Transferring a Florida teaching licence to Texas
Open question · confirm with the agencyread 9 Sep 2026
Will TEA accept a Florida Temporary Certificate for a Review of Credentials, or only a Florida Professional Certificate?
Who can answer: TEA Educator Certification, 512-936-8400 option 2, Monday–Friday 08:00–12:00 Central
Texas requires a standard certificate and excludes “a certificate for which academic or other program deficiencies are indicated” (19 TAC §230.111(c)). A Florida Professional Certificate is the state’s highest, renewable credential and should clear that comfortably. A Florida Temporary is nonrenewable and exists, in FLDOE’s own words, to give you “time to complete all requirements for a Professional Certificate” — requirements outstanding, on its face. Whether TEA reads that as a deficiency is TEA’s call, and the Review of Credentials fee is $160 and expressly nonrefundable. Ask before you pay.
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)
- Texas
- Not a compact member
Route
Which regime applies
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. Texas’s education agency does not mention that route on the pages we read. What federal law and Texas publish →
What Texas requires
Route
Reciprocity
Texas does not have reciprocity with any other state, meaning it does not automatically recognize or accept out-of-state teaching certificates to move into immediate issuance of a standard certificate in Texas.Texas Education AgencyOut-of-State Certified Educators
Who qualifies
Credentials Texas will not accept
The certificate or other credential issued by the authorized licensing agency in another state or territory of the United States may not be an expired certificate, a temporary permit, a credential issued by a city or school district, or a certificate for which academic or other program deficiencies are indicated.
19 TAC §230.111(c). A 'standard certificate' is defined at 19 TAC §230.1(22) as one issued to a person who has met all requirements for a class of certification.
State Board for Educator Certification (via Texas Education Agency)19 TAC ch. 230 subch. H — Texas Educator Certificates Based on Certification and College Credentials from Other States (July 2026 Update)ChangeChanged 2 Aug 2026
Rule change effective 2 August 2026
House Bill 1178, enacted by the 89th Texas Legislature, requires that any out-of-state certificate submitted for a Review of Credentials must be both valid and active at the time the complete application is received.
19 TAC §§230.111 and 230.113 amended to be effective 2 August 2026, 51 TexReg 4864, under TEC §21.0521 as added by HB 1178, 89th Leg. R.S. 2025.
Texas Education AgencyOut-of-State Certified EducatorsOrder of steps
The path is three separate paid applications
Fee
Review of a credential issued outside Texas
19 TAC §230.101(a)(6)(B). Section last amended effective 19 May 2024, 49 TexReg 3551.
State Board for Educator Certification (via Texas Education Agency)19 TAC ch. 230 subch. G — Certificate Issuance Procedures (May 2024 Update)Exemption
Test exemption, Option 1 — test-based plus experience
Examinations
Science of Teaching Reading exam — who it applies to
Established by HB 3, 86th Texas Legislature, effective 1 January 2021. Classroom teaching experience alone does not exempt; Reading Academies cannot be used to exempt.
Texas Education AgencyOut-of-State Certified EducatorsHow it goes wrong
If you do not pass the examinations inside the one-year certificate
An applicant issued a one-year certificate under this section who does not complete the appropriate examination requirements to establish eligibility for a standard certificate during the validity of the one-year certificate, is not eligible for any type of certificate or permit authorizing employment for the same certificate until he or she has satisfied the appropriate examination requirements.
19 TAC §230.113(d).
State Board for Educator Certification (via Texas Education Agency)19 TAC ch. 230 subch. H — Texas Educator Certificates Based on Certification and College Credentials from Other States (July 2026 Update)How long
Credentials review processing
we encourage you to allow sufficient time for review, generally 6 to 8 weeks during our busiest months, April-September.Texas Education AgencyOut-of-State Certifications
Your Florida credential
What Florida calls the certificate you hold, and where it sits in Florida’s own tiers — the thing Texas will compare.
Credential tierTo confirm with the agency
A Florida Temporary certificate is a weak passport out of Florida
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 RequirementsCredential tier
The two Florida certificates
The endorsement, side by side
| Florida | Texas | |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate or endorsement | Mathematics (6-12) | Mathematics: Grades 7–12 |
| Grade band | 6–12 | 7–12 |
| Named examination | Florida subject area test: Mathematics (6-12) | TExES Mathematics 7–12 (235) |
Note the grade-band mismatch. Florida issues 6–12; Texas issues 7–12. Whether that matters depends on whether the destination applies an identity test or a comparability test — and those are different tests with different outcomes.
What works in your favour
Florida requires a subject area examination for its Professional Certificate, so most Florida teachers arrive with exam evidence — which is exactly what Texas’s Option 1 test exemption asks for, alongside one year of classroom experience.
Texas Education AgencyOut-of-State Educator Test Exemption ReviewThe Science of Teaching Reading examination does not apply to secondary mathematics. If a guide tells you to sit it, it is describing a different certificate.
Texas Education AgencyOut-of-State Certified EducatorsThree or more years of verifiable experience in the certificate area qualifies for Texas’s Option 2 exemption on experience alone, with no examination evidence needed.
Texas Education AgencyOut-of-State Educator Test Exemption ReviewWhat 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.
Money
Review of Credentials fee
Money
The arbitrage
A school year
One year unable to teach the subject
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 7 licence classes: Secondary mathematics, Elementary, Middle grades, Secondary science, Secondary English language arts, Special education, Career and technical education. The requirements above apply to all of them. A pack is written for Secondary mathematics only, and it is not yet on sale. Subject-specific facts are on the Texas page where we have them.
Written · not yet on sale
Pathway Pack: Florida → Texas · Secondary Mathematics
Free, first: TEA Educator Certification, 512-936-8400 option 2, Monday–Friday 08:00–12:00 Central can answer the open question above. Military spouses: the federal route and free help.
The route for this move in the order that matters, every requirement cited and dated, the fees and the timelines the agency publishes, and the questions the published record leaves open, with the number to call.
Held from sale until the question this corridor turns on has been put to the agency and its answer is on the record. We will not sell a researched question as if it were an answer.
$59 once on sale.
Where these facts come from
This page cites 8 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 Texas → · About Florida →
Cite this page: Teacher Cert Pathfinder, “Florida to Texas,” record as of 9 September 2026. Changes and corrections are logged on What changed.