Transferring a Virginia teaching licence to Florida
Virginia (2026) and Florida (2023) are both listed members of the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact, but Florida’s certification statute does not incorporate the compact. FLDOE evaluates a Virginia teacher under s. 1012.56, F.S., and that statute turns on whether the Virginia licence is a professional standard certificate.
Which framework applies to you
| Virginia | Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact member (enacted 2026) |
| Florida | Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact member (enacted 2023) |
Both ends are compact members, so the compact is at least theoretically available — but membership is not availability. Whether the route is open depends on whether the destination state has published the list of licences it accepts and actually opened it. Pennsylvania has; Colorado has not. Check which case your destination is →
The question that decides this corridor
Is a Virginia Provisional License — nonrenewable, issued with “allowable deficiencies for full licensure” — a “valid professional standard teaching certificate issued by another state” under s. 1012.56, F.S.?
That one document satisfies all three of Florida’s mastery requirements at once. A Virginia Collegiate Professional or Postgraduate Professional License is a 10-year renewable licence issued only after Virginia’s professional teacher’s assessments. A Provisional License is issued before those are complete. If FLDOE does not treat it as professional standard, the Virginia teacher faces the General Knowledge Test, the subject area test and the Professional Education Test, pays the nonrefundable fee per subject, and cannot fall back on any examination score more than ten years old.
Who to ask: FLDOE Bureau of Educator Certification, 800-445-6739, Monday–Friday 08:00–17:00 Eastern
ambiguous_confirm_with_state — this is a real gap in the
published record, not a gap in our reading of it. We checked on
10 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. Florida's education agency does not mention that route on the pages we read. What federal law and Florida publish →
What Florida 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.
Documentation of a valid professional standard teaching certificate issued by another state
s. 1012.56(3)(b), (5)(e) and (6)(c), F.S. (2026 edition). The same phrase appears in all three subsections.
The Florida Senate, s. 1012.56, F.S. — Educator certification requirements (2026 edition) — read 9 September 2026This is the single question that decides whether an applicant sits no Florida examinations or three. Confirm with the Bureau of Educator Certification before paying the nonrefundable fee.
The Florida Senate, s. 1012.56, F.S. — Educator certification requirements (2026 edition) — read 9 September 2026Authorised by the State Board of Education under Certification Rule 6A-4.0012, F.A.C. Adding a subject is $75 per subject; removing one is $20 per subject; upgrading Temporary to Professional is $75; late renewal is $105.
Florida Department of Education, Certification Application Fee Schedule — read 9 September 2026Only passing exam scores earned no more than ten (10) years prior to the date of application are acceptable.
A mid-career teacher whose subject-area examination predates that window has no usable scores for the examination route.
Florida Department of Education, Subject Area Examinations — read 9 September 2026If a U.S. citizen chooses to have his/her fingerprints processed prior to Florida employment for issuance of the Professional Certificate, it may be necessary to have the fingerprints reprocessed, and the individual may have to pay a second processing fee as a condition of employment in a Florida public school.Florida Department of Education, Certificate Types and Requirements — read 9 September 2026
the department shall issue within 90 calendar days after receipt of the completed application a professional certificate to a qualifying applicant
s. 1012.56(1)(a), F.S. This is a statutory duty rather than a service target.
The Florida Senate, s. 1012.56, F.S. — Educator certification requirements (2026 edition) — read 9 September 2026These four steps lead to your initial Florida certificate
This is the practical reason a Temporary certificate cannot issue before employment. A holder of a valid professional standard certificate from another state qualifies for the Professional certificate without step 3 gating them the same way, which is exactly what makes the tier question on this corridor worth so much.
Florida Department of Education, Certification Steps, and Step 4: Submitting Fingerprints for Certification — read 10 September 2026The Provisional License is a nonrenewable license valid for a period not to exceed three years issued to an individual who has allowable deficiencies for full licensure as set forth in this chapter.Virginia Board of Education (Virginia Administrative Code, published by the Virginia General Assembly), 8VAC20-23-50 Types of licenses; dating licenses — read 10 September 2026
The Collegiate Professional License is a 10-year, renewable license available to an individual who has satisfied all requirements for licensureVirginia Board of Education (Virginia Administrative Code, published by the Virginia General Assembly), 8VAC20-23-50 Types of licenses; dating licenses — read 10 September 2026
The applicant will be restricted to teaching only in the area or areas of concentration listed on the teaching license.Virginia Board of Education (Virginia Administrative Code, published by the Virginia General Assembly), 8VAC20-23-170 Middle education 6-8 — read 10 September 2026
The endorsement, side by side
| Virginia | Florida | |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate or endorsement | Mathematics | Mathematics (6-12) |
| Grade band | 6–12 (the regulation groups it under “secondary grades 6-12”) | 6–12 |
| Named examination | <span class="muted">not captured</span> | Florida subject area test: Mathematics (6-12) |
Note the grade-band mismatch. Virginia issues 6–12 (the regulation groups it under “secondary grades 6-12”); Florida 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
Virginia issues biology, chemistry, Earth science and physics as separate endorsements, and Florida issues Biology, Chemistry, Earth-Space Science and Physics separately at 6-12, so a single-science Virginia teacher has a named Florida counterpart.
Florida Department of Education, Subject Area Examinations — full certification-subject-area to test table — read 10 September 2026Virginia’s secondary subject endorsements sit under the regulation’s “secondary grades 6-12” part, the same span Florida uses for its 6-12 subject areas.
Virginia Board of Education (Virginia Administrative Code, published by the Virginia General Assembly), 8VAC20-23-180 PreK-12, special education, secondary grades 6-12, and adult education endorsements — read 10 September 2026A currently valid National Board certificate satisfies Florida’s three requirements independently, which makes the Provisional-licence question moot.
The Florida Senate, s. 1012.56, F.S. — Educator certification requirements (2026 edition) — read 10 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 $75.
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 Florida.
| Licence class | Corridor | Pack |
|---|---|---|
| Secondary mathematics | Virginia → Florida | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Elementary | Virginia → Florida | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Middle grades | Virginia → Florida | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Secondary science | Virginia → Florida | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Secondary English language arts | Virginia → Florida | Facts on this page · pack not written yet |
| Special education | Virginia → Florida | 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.
Where these facts come from
This page cites 9 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 Florida → · About Virginia →