Routes to Licensure in Colorado

Applicant Information

Applicants who hold a standard license or certificate in another state or country or have completed the requirements for a license or certificate in another state or country but have not yet been issued a license or certificate in that state, can still submit an initial license application for evaluation.

There are three ways to qualify for a license in Colorado:

Completion of an approved educator preparation program through an accepted, regionally accredited institution of higher education outside the state of Colorado. Your program must be comparable to one of our Colorado state-approved programs.

Completion of an alternative teacher preparation program in your preparing state. Alternative routes to licensure generally involve a teacher preparation program completed while serving as a classroom teacher. This route to licensure is for teachers and principals. Colorado requires that the applicant provide a letter from the organization through which they completed the Alternative program, listing all requirements that the applicant had to meet to qualify for a license.

Completion of a certification program in a foreign country.
The Colorado Department of Education does not determine degree, credit, and program equivalencies for persons with credentials from outside the United States, except for Canadian transcripts which are in English. Colorado requires course-by-course evaluation. Foreign applicants must have their foreign transcripts evaluated for equivalency by:

•Any member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES)

There are four types of licenses in Colorado:

Teacher

Special Services Provider

Principal

Administrator (Superintendent or Director of Special Education).

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