After your successful completion of student teaching, you will be eligible for a Class II Montana Teaching License (Standard License).  A representative from the Field Placement and Certification Office will speak in the Professional Issues classes that follow your field experience.  Applications for licensure in the state of Montana will be distributed.  You will return the applications to the Field Placement and Certification Office, where they will be processed and mailed to the Office of Public Instruction in Helena.  You are not able to apply until after you have finished your student teaching.  The recommendation cannot be sent to Helena until after your transcript has been printed with your degree posted (several weeks after your graduation).  You will  receive your certificate approximately 2½  months after you graduate.

The Class II License is valid for five years.  The license is renewed by verifying the completion of three semester credits and fifteen Renewal Units or four semester credits. Renewals are done on the Office of Public Instruction’s website.

A secondary license is valid for teaching in a subject area in the fifth through the twelfth grades. A 5-12 license will not cover a multiple-subject classroom.  The elementary license is a multiple-subject license and allows a person to teach in any grade and any subject from K-8, even in a special subject area, such as English, history, or math, but not library media.

Licensure/certification in states other than Montana requires the recommendation of a certification officer from the Field Placement and Certification Office at M.S.U.  Applications for licensure in other states can be obtained from the state department of public instruction of the state in which you wish to be certified.  Contact information for all 50 states can be found at How to Contact State Offices of Certification.