Teacher Cert Pathfinder

Transferring a Florida teaching licence to Georgia

Corridor record≈460 teachers a year ±16%

Open question · confirm with the agencyread 10 Sep 2026

Is any literacy or reading assessment a Florida teacher has already passed a “GaPSC-accepted literacy assessment approved by another state”?

Who can answer: GaPSC Certification Call Center, (404) 232-2500 or toll-free (800) 869-7775 — Mondays and Wednesdays only, 08:00–11:30 and 12:30–16:30 Eastern

Since 1 July 2026 every out-of-state educator applying for a Georgia teaching certificate must pass a literacy assessment. If a Florida-approved assessment counts, nothing more is owed. If it does not, the teacher sits Georgia’s own literacy test — unless they already have a Georgia employer willing to request a 1-Year Non-Renewable or Induction certificate, or they qualify for the five-year experience exemption. GaPSC does not list which states' assessments it accepts on either page captured.

The published rules do not settle this. We have not yet put the question to the agency; when it answers, the answer and its date go here.

Every entry is cited and dated. Where it is not settled:To confirm with the agencyNot published by the agencyNot in our record yetChanged on a date

Which framework applies to you

Florida
Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact member (enacted 2023)
Georgia
Not a compact member

Georgia licence terms: Induction Certificate, 5 years · 1-Year Non-Renewable Certificate, 1 year.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

Route

Which regime applies

Florida is a member of the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact and Georgia is not, so the compact does nothing for this move. Georgia evaluates a Florida teacher under its own reciprocity — and publishes, in a table, which Florida documents it accepts.
Council of State Governments, National Center for Interstate CompactsInterstate Teacher Mobility Compact — member states

Which compact members actually operate the route →

Moving on military orders? Federal law gives a military spouse a separate route: a covered teaching certificate is valid in the new state on three documents. Georgia’s education agency names that route on its own pages, and still prints a two-year condition the federal law dropped in 2024. What federal law and Georgia publish →

United States Congress — 50 U.S.C. §4025a as amended by Pub. L. 118-159 §587 (text as published by the Mississippi Real Estate Commission)50 U.S.C. §4025a — Portability of professional licenses of servicemembers and their spousesGeorgia Professional Standards CommissionRule 505-2-.46 Military Support Certificate (effective 1 July 2025)

What Georgia requires

Route

Which regime applies

Georgia’s own interstate reciprocity. The applicant must hold a valid or expired certificate in a field comparable to a Georgia certificate field, issued as a professional certificate on completion of a state-approved preparation programme including pedagogy and clinical practice.
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.

Georgia is not a member of the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact on the Council of State Governments list captured 9 September 2026.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

Who qualifies

The certificate has to be a professional one

Reciprocity is available only on a professional certificate earned through a state-approved preparation programme including pedagogy and clinical practice. A temporary or provisional certificate alone is routed to Georgia’s ordinary become-an-educator pathway instead.
If you hold only a temporary or provisional certificate, please visit the Become a Georgia Educator page.
Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

How it goes wrong

A Florida Temporary certificate is not on Georgia’s list

For Florida, Georgia lists only the Professional certificate, and an Official Statement of Status Eligibility solely where the only outstanding requirements are Florida employment and fingerprinting.
Florida | Professional; Official Statement of Status Eligibility (if the only outstanding requirements are employment in FL and fingerprinting)

Every other row names two to five acceptable certificates. Florida’s names one certificate and one narrowly conditioned statement. A Florida teacher still on a Temporary certificate is not on Georgia’s reciprocity list.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionAcceptable Out-of-State Certificates

ChangeChanged 1 Jul 2026

A literacy assessment is required of every out-of-state teaching applicant since 1 July 2026

All out-of-state educators applying for Georgia teaching certification must pass the appropriate Georgia state-approved literacy assessment, or a GaPSC-accepted literacy assessment approved by another state.
Effective July 1, 2026, all out-of-state educators applying for Georgia certification in teaching fields must meet the literacy assessment requirement by passing the appropriate Georgia state-approved literacy assessment or by passing a GaPSC-accepted literacy assessment approved by another state.

