The Maine Department of Education launched the educator portal of the new online certification system yesterday, June 14, 2018. Following the release of the educator portal, the Department is sharing the results of the release, including some helpful times for those who have yet to log-in and renew:
- On the first day 2,564 educators created their accounts and 1,605 applications were submitted through the new online system. From those applications, 1,498 endorsements were auto issued immediately.
- As of June 21, 2018, more than 7,300 educator accounts have been created, the Department has received more than 4,500 applications and 2,800 of those applicants have received one or more auto issued endorsements (more than 4,100 endorsements have been auto issued so far).
Items to know:
- The renewal process is customized to each individual educator’s file and steps in the process will be skipped depending on what is needed from the educator.
- If educators are renewing a professional or a provisional certificate and no fingerprint checks are required, the certificate will be auto renewed immediately.
- For all other certificates or if anything needs to be checked, the renewal will be placed in a queue for evaluators to analyze.
- If educators have been recommended by their certification chair, there is no need to upload documentation and those steps will be skipped in the process.
- If you are having issues using the internet browser Firefox, please try a different browser (for example, Chrome or Internet Explorer).
- The system will not accept American Express as a payment.
- During payment, when you are asked to input the address it is asking for your billing address, not the address of your credit card company.
Reminder from yesterday’s initial launch communication:
- Download Instructions on How to Create an Account.
- Once your account is created, you may log-in and complete the steps necessary to renew your credential. Please download the step by step instructions on How to Submit a Renewal Application.
- If you are currently working in a Maine public school district and have not been recommended by your certification committee, please confer with your certification chair and/or superintendent.
The Certification Office is available to answer questions by phone at 207-624-6603, Monday through Friday from 9:00AM – 3:30PM.
Further communications and updates are available on the Maine Department of Education Certification Webpage, Maine DOE’s official Facebook and Twitter pages, and the DOE newsroom.