South Dakota Department of Education experiencing certification delays

The South Dakota Department of Education has a backlog of more than 1,600 applications from educators seeking certification or recertification that it needs to sort through before the school year starts, officials told lawmakers on the executive board Monday afternoon.

DOE officials attributed the lag to the launch of a new certification system the state has had in development for a while that launched March 3. The system is unique to South Dakota.

Kathryn Blaha, director of the division of accreditation and certification in the DOE, said teachers seeking recertification every five years are used to starting that process in January and have until June 30 to get their applications in on time. However, with the change in the system, the DOE was unable to access any systems to make such applications until the March 3 launch.

Blaha said there were a lot of people accessing the system at that time, and it created quite a backlog for DOE certification officers to get through, at a slower rate than the office is traditionally used to working at.

The launch of this new system also affected the other side of Blaha’s office, which does accreditation for K-12 schools and educator preparation programs. Former Brookings superintendent Klint Willert had cited the state’s certification website’s delays as part of the reasons the district’s accreditation review was slowed down earlier this year.

Messages have gone out to school districts, superintendents and teachers to let them know about the lag, Blaha said.

Applications need to be finalized by the department by Oct. 1, otherwise there could be consequences like teachers’ certificates becoming invalid, therefore losing out on paychecks, or schools losing accreditation if teachers are uncertified, Blaha and DOE Secretary Joe Graves explained to the board Monday.

Graves said educators who turned in their applications by June 30 will be covered and essentially held harmless because of the delay at the DOE level. In the future, the DOE anticipates having a more normal and timely process, he said.

He compared it to the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, which he said was an “absolute disaster” as people tried to apply all at once.

“Our system hasn’t been that bad, but we’ve had a ton of glitches,” Graves said. “(We’re) trying to figure out why it can’t work. We’re working through those (glitches).”

More:South Dakota Board of Technical Education prioritizes tuition freeze for 2025 budget needs

In the past, educators could use their K-12 emails ending in @k12.sd.us to sign on to the former certification system, chief technology officer Pat Snow said, but they needed to use their personal emails to sign in. New user identifications and passwords caused bottlenecks, he explained.

Additional staff from the accreditation office, administrators, secretaries and a part-time staffer have been brought in to Blaha’s office to help with the backlog. Voluntary overtime has also been offered to certification officers as they work through the backlog, too, Blaha said.

She asked for educators’ patience as DOE staff work through their applications. If something is missing in an application, DOE staff will reach out within the system. DOE staff have fielded a lot of questions by email and phone calls and admitted they’re behind, she said.