable.²
A sworn affidavit affirming the truth of your information, submitted by original or electronic signature.³

Every field on Form CG-10 should match your official documents exactly. Mismatches between your application and your transcripts or background records are a common cause of delay.

Once the Bureau of Educator Certification reviews your package, you receive an Official Statement of Status of Eligibility. That document tells you whether you’ve met every requirement or identifies specific deficiencies, such as a missing exam score or incomplete coursework, that you still need to resolve before the certificate is printed. The online portal lets you track progress and respond to document requests during review.

If Your Degree Is From Outside the United States

Foreign-trained applicants need an original credential evaluation report in English before the application can move forward. The report must include a statement of U.S. degree equivalency and break out your coursework into descriptive course titles and semester-hour credits. Photocopies aren’t accepted.⁹

Florida accepts evaluations from four kinds of providers: an accredited four-year U.S. college or university, a current member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services, a current member of the Association of International Credential Evaluators, or an evaluation agency approved by the Bureau of Educator Certification.⁹ You are responsible for arranging for your official records to be sent directly from the issuing institution to the evaluation organization; those agencies almost never obtain documents on your behalf.¹⁰

Transferring a License From Another State

Florida is one of 14 states in the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact.¹¹ If you hold an unencumbered license from another member state, Florida will evaluate your credentials and decide which Florida certificate or certificates you qualify for. The compact doesn’t guarantee equivalency; Florida retains full discretion over which license it issues.¹² You still complete a Florida background check, and the compact covers only the initial grant. Renewal, professional development, and additional certifications are governed entirely by Florida law.

Teachers from non-compact states can apply under the older NASDTEC Interstate Agreement, which does not mean an automatic transfer. Each state can require its own exams, coursework, GPA minimums, or mentoring.¹³ Either way, holding a valid professional certificate from another state satisfies Florida’s general knowledge requirement, which removes at least one exam from your list.³

Keeping the Certificate Valid

The Professional Certificate is valid for five years and can be renewed for successive five-year periods.¹⁴ To renew, earn six semester hours of college credit, or the equivalent in inservice points, during the validity period. Twenty inservice points in an approved Florida master inservice program equal one semester hour, so six semester hours comes to 120 inservice points if you take that route alone.¹⁵ You can mix college credits and inservice points freely.

At least one of those semester hours, or 20 inservice points, must be in the instruction of students with disabilities. This applies to every educator whose renewal application is received on or after July 1, 2014, regardless of what subjects your certificate covers. If you hold multiple subject coverages, keeping one requires at least three semester hours in that specialization area; two coverages require three hours in each.¹⁵

Teachers with active National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification are deemed to meet Florida renewal requirements for the life of the national certificate in the matching subject. You still submit a renewal application and fee, but the credit-hour requirement is waived.¹⁴

If you miss the expiration date, you have a short grace window. Your renewal application, the standard fee, and a late fee must be submitted before July 1 of the year following expiration to renew normally. Miss that date and the certificate moves into the reinstatement process instead, which carries its own requirements.¹⁴

1
Florida Department of Education. Certificate Types and Requirements
2
Florida Department of Education. Certification Application Fee Schedule
3
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 1012.56 – Educator Certification Requirements
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 1012.32 – Qualifications of Personnel
5
Florida Department of Education. Florida Teacher Certification Examinations
6
Florida Department of Education. General Knowledge
7
Florida Department of Education. Certificate Pathways and Routes
8
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code R 6A-4.0012 – Application Information
9
Florida Department of Education. Applicants With Foreign Academic Training
10
National Association of Credential Evaluation Services. Essential Documents Required for International Credential Evaluation
11
The Council of State Governments. Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact
12
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 1012.993 – Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact
13
NASDTEC. 2025-2030 NASDTEC Interstate Agreement
14
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 1012.585 – Process for Renewal of Professional Certificates
15
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code R 6A-4.0051 – Renewal and Reinstatement