Mississippi teaching license lookup and renewal, including expired licenses and retired teachers

1. How to look up a Mississippi teaching license

Mississippi licenses are issued by MDE's Division of Educator Licensure. MDE's Guidelines say: “The Division of Educator Licensure is the sole program office within the Mississippi Department of Education authorized to issue licenses”. Its public lookup is part of MECCA, the Mississippi Educator Career Continuum Archive.

• Where: the Public Search page at licensure.mdek12.org. MECCA's own link to it is named Public Educator License Search.
• How to search: the page has boxes for first name, last name and Educator ID.
• From a printed license: MDE's sample license says: “Scan QR code to access up-to-date information on the public lookup website to validate license.”

A copy of your own license

You sign in to your own account at mecca.mdek12.org. MDE's sample license says: “This license can be printed from within the license section of an individual profile.” For a mailed copy, the Guidelines describe applying online and paying by debit or credit card, or mailing a paper application “and a $5 money order (Personal checks are not accepted)”. MDE's How to Apply page lists the duplicate fee as $5, online or by money order.

2. The standard license: five school years, expiring June 30

MDE's Guidelines define it in one line: “Standard License - A standard license is an unencumbered clear renewable license.” The rules for how long it lasts:

• Five school years: “A five-year license issued at any time during the school year shall be valid for five (5) school years including the school year in which it is granted.”
• June 30: “All licenses expire on June 30th of the year of expiration.” A school year runs from July 1 to June 30.
• The start date: “Licenses will be valid from the day the completed application packet is received and validated by the Division of Educator Licensure.”

Class levels. Every license carries a class level, and the Guidelines (page 12) name each class by degree level (the table below). To move a valid standard license to a higher class, you apply in MECCA for a license upgrade, and your college sends the official transcript of the advanced degree straight to MDE (section 3); the Guidelines say “the degree earned must be from a regionally or nationally accredited college or university.” The class on your license sets what renewal takes (section 3):

Other kinds of license. “Only a five-year standard license is eligible for renewal, unless otherwise noted under a specific license type.” The Guidelines describe a nonrenewable license as a temporary authorization that “is typically valid for up to three years and cannot be renewed.” Special education areas, codes and tests are in our special education license guide.

3. How to renew a Mississippi teaching license in MECCA

Every application, renewals included, goes through MECCA. The Guidelines: “All applications and supporting documentation must be submitted electronically through the educator’s assigned Mississippi Educator Career Continuum Archive system (MECCA) account.” MDE's Renewal and Reinstatement Options page lists the same options as the Guidelines. Any one of them renews a five-year standard license:

• What counts as one unit: the Guidelines count ten contact or clock hours of professional learning as one continuing education unit.
• What subject: credit must be in your content area or a job or skill related area. “Renewal requirements referencing content area courses refer to the area of endorsement (e.g., mathematics, science, special education, etc.).”
• When it was earned: “Only credits earned within the renewal cycle indicated on the educator’s official Mississippi educator license may be used for licensure renewal.” MDE's sample license marks those dates: “PD credits must fall between these dates.”
• College courses: undergraduate or graduate courses at an accredited college, with a grade of C or higher.
• Who can grant credit: MDE no longer approves professional learning programs itself. “Any Continuing Education Office at a college, university, or community/junior college is an accredited professional learning credit granting agency.” The Guidelines also accept credit from providers approved by an accredited college or university or by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), and, with conditions, from professional associations.

How to file. In MECCA, you complete the renewal application and upload a PDF copy of each original continuing education certificate or your National Board documentation. College transcripts are different: “Official academic transcripts must be submitted directly to the Division of Educator Licensure by the university or college electronically”. MDE's How to Apply for Renewal page says transcripts you upload yourself are not accepted, and its Document Submission page asks you to upload each certificate only once.

