North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board

ESPB has partnered with Frontline to provide online training to individuals with less than 48 credits of college education who are interested in substitute teaching. The training costs $180 and takes approximately 20 hours to complete. Please click on this link to register for the training and make sure you select North Dakota.

 https://www.frontlineeducation.com/substitute-teacher-training/

Once an individual completes the training, they will use the ND Teach Login button above to register and apply for a substitute teaching license. Upon submission of their application, an applicant will be required to also submit the following documents: 

• Frontline Training Completion Certificate
• Fingerprint background check packet  - Please print these forms and follow the instructions: https://www.nd.gov/espb/licensure/background-checks
• Copy of High School Diploma or GED certificate - OR - Official college transcript with any credit earned

Praxis Bridge Presentation to NDACTE

House Bill 1562 (NDCC 15.1-07-34) requires a mandated reporter training for suspected child abuse or neglect for all initial licenses effective August 1, 2025, offered by the ND Department of Health and Human Services. This requirement must be met by completing the training available at https://mandatedreporter.pcand.org/educators-welcome/. You can expect the training to take at least one hour to complete.

After you've completed the training and have received your certificate of completion, please save your certificate as a pdf document, as you will need to upload it to the To Do item section of your application. 

For problems with your Mandated Reporter account please review the troubleshooting document on the Mandated Reporter Training Page before inquiring. After reviewing that document, if you have further problems with your account please reach out to info@familiesflourishnd.org. 

Effective August 1, 2025, the lifetime teaching license will be issued after 25 years of holding a North Dakota teaching license. Those teachers currently on a 5 year teaching license must have the 6 reeducation credits completed to move off their five year license and into the 25 year lifetime license (67.1-02-02-01). 

• The application for the 25 year life license will be available starting on July 20, 2025. This will allow ESPB time to transition from the 30 year lifetime license to the 25 year lifetime license.
• Any teacher may apply online in their NDTeach account after July 20th for the lifetime license once they have reached 25 years of licensure in ND and met the reeducation requirements of the license they currently hold - they do not need to wait until their current license is up for renewal.
• Applicant will upload transcripts showing completion of their reeducation credits earned since their last renewal to their application for renewal.

In addition, a second part of the law will now require those on a lifetime license to report to ESPB every 5 years of their intent to keep teaching and disclose any background check issues that might prohibit them from holding a valid license. This will affect those who currently hold a 30 year lifetime license, as well as those who will be issued the 25 year lifetime license. There will be no cost to this process. Those currently holding the 30 year lifetime license will be contacted by ESPB in the future using their email address in NDTeach; no action needs to be taken at this time. Please check that you have a valid email address in your NDTeach account to help ensure successful communication in the future. 

Candidates for a North Dakota teaching license who have completed their teacher preparation program outside of North Dakota have two options for licensure in North Dakota:

1. If they hold a teaching license in another state or territory in the United States of America, and completed an accredited education program with student teaching, they can submit an application for an Other State Educator License (OSEL) in ND. They will provide copies of their teaching license in another state, standardized test score reports, and official transcripts. North Dakota will honor their out of state program and tests and they could be issued a similar teaching license in ND. Applicant must complete a successful background check. 
2. If they do not hold a valid teaching license in another state, the candidate can apply for an Out-of-State Reciprocal License. This license is issued for a period of 2 years and can be renewed for 3 additional years, giving them a total of 5 years to meet North Dakota licensure standards. They must have completed an approved teacher education program which included student teaching and complete a successful background check.