How to Fill Out the TCOLE L-2 Form: Applicant and Practitioner Fields

To fill out the TCOLE L-2 form, you complete the top half with your TCOLE PID, legal name, and home address, and the medical practitioner selected by your hiring agency completes and signs the bottom half certifying you are physically fit and free of drug dependency. You do not submit the form yourself; the hiring law enforcement agency sends it to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement as part of your appointment packet. The current version of the Licensee Medical Condition Declaration is on TCOLE’s forms page.¹

What to Have Ready Before You Start

The form is short, but field 1 asks for something many first-time applicants don’t yet have: a TCOLE Personal Identification Number (PID). The PID is a unique number TCOLE assigns to every individual in its system. If you don’t have one, your academy or hiring agency submits a C-1 PID Assignment form on your behalf, which collects your Social Security number, date of birth, and physical descriptors.² None of that information appears on the L-2 itself.

Before your medical appointment, have three things in hand:

Your TCOLE PID number.
Your full legal name and complete home mailing address, matching your other licensing documents exactly.
The job description for the license you’re seeking. The practitioner needs to review the actual duties of the position to make a meaningful fitness determination.

Most agencies hand you a blank L-2 before the appointment. If yours doesn’t, download the current revision from tcole.texas.gov rather than using an older copy from a training-provider site.

Filling In the Applicant Section (Fields 1–9)

The top half is yours. Enter your TCOLE PID in field 1, then your legal name across fields 2 through 5: last name, first name, middle initial, and suffix such as Jr. or III. Fields 6 through 9 are your home mailing address, city, state, and zip code.³ Print legibly or type. Name and address discrepancies between the L-2 and your other licensing paperwork slow processing down.

That’s it for the applicant. The rest belongs to the practitioner.

What the Practitioner Completes (Fields 10–23)

The bottom half is entirely the medical practitioner’s responsibility. The practitioner selects their credential type (physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner), prints their name, enters their license number (not required for nurse practitioners), office address, phone number, the date of the examination, and signs and dates the form.³ The signature is what makes the form valid. A stamped or digital signature may not be accepted unless the agency confirms otherwise.

You can’t pick your own doctor and show up with a completed form. Texas Administrative Code § 217.1 requires the examining practitioner to be selected by the appointing or employing agency and to be familiar with the duties of the position you’re seeking.⁴

What the Practitioner Is Certifying

By signing, the practitioner makes two statements. First, that you are “physically sound and free from any defect which may adversely affect the performance of duties appropriate to the type of license sought.” Second, that you show “no trace of drug dependency, illegal drug use, or symptoms of drug dependency.”³ Drug screening is built into the L-2. The single declaration covers both the physical evaluation and the drug test result.

The practitioner’s judgment focuses on whether you can handle the physical demands in the job description you brought: running, restraining subjects, standing for extended periods, operating a vehicle under stress. TCOLE does not publish a statewide checklist of pass/fail medical thresholds, so the practitioner’s assessment of your ability to perform those specific duties is what the form captures.

Who Submits the Form

You don’t. The hiring agency submits the completed L-2 to TCOLE through the electronic portal after your appointment.⁵ On the TCOLE Appointment Process Flow Chart, the L-2 sits alongside the L-3 psychological evaluation and fingerprinting as steps that must be completed before an agency finalizes an appointment.⁶

For routine appointments where you pass the exam, the agency includes the L-2 in the appointment packet it submits through TCOLE Online, generally within 30 days of the appointment date to stay inside the reporting window.

If You Don’t Pass the Exam

A failed L-2 triggers a separate, more urgent obligation. When a practitioner declares an applicant not in satisfactory health, the sponsoring academy or hiring agency must forward the executed L-2 to TCOLE within 30 days, along with the doctor’s report of findings and the job description the practitioner reviewed. The initial notification can go by U.S. mail or email to fitforduty@tcole.texas.gov.⁵

TCOLE has expressly prohibited “doctor shopping.” If you fail the exam, you cannot simply visit a different practitioner and try again until someone signs off. The academy or agency controls the form and must report the failure. They are not permitted to hand the form back to you and let you seek a more favorable result on your own.⁵ If the practitioner cannot complete the evaluation because the applicant doesn’t show up or walks out mid-exam, the academy should request the form back with a written explanation of why no finding was made.

When You Need a New L-2

A passing L-2 doesn’t last forever. Under TCOLE Rule § 217.7, any licensee more than 180 days past their last appointment must obtain a new L-2 declaration before a new agency can appoint them.⁷ This applies even if you previously held an active license and passed an L-2 at that time.

A separate timing rule applies to initial licensure. A satisfactory medical exam completed during a basic licensing course remains valid for 180 days from your graduation date, provided the appointing agency accepts it.⁴ If more than 180 days pass between graduation and appointment, you need a fresh exam.

1
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. Forms and Applications
2
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. PID Assignment C-1
3
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. TCOLE L-2 Licensee Medical Condition Declaration
4
Legal Information Institute. 37 Texas Administrative Code 217.1 – Minimum Standards for Enrollment of Initial Licensure
5
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. Technical Assistance Bulletin – Amended Process and Reporting Requirements for Medical and Psychological Examinations
6
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. Appointment Process Flow Chart
7
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. TCOLE Handbook 2025