The freshest live change found anywhere in this project — ten weeks old at capture. Any guide, forum answer or search result written before July 2026 omits it. Neither page lists which other states' literacy assessments GaPSC accepts.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

Exemption

A Georgia job offer softens the literacy rule

If an educator has not met the literacy testing requirement, a Georgia employer may request a 1-Year Non-Renewable or an Induction certificate.
A Georgia employer may request 1-Year Non-Renewable or Induction certification should an educator not meet literacy testing requirements.

So the literacy rule blocks a teacher applying speculatively, not one who already has a Georgia employer willing to make the request.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

Exemption

You may not need Georgia’s content test at all

The content knowledge assessment is waived for out-of-state professional certificate holders with five years of full-time in-field experience, for those who had to pass a content assessment for their out-of-state certificate, and for National Board certification in the specific field.
Out-of-state professional certificate holders who were required to pass a content assessment for their out-of-state certificate;

The second exemption is the one most applicants will use: if your own state made you pass a content test for the certificate, Georgia does not make you sit another.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

Exemption

Five years of experience exempts almost everything

A professional out-of-state certificate plus five full years of successful in-field experience exempts all Special Georgia Requirements except the Standards of Conduct — which means the content assessment, the literacy assessment and the exceptional child course together.
Veteran out-of-state educators moving to Georgia may be eligible to exempt all Special Georgia Requirements except the Standards of Conduct should the following be held prior to an application for initial Georgia certification:

The years need not be consecutive and may come from any point in a career, but each must be in the same state that issued the certificate and carry a satisfactory performance review.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

How it goes wrong

A year means 120 days, and part-years do not add up

Each of the five years must be full-time employment of at least 120 days in the school year, and partial years cannot be combined to make a full one.
All years were full-time employment, defined as a minimum of 120 days per school year (partial years cannot be combined)

A teacher with six years of service that includes two half-years may hold only four qualifying years, not five.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

Deadline

Take the exemptions before you start work in Georgia

Once an educator is both certified and employed in Georgia on a Georgia certificate, they no longer qualify for full interstate reciprocity, and out-of-state experience accrued afterwards cannot be used for later exemptions.
Please note that once an educator is both certified and employed in Georgia utilizing their Georgia certification, they no longer qualify for full interstate reciprocity.

The practical consequence is sequencing: claim every field and every exemption in the first application. Coming back later to add a field from out-of-state experience does not work.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

Fee

Out-of-state application processing fee

$20, paid online through the applicant’s MyPSC account — the lowest application fee of any destination in this project.
$20 processing fee: You must pay this fee online through your MyPSC account.

For comparison: Florida $75 per subject, Colorado $110, Pennsylvania $150, Texas $160, New Jersey $170.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

Exemption

A Georgia employer can make it free

If the applicant is employed in Georgia and the employer submits an Employer Assurance Form, the $20 processing fee does not apply.
Either Employer Assurance Form negates the $20 processing fee.
Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

How it goes wrong

Do NOT have Praxis send your scores to Georgia

For Praxis scores used for certification in another state, GaPSC asks applicants not to have scores transmitted electronically by the testing provider, but to order a hard-copy score report and upload a copy through MyPSC.
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.

The opposite of what every other state here wants — Pennsylvania explicitly tells applicants to ask the test administrator to transmit scores. An applicant who does the usual thing for Georgia has to redo the step.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

What to gather

Your former district’s HR office has to complete a form

The Experience Verification Form must be completed in full, including satisfactory performance evaluations, by Human Resources at the current or former employing school system. It is not required for under one year of experience.
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;

The third destination in this project, after New Jersey and New York, whose route depends on a former employer completing state paperwork after the teacher has left. If HR policy blocks disclosure of performance, GaPSC accepts a supervising administrator’s letter or copies of each yearly review with the form.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

How it goes wrong

The phone line is open two days a week

The GaPSC Certification Call Center answers on Mondays and Wednesdays only, 08:00–11:30 and 12:30–16:30. The office accepts no walk-ins or appointments.
Our Certification Call Center is open 8:00 am to 11:30 am and 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, except for state holidays.

Fourteen hours of phone access a week. Plan a deciding-question call around it — a question that occurs to you on a Thursday waits until Monday.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

Not publishedNot published by the agencyTo confirm with the agency

No processing time is published

Georgia states only that complete applications are processed in the order received. No number of days or weeks is given.
Complete applications are processed in the order they are received.

ambiguous_confirm_with_state. No timeline is asserted on this site for Georgia.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

Your Florida credential

What Florida calls the certificate you hold, and where it sits in Florida’s own tiers — the thing Georgia will compare.