What a certificate must show. MDE's How to Apply for Renewal page lists the training dates, your name, the training's name, the issuing agency, the signature of the agency's designated official, and the number of continuing education units, contact hours or clock hours. It also says a certificate whose hours and units don't follow the ten-hours-per-unit formula may not be counted for renewal.

• Proof of lawful presence: “Citizens of the United States are required to submit appropriate documentation for verification once during their next most immediate licensure application submission.” MDE's renewal checklist lists the form if you have not sent it before. The rule for non-US citizens is different: “Non-US citizens are required to submit appropriate documentation for verification with each licensure application submission, or when their United States Citizenship and Immigration Services documents expire, whichever comes first.”
• The application's own clock: “The licensure application submitted to the MDE Division of Educator Licensure will expire 180 days from the date it is received”.
• What renewal gives you: “The license may be renewed for one five-year period beyond the present expiration date.”

When you can file. We found no earliest date to file a renewal based on credits in the Guidelines or MDE's licensure pages. MDE's sample license says the new effective date “may be a future date if the license is renewed early.” The two final-year options (a PERS letter or an out-of-state license) can be used only in the license's last year.

Fees. MDE's Guidelines (August 2026) and the MDE licensure pages read for this guide print no fee for a license application, renewal or reinstatement. That is not the same as saying renewal is free, so ask MDE's Division of Educator Licensure (section 7). The one licensure fee they print is $5 for a mailed duplicate license.

Does tutoring count toward renewal?

The Guidelines and MDE pages read for this guide don't say that tutoring for a company counts toward renewal. Renewal credit comes from the options in the table: continuing education credit from an accredited provider, college coursework, National Board, or the two final-year options. The Guidelines define licensure as recognition “authorizing them to serve in P-12 public educational settings.” Before you count any tutoring toward a renewal, ask MDE.

4. If your Mississippi teaching license has expired

MDE's word is reinstate. Its Renew or Reinstate My License page says reinstatement is for an educator who has held a five-year standard renewable license that has expired. The Guidelines list four ways:

• The one-year reinstatement: “When renewal requirements are met, educators must submit a licensure application to obtain the remaining four years of the standard renewable five-year license”. MDE's How to Apply page adds that a one-year reinstatement cannot be issued twice in a row.
• Old credits: “Documentation submitted for renewal must have been completed within or after the most previous renewal cycle.”
• A license that expired during an investigation: the Guidelines quote Mississippi Code § 37-3-2(14)(b): “A person whose license expires while under investigation by the Office of Educator Misconduct for an alleged violation may not be reinstated without a hearing before the commission if required based on the results of the investigation.”
• Not found: any limit on how long a license may stay expired, and any reinstatement fee amount. The Guidelines' glossary says reinstatement “may require the applicant to meet specific criteria, such as completing professional development, passing assessments, paying fees”, without naming an amount. Ask MDE.

For SpecialEdResource's tutoring job: if your license has expired or is inactive, you can still apply, as long as you’ll renew it before you start. We check licenses before the first interview. For an expired Mississippi license, MDE calls that step reinstatement (the table above).

5. Retired from a Mississippi public school: the PERS letter

We found no lifetime, permanent or retired-status license in MDE's Guidelines, and, as we read them, nothing in them says that retiring ends a license. What they offer retired teachers is an option in the renewal and reinstatement lists:

• The document: “Official documentation of retirement from service in Mississippi public schools (Official letter shall be obtained from the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi by calling 1-800-444-7377)”.
• To renew: “Documentation for use of this option shall only be submitted for renewal during the final year of the valid license.” It is open at every class level.
• To reinstate an expired license: a completed reinstatement application and the PERS letter give a five-year license.
• The letter's date: “The official letter must bear a date that reflects the current year the documentation is submitted for licensure renewal.” The reinstatement row says the same for reinstatement.

Retired from another state's system? The option names retirement “from service in Mississippi public schools”. As we read it, a teacher retired only from another state's system would renew or reinstate with credits or an out-of-state license instead; MDE has not said so directly, so ask MDE.

