Transferring a Texas teaching licence to Colorado
Colorado is a compact member; Texas is not. The compact governs movement between member states only, so Colorado joining changed nothing for a Texas teacher. Colorado's 2026 law, however, did change one thing for every out-of-state applicant.
Which framework applies to you
| Texas | Not a compact member |
| Colorado | Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact member (enacted 2023) |
The compact governs movement between member states. Because one end is not a member, the compact route does not exist for you at all — whatever the other state's membership is publicised as doing. Why that matters →
The question that decides this corridor
Does CDE treat the Texas certificate Mathematics: Grades 7–12 as "identical" to Colorado's Mathematics – Secondary (grades 6–12)?
Colorado's professional-licence route requires an identical endorsement. If the grade bands are not treated as identical you fall to Colorado's second route, an evaluation for a comparable or equivalent endorsement. This single question can be the difference between a seven-year professional licence and a one-year interim authorization.
Who to ask: CDE Educator Licensing, (720) 739-3304, Monday–Friday 08:30–16:30 Mountain
ambiguous_confirm_with_state — this is a real gap in the
published record, not a gap in our reading of it. We checked on
9 September 2026. Anyone who gives you a confident answer to this is guessing;
the agency is the only place it can be settled.
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. Colorado's education agency does not mention that route on the pages we read. What federal law and Colorado publish →
What Colorado requires
Each card carries the rule or agency page it comes from and the date we read it. Where a source states something verbatim, we quote it rather than paraphrase.
Educator licenses do not "transfer" to Colorado across state lines.Colorado Department of Education, Credentialing Guide for Out-of-State Applicants — read 9 September 2026
The act allows the state department of education (CDE) to issue a professional teacher license to a teacher with at least 3 years of successful teaching experience in another state or country for which CDE has granted reciprocity. The act eliminates the requirement that an applicant have the successful teaching experience within the previous 7 years.
Signed Act dated 21 April 2026; status Became Law. The verbatim effective-date clause could not be retrieved — content.leg.colorado.gov returns HTTP 403 to automated fetches. Press reporting places the effective date at 12 August 2026.
Colorado General Assembly, SB26-126 — Licensure for Experienced Out-of-State Teachers — read 9 September 2026If you hold a valid standard license (not substitute, temporary, emergency, alternative, provisional, probationary or international faculty) issued by another state that carries an identical endorsement to one issued by Colorado, meet all other requirements for the Colorado license requested AND have three years' post-preparation, full-time licensed experience in that state and in that content area, Colorado may issue a professional license with the identical endorsement requested.Colorado Department of Education, Credentialing Guide for Out-of-State Applicants — read 9 September 2026
The interim authorization allows the candidate to work in Colorado schools while providing a year's time to prepare for and take the required exam(s) or demonstrate content knowledge via the multiple measures options. An interim authorization may be renewed only once.Colorado Department of Education, Credentialing Guide for Out-of-State Applicants — read 9 September 2026
State statute prohibits the refunding of any application evaluation fee.Colorado Department of Education, Teachers from Out-of-State/Out-of-Country — read 9 September 2026
You have 30 days from the time CDE receives your background check to apply for a license.Colorado Department of Education, Teachers from Out-of-State/Out-of-Country — read 9 September 2026
An applicant who fails to cure the deficiency or request reconsideration within these 60 days will be deemed as having withdrawn the application, and such withdrawal shall not be subject to appeal or review.Colorado Department of Education, Teachers from Out-of-State/Out-of-Country — read 9 September 2026
Out-of-state applicants who completed an alternative preparation program but who have not yet accrued the three years' fully licensed experience post-preparation must also include an official, signed letter from the department of education in the state in which you completed the alternative program confirming that the program you completed was indeed state-approved.Colorado Department of Education, Teachers from Out-of-State/Out-of-Country — read 9 September 2026
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) — read 9 September 2026A teacher who holds a valid provisional, professional, standard, or enhanced standard classroom teaching certificate ... may qualify for an additional teaching field or certification to teach at another level by passing the appropriate certification examination(s) for that subject.
19 TAC §230.105. This matters most when the receiving state’s rule asks for a "professional standard" certificate, as Florida’s does: a Texas Standard Certificate is its holder’s highest current classroom credential, which is a materially stronger position than a sending state whose full tier sits below a separately-named professional one.
State Board for Educator Certification (via Texas Education Agency), 19 TAC ch. 230 subch. G — Certificate Issuance Procedures (May 2024 Update) — read 9 September 2026The endorsement, side by side
| Texas | Colorado | |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate or endorsement | Mathematics: Grades 7–12 | Mathematics – Secondary (grades 6–12) |
| Grade band | 7–12 | 6–12 |
| Named examination | TExES Mathematics 7–12 (235) | <span class="muted">not captured</span> |
Note the grade-band mismatch. Texas issues 7–12; Colorado issues 6–12. 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
Colorado eliminated the requirement that your three years of experience fall within the previous seven, which reopens the professional-licence route for anyone who took a break from the classroom.
Colorado General Assembly, SB26-126 — Licensure for Experienced Out-of-State Teachers — read 9 September 2026What it costs to get this corridor wrong
Every figure below is set by a rule or published by the agency, and cited on its row. These are not our estimates, and the largest single nonrefundable amount is $110.
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
The requirements above are the ones that apply whatever you teach. These are the classes whose subject-specific requirements we have researched for Colorado.
| Licence class | Corridor | Pack |
|---|---|---|
| Secondary mathematics | Texas → Colorado | Pack written · not yet on sale |
| Elementary | Texas → Colorado | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Middle grades | Texas → Colorado | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Secondary science | Texas → Colorado | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Secondary English language arts | Texas → Colorado | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Special education | Texas → Colorado | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
A class listed without a pack is not a gap in the research — its facts are on this page and on the state pages. It means we have not yet written the step-by-step pack for it.
Pathway Pack — Texas → Colorado · Secondary Mathematics
$59
Every requirement with its citation and as-of date · the application sequence in the order that matters · fees · the timelines the agency itself publishes · the provisional options and their limits · and the questions the published record does not answer, stated plainly with the number to call.
Built 9 September 2026 · 12 months of updates included, through 9 September 2027 · 14-day refund, no questions.
Not available
Not yet on sale. Held from sale until the agency answers the question this corridor turns on. We will not sell a researched question as if it were an answer. The corridor page above is complete and free; the pack adds the full requirement list, the ordered sequence, the fee table and the provisional options.
Where these facts come from
This page cites 8 sources. Every one is named on the card 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 Colorado → · About Texas →