Credential tierTo confirm with the agency

A Florida Temporary certificate is a weak passport out of Florida

It is nonrenewable, and FLDOE describes it as time to finish requirements you have not yet met. A receiving state that excludes credentials with outstanding requirements may refuse it — Texas’s rule excludes “a certificate for which academic or other program deficiencies are indicated”.
Provides time to complete all requirements for a Professional Certificate while teaching full-time.

What is unresolved: whether a receiving state reads “requirements still outstanding” as “deficiencies indicated”. Texas’s exclusion is at 19 TAC §230.111(c) and TEA makes that call, not us. If you hold a Florida Temporary and are leaving the state, ask the receiving agency before paying a nonrefundable review fee. Holders of a Florida Professional Certificate are not affected.

Florida Department of EducationCertificate Types and Requirements

Credential tier

The two Florida certificates

Professional Certificate — five school years, renewable, Florida’s highest educator certificate. Temporary Certificate — five school years, nonrenewable, and issued only after you are employed in a Florida school and fingerprints have cleared.
Florida Department of EducationCertificate Types and Requirements

The endorsement, side by side

The secondary mathematics endorsement in Florida and Georgia
FloridaGeorgia
Certificate or endorsementMathematics (6-12)Mathematics (Secondary Education, Grades 6-12)
Grade band6–126–12
Named examinationFlorida subject area test: Mathematics (6-12)Not in our record yet
Florida Department of EducationSubject Area ExaminationsGeorgia Professional Standards CommissionTeaching Fields Offered in Georgia

What works in your favour

Florida’s secondary bands are 6-12 and so are Georgia’s. For mathematics, English and each single science (Biology, Chemistry, Earth/Space, Physics) this is the cleanest grade-band alignment of any corridor researched.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionTeaching Fields Offered in Georgia

If Florida made you pass a content assessment for your certificate, Georgia does not make you sit another one.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

Five full years of in-field experience on a professional certificate exempts every Special Georgia Requirement except Standards of Conduct — content test, literacy test and exceptional child course together — and the years need not be consecutive.

Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

What it costs to get this corridor wrong

Money, time and outcomes, each set by a rule or published by the agency and cited on its entry. None is our estimate.

Blocked route

Still on a Florida Temporary certificate

Georgia’s acceptance table lists only Florida’s Professional certificate, plus a Statement of Status Eligibility where the only outstanding items are Florida employment and fingerprinting. A Temporary certificate is not on it.
Georgia Professional Standards CommissionAcceptable Out-of-State Certificates

Blocked route

The literacy assessment that started on 1 July 2026

Every out-of-state teaching applicant must now pass one. Guides written before July 2026 do not mention it, and GaPSC does not list which other states' literacy assessments it accepts.
Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

Blocked route

Full reciprocity lost by starting work too early

Once you are certified and employed in Georgia on a Georgia certificate you no longer qualify for full interstate reciprocity, and later out-of-state experience cannot be used for exemptions. Claim every field and exemption in the first application.
Georgia Professional Standards CommissionSpecial Georgia Requirements

Time

Praxis scores sent the normal way

GaPSC asks applicants NOT to have Praxis transmit scores electronically, but to order a hard copy and upload it through MyPSC. Doing what every other state asks means redoing the step.
Georgia Professional Standards CommissionOut-of-State Educators

Nothing here is a prediction about your file. It is what the published rules say happens, and what the agency charges, if a step is taken in the wrong order or on the wrong document.

Licence classes on this corridor

This corridor covers 6 licence classes: Secondary mathematics, Elementary, Middle grades, Secondary science, Secondary English language arts, Special education. The requirements above apply to all of them. No pack is written for any of them yet. Subject-specific facts are on the Georgia page where we have them.

Where these facts come from

This page cites 5 sources. Every one is named on the entry that uses it, with the date we read it. The full register, including what we archived and what we could not retrieve, is at every source we cite.

Everything we have verified about Georgia → · About Florida →

Cite this page: Teacher Cert Pathfinder, “Florida to Georgia,” record as of 10 September 2026. Changes and corrections are logged on What changed.