Working after you retire is covered in our PERS return-to-work guide.

The guide quoted below is PERS’s “Thinking of Returning to Work?” (revised September 9, 2024; its break period and options are out of date since July 1, 2026). If you are a PERS disability retiree, different rules apply. Until your disability benefit converts to a service retirement benefit (at age 60 under the Age-Limited Plan, or at the end of the temporary period under the tiered plan), PERS limits what you may earn from all work, not only work for PERS-covered employers, and you must send PERS a copy of your federal income tax return each year, within 30 days after it is due. PERS’s guide also says: “Disability retirees cannot be reemployed in the same general position from which they retired or in a position with similar job requirements.” Ask PERS before you take any job. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

6. Licensed in another state? Reciprocity and the compact

MDE's Guidelines: “The department shall grant a standard five-year license to any individual who possesses a valid standard license from another state, or another country or political subdivision thereof, within a period of twenty-one (21) days from the date of a completed application.”

• What you send: the Mississippi licensure application, your valid standard unencumbered out-of-state license, and official sealed transcripts showing a bachelor's degree or higher.
• The match: reciprocity applies “provided that the license corresponds to a licensure area, grade level, and degree level for which Mississippi offers a comparable standard educator license/endorsement.”
• A less than standard license: it can lead to a two-year provisional license. “Validity. The Two-Year Provisional Reciprocity License is valid for two (2) years and is nonrenewable but can be converted to a standard five (5)-year renewable license upon completion of ancillary requirements.”
• What doesn't count as less than standard: residency, internship, preservice, emergency, local district-requested, and temporary or permit licenses meant for teaching only in the state that issued them. And a less than standard license issued for reasons other than finishing a state-approved educator preparation program is not accepted for the five-year Mississippi license.
• Military-trained applicants, military spouses and new residents: the Guidelines handle their reciprocity licenses under Mississippi Code § 73-50-1 or § 73-50-2, as applicable. Section 73-50-2 was amended by 2026 House Bill 479, in force July 1, 2026. For a person who establishes residence in Mississippi, it covers a license held in good standing in another state for at least one year, and one of its conditions is that the applicant “pays all applicable fees” in Mississippi, with no amount named. The Guidelines don't say how MDE applies it alongside reciprocity, so ask MDE.

The Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact

Mississippi enacted the compact in 2024 (House Bill 1450, approved by the Governor May 13, 2024, effective July 1, 2024). By the bill's own text, the compact itself comes into effect only when the tenth member state enacts it, and in Mississippi it binds only where it is consistent with Mississippi law. MDE's August 2026 Guidelines don't mention it. We could not confirm from any Mississippi agency page whether the compact is issuing licenses or whether MDE processes compact applications. The route MDE's Guidelines describe is reciprocity.

For SpecialEdResource's tutoring job: Licenses and special education certification from any US state are welcome. The hiring site also asks that you “live in one of the states where we can currently employ tutors”, and Mississippi is one of them, so Mississippi residents can apply.

7. Contacts: MDE’s Division of Educator Licensure and PERS

• Email: teachersupport@mdek12.org.
• Phone: 601-359-3483. The Guidelines give the division's hours as Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; MDE's licensure home page gives the call center's hours in Central time.
• Transcripts from your college: through a transcript exchange service such as National Student Clearinghouse or Parchment, or by email to transcript@mdek12.org.
• Mail: only for a paper duplicate-license request with a $5 money order. The Guidelines: “No documents should be submitted via postal mail except when submitting a money order and paper application to request the purchase of a duplicate license.” The address is Division of Educator Licensure, P. O. Box 771, Jackson, MS 39205-0771.
• Online: MECCA for applications; MDE's Educator Licensure home page, which posts the week of applications it is now processing.
• Retirement questions: PERS, 800-444-7377, pers.ms.gov.