Minn. Stats. 122A.09

Minnesota Rules 8710.

Applying for a first-time Minnesota educator license and on-line license renewal is available on the MN Dept. of Education website at Apply for or renew your license, view your clock hour record or renewal requirements.

Application information and forms are also available on the MN Dept. of Education Licensing web page.

Minnesota operates on a single packet submission basis. The completed application, all supporting transcripts, documents, fingerprint card, and fees must be submitted in the same envelope. Partial or incomplete submissions will be returned to the applicant.

Related Services Personnel :

Related Services Personnel include School Counselors, School Nurses, School Psychologists, School Social Workers, and Speech/Language Pathologists. Licensure in these fields does not require compliance with the Minnesota human relations, teacher testing requirements. In addition, applications for School Counselor (if the program completed is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP]), School Nurse, School Psychologist, School Social Worker and Speech/Language Pathologists do not require a recommending signature. List the college/university through which the program was completed and attach in a college/university sealed envelope an original transcript. Fee is usually paid online with credit card.


Fingerprinting Requirements and Fee:

Effective January 1, 1996, Minnesota State Law requires that all candidates applying for initial licensure be finger printed for national criminal background checks. The background check requires that one fingerprint card be submitted with the initial licensure application. A state background check will also be conducted. The processing fee for the FBI fingerprint based criminal history background is $26.25.

Fingerprinting must be completed on the card supplied by the MN Dept. of Education. To request a fingerprint card contact mde.educator-licensing@state.mn.us.

Any license that is issued may be revoked based on the results of the background check.

Refer to:

New Licensure Instructions and Registration Guide

Human Relations Requirements

Early Childhood Family Education Clarification

Teacher Testing Requirements and Testing Chart revised August 2012

See Fingerprinting Requirements and Fee in the Requirements section above. Fees are non-refundable processing fees and will not be returned to applicants not qualifying for licensure.

License Fee:
First-time online application - $90.65
Online renewals - $64.40

Licensing surcharge to be assessed

The Minnesota Legislature passed legislation requiring a 10% surcharge of no less than $5 and no more than $150 on each business, commercial, professional or occupational license. The funding from this surcharge will go to MN.IT Services (formerly Office of Enterprise Technology (OET)), which is establishing an electronic licensing system for the state. The surcharge will be in place through June 30, 2015. See Minn. Stat. § 16E.22.

Varies depending upon the type of license.

Contact the Department.