2023-24 School District Educator Licensing Audits

DATE: December 2023
TO: District Administrators, Agency Administrators, and WISEstaff Application Contacts
FROM: Jennifer Kammerud, Director, Licensing, Educator Advancement and Development
(LEAD) Team
SUBJECT: 2023-24 School District Educator Licensing Audits

The Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) LEAD team has completed its review of your local education
agency’s (LEA) WISEstaff data matched against educator licensing records. The corresponding WISEstaff
licensing audit and reports are now available for your review in the WISEstaff system by selecting the
audit results link from the reports menu.
The department is developing a new way to filter your audit results, but that mechanism is still under
development. DPI anticipates its availability soon. In the meantime, you may see the new filtering
mechanism at the top of the audit reports page. This functionality is not operational, however, so
agencies should access the 2023-24 preliminary audit results where all previous years are listed.
You can open and save each of the reports below in the WISEstaff system in the audit results page.
• Active Staff Report
Lists all your LEA’s reported staff in licensed positions for the current school year.
• Audit Error Report
Lists assignments and positions for which it appears the staff member is not fully licensed for
their assignment. The report supplies information about the audit error with more information
about possible audit errors below.
• Special Education Audit Error Report
Lists special education assignments/positions for which it appears that the staff member is not
fully licensed for their assignment. The report supplies information about the audit error with
more information about possible audit errors listed below. Please note that any errors that
remain after the final audit may impact special education categorical aid or other funds
associated with having an appropriately licensed staff person.
• Reject Report
Lists any licensed assignments which were not audited. This typically occurs because the
educator did not have a DPI ELO entity number or because the educator has not applied for
their DPI license. This also means this educator is automatically considered unlicensed for the
reported assignment.
To view those staff whose licenses will expire 6/30/2024 and/or lifetime license holder staff who are due
to submit a background check by the end of the 2023-24 school year, you have two options:
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1. Look for the new widget on the WISEstaff Data Quality Dashboard labeled: “Expiring Staff
Licenses” and “Expiring Background Checks.”
• You will see the number of licenses with expiration dates for the end of the current school
year: if the number is zero, then the widget will be green; if there are one or more licenses
expiring or background checks, the widget will be orange.
• Click the widget to generate a download of the staff whose licenses or background checks
will expire.
2. View licensing details for all staff or view expiring background checks by selecting the “Licensing
Download” link from the Manage Staff Data menu.
• Choose whether to search for staff by ID number or see your full staff list from a working
school year.
• Optional: Select whether to filter the staff list by license expiration date or background
check expiration year; select the year by which to filter. Note: You will still see the license
expiration date and background check expiration year for each educator in the download if
you don’t use the filter option. You can sort the results by either expiration date column.
• Click the Download Report button to generate the licensing file.
Individuals with errors on the Audit Error Report/Special Education Audit Error Report are flagged with
one or more of the following:
• License Not Valid for This Current School Year: Educator does not have the correct license for
their assignment, or the license was not valid for the entire school year.
• Reported Grade Range Outside License Grade Range: Educator is reported in an assignment
that includes a grade range that is above/below the actual license they hold.
• Educator Has No License: Educator was reported in an assignment that requires a license, but
they do not hold a DPI license of any kind.
• No Matching License: Educator was reported in an assignment that requires a license and while
the educator holds one or more DPI licenses, they do not hold an appropriate license for the
reported assignment.
• No Bilingual License: Educator was reported as teaching a bilingual program without the
license.
• Sub License Not Valid for Assignment: Educator was reported as teaching in a regular
assignment but only holds a substitute license.
• Under Investigation: Educator is under investigation by the Department. If you have any
questions regarding any educator with this notation, please email Educator Licensing.
• Revoked: Educator’s license has been revoked by the Department. Here is more information
about the misconduct investigation process.
Please follow up and attempt to remedy all discrepancies noted. Sometimes discrepancies occur,
however due to coding errors. If assignment coding errors exist (e.g., reported an incorrect position,
subject, and/or grades), the LEA should make corrections in WISEstaff. If assistance is needed in making
these corrections, request help using the WISEstaff Help Ticket. Please note: the licensing audit error
reports generated are point-in-time reports. Corrections made in the WISEstaff assignment will not
immediately remove the licensing audit error but will be reflected on the final audit.
If all staff assignments were coded correctly but there is still an audit error, the LEA must work with any
educator who flagged on the Audit Error Report and/or Special Ed Audit Error Report to apply for the
appropriate license. If an application has not already been submitted to the DPI, please have the
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educator submit an application immediately. In this situation, no additional changes to the WISEstaff
report are needed. If the educator becomes appropriately licensed for this current school year’s
assignment, they will not flag as an error again on the final audit.
Agencies may confirm receipt of a current application by accessing the License Lookup. Type in the
educator’s entity # or first name and last name, and click [Submit]. The “Most Recent
Application/Payment Received” shown in License Lookup is the date of the most recent application we
have received from that educator.
If you have any other questions related to the licensing audit reports, please contact the LEAD
Team. Clicking on this link opens a form. In that form, please put the following in the BEGINNING of
your description: Audit of [insert your LEA’s name]. For example, Audit of ABC School District