Nevada teacher licensure for out-of-state applicants

Route

If you are applying for a license with Nevada and currently hold valid, non-conditional, non-provisional licensure from another jurisdiction within the US or US territory, you may be eligible for reciprocal licensure.

ChangeChanged 1 Jul 2026

Allows the Superintendent of Public Instruction to update the names of endorsements, transition endorsements, and to remove endorsements from a license that no longer exist.

Every Nevada endorsement name on this page is a staleness tripwire and is re-checked at each refresh.

ChangeChanged 1 Jul 2026

Repeals NAC 391.136 Endorsement in mathematics and science: Conditions for substitution of course work.

Any guide describing a Nevada maths or science coursework substitution predates this repeal. What replaces it, if anything, is not stated in the summary.

Order of steps

An applicant who chooses to submit fingerprints electronically via Livescan must first register for an account through OPAL to apply for licensure and pay licensing fees.

NDE stopped accepting paper applications on 1 July 2018. It will not review transcripts or documents before an application is submitted.

Who qualifiesTo confirm with the agency

Applicants who hold a valid, non-conditional, non-provisional, and unexpired educator license from another state or country may be eligible for reciprocal licensure in Nevada.

ambiguous_confirm_with_state for any first-tier credential whose name does not say “provisional” but which is issued before all requirements are complete — a California Preliminary credential being the obvious case. The page does not define “non-provisional”. Nevada takes New York’s position on expired licences, not Georgia’s or California’s.

Exemption

Reciprocal licensing, in most cases, will waive testing requirements for Nevada and allow NDE staff to do the evaluation based on a license for license basis.

“In most cases” — the page does not say which cases are excluded.

What to gather

The license(s) held must be uploaded during the application process into the OPAL system as PDF document(s) in the "experience" section under the "out of state licensure" area in OPAL.

Military families

$25.00 – There is a military discount for all Active Duty, Retired, Veterans, and their spouses for New Applications (or reapplying of expired licenses) and Renewals of licenses.

Modest next to Pennsylvania, which exempts veterans and their spouses from every fee, and New Jersey, which waives its whole schedule once.

Examinations

You will need to take and pass all three of the Core Academic Skills for Educators tests in order to be licensed in Nevada.

The only destination researched so far that still requires basic-skills testing; Pennsylvania removed it. It bites where reciprocity does not waive testing.

Exemption

Have passed a basic skills test that is determined by the NDE to be equivalent to the "Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators" in reading, mathematics, and writing.

Every score-based exception carries a ten-year limit.

Teaching meanwhile

an applicant for initial licensure who has not completed all required competency testing may be issued a non-renewable/provisional license which is valid for three (3) years and given three (3) years in order to complete the necessary tests.

Exemption

In some cases, full-time contracted teaching experience may waive student teaching requirements, please see NAC 391.042 for more information.

Fee

$210.00 – New Applications (or reapplying of previous/expired licenses).

Renewals are $180.00; a one-time six-month extension is $30.00. After New Jersey’s $170, Nevada is the most expensive destination in this project at application.

How long

Depending on circumstances, we may receive criminal histories in as little as four weeks, or it may take much longer.

NDE states it has “no control over the time frame involved” because the FBI and the Nevada Department of Public Safety process the checks.

Deadline

The provision removal request and supporting documentation must be submitted prior to the due date to avoid your license and/or endorsement becoming invalid.

The FAQ is explicit that “Submitting the document (transcript, exam score report, etc.) only will not remove the provision.” The request is a separate step.

Deadline

Please note that only one extension of six months may be granted per license period and the request must be submitted via OPAL by your license expiration and/or provision due date(s) per NAC 391.077.

How it goes wrong

Licenses and endorsements will be reciprocated to the closest available license and endorsement available per Nevada regulations.

Nevada’s bands are narrow: secondary is 7-12 and middle school is 7-9. “Closest” can mean a narrower authorisation than the one held — a California preschool-to-12 Single Subject credential has nothing wider to land on.

How it goes wrong

Please note that your employer and the NDE do not share your information and you will (in most cases) be required to do two separate background checks. Failure to background check for the NDE will result in denial of licensure and then you will need to reapply and repay the fees.

A teacher fingerprinted by their new Nevada district who assumes that covers the state loses the $210 application fee.

How it goes wrong

Livescan submissions from out-of-state vendors will not be accepted by the Department of Public Safety for background processing. Anyone who resides out of state and wants to apply for or renew a Nevada educator license must submit a fingerprint card with his or her application.

How it goes wrong

All fingerprint cards submitted for purposes of educator licensing must be on FBI form FD-258 or the equivalent, for the reasons listed on our Background Process page.

How it goes wrong

Per NAC 391.045, ALL licensing fees are nonrefundable, once you have paid through OPAL you are not entitled to any refunds

How it goes wrong

all applicants for a Nevada educator license are required to pass the Praxis series of competency tests, which are administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) completed within ten (10) years prior to application for licensure.

Reciprocity waives testing “in most cases”. Where it does not, a mid-career teacher’s decade-old scores are unusable — Florida’s trap, in Nevada.

How it goes wrong

Unfortunately, we are unable to evaluate transcripts or other education-related documents without a submitted application.

With a nonrefundable $210 fee, this means the applicant pays before learning whether it works — the same posture as New York.

How it goes wrong

Please note that sending multiple inquiries will not expedite the response time and we cannot respond to emails requesting a status check.

Not publishedNot published by the agencyTo confirm with the agency

ambiguous_confirm_with_state. Whether Nevada operates the compact for incoming teachers is not established by any captured source. Florida is the other compact member in this project that is silent about it on its own pages; Pennsylvania is the member that operates it openly.

Not publishedNot published by the agencyTo confirm with the agency

Processing times will vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to the time of year that the application is submitted, current application volume, and if a background check is required for the application.

ambiguous_confirm_with_state. No processing time is asserted on this site for Nevada.

Nevada’s secondary licence is 7-12, matching Texas, New York and Pennsylvania; Florida, Georgia and Colorado use 6-12.