SCECH Requirements for Michigan Educator License Renewal

What SCECH Means in Michigan

State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECH) are the unit Michigan uses for educator license renewal. The Michigan Department of Education defines one SCECH as one contact hour of approved professional learning. Only activities provided by MDE-approved SCECH Sponsors generate reimbursable hours.

Michigan educators report completed hours through the Michigan Online Educator Certification System (MOECS). SCECH replaced the earlier term State Board Approved Continuing Education Units in the mid-2000s, but the 150-hour renewal requirement has remained consistent.

Michigan Educator License Renewal Requirements

A Standard Teaching Certificate in Michigan is valid for five years. Renewal requires 150 SCECH hours during that validity period. School counselors and school psychologists need 150 general SCECH hours plus additional hours in specialty areas.

Administrators holding a School Administrator Certificate also renew on a five-year cycle with 150 SCECH hours. The Professional Education License follows the same 150-hour requirement. Educators submit renewal applications through MOECS before the certificate expiration date. Michigan does not charge a renewal fee for teaching certificates.

The five-year cycle begins on the issuance date printed on the certificate, not on the date the educator begins teaching. An educator who receives a certificate issued in June must track hours from that month forward.

Who Approves SCECH Activities

The Michigan Department of Education Office of Educator Excellence approves SCECH Sponsors, not individual courses. Approved sponsors include intermediate school districts, colleges, professional associations, and private providers. Each sponsor receives a unique sponsor number that appears on transcripts.

Sponsors submit an annual application to maintain approval status. The MDE publishes a directory of approved sponsors in MOECS under the Professional Learning tab. Activities not delivered by an approved sponsor do not generate reimbursable SCECH hours. Educators who attend a workshop offered by a non-approved provider cannot apply those hours toward the 150-hour requirement.

The annual sponsor application requires a description of planned activities, instructor credentials, and the process for tracking participant completion. Sponsors pay an annual fee to maintain approval status.

How Educators Renew a Michigan Teaching Certificate

The renewal process requires educators to track their own hours and submit documentation through MOECS.

1.Create or log into a MOECS account at mdoe.state.mi.us.

2.Locate your current certificate under the My Certificates tab and note the expiration date.

3.Complete 150 SCECH hours through approved sponsors during the five-year validity period.

4.Verify that each sponsor has uploaded your completion record to MOECS within 30 days of course completion.

5.Review your accumulated hours under the Professional Learning tab in MOECS.

6.Submit a renewal application in MOECS at least 30 days before the certificate expiration date.

7.The MDE reviews the application and issues a renewed certificate if requirements are met.

Educators who wait until the final weeks before expiration often discover that sponsors have not uploaded hours, or that they are short of the 150-hour requirement. The MDE does not grant extensions for incomplete hour accumulation. A lapsed certificate requires the educator to stop teaching until renewal is complete.

SCECH Categories and Specialty Hour Requirements

The MDE assigns SCECH activities to General or specialty categories. General SCECH hours apply to all educators. Most professional development falls into the General category.

School counselors must earn at least 25 hours in College Preparation and Selection and 25 hours in Career Development. School psychologists must earn at least 30 hours in specialty content areas. Reading teachers and specialists must earn at least 60 hours in reading instruction. Specialty hours count toward the 150-hour total but are also tracked separately.

The MDE does not allow educators to meet specialty requirements retroactively. A counselor who completes 150 hours of General SCECH without the required 25 hours in College Preparation and Selection cannot renew. The educator must then earn the specialty hours and resubmit the renewal application.

Where Districts Get SCECH Tracking Wrong

Districts assume that providing professional development automatically generates SCECH hours, but only approved sponsors can award them. Many districts are not approved SCECH Sponsors and must partner with an intermediate district or college to issue hours. A district that delivers in-service training without sponsor approval provides learning but no reimbursable hours.

Districts fail to verify that their intermediate school district has uploaded hours to MOECS before staff renew certificates. Staff may attend out-of-district workshops, and the district has no record unless the educator provides a transcript. Districts do not track specialty hour requirements for counselors and psychologists, leading to renewal denials.

Superintendents often discover at renewal time that staff are short hours because no one monitored MOECS records during the cycle. A teacher who is 20 hours short three weeks before expiration creates an emergency the district cannot solve quickly. Districts that sponsor their own SCECH activities must submit an annual sponsor application and pay the sponsor fee, a step many district leaders do not realize is required.

What Regional Agencies Must Track

Intermediate school districts that are approved SCECH Sponsors must upload participant rosters to MOECS within 30 days of course completion. Sponsors must assign each activity to the correct SCECH category, including specialty designations. A course delivered to a mixed audience of teachers and counselors must be coded to allow counselors to claim specialty hours if the content qualifies.

Sponsors must maintain attendance records and completion documentation for at least seven years. Sponsors must submit an annual report to the MDE listing all activities delivered during the fiscal year. Agencies that fail to upload records on time create compliance problems for member districts. An educator who cannot document hours because the sponsor did not upload the record faces renewal delays that the MDE will not waive.

The 30-day upload window is a hard deadline. Sponsors who batch-upload records once per semester put participants at risk. Educators who check MOECS and find missing hours must contact the sponsor and request an upload, a process that can take weeks.

Managing SCECH Compliance Across Member Districts

District administrators need a single view of which staff hold certificates expiring in the next 12 months and whether those educators have accumulated 150 hours. MOECS provides individual educator records but does not offer district-level dashboards or alerts.

Solutionwhere tracks which educators have completed which SCECH activities and how many hours remain before renewal. The system alerts administrators when staff approach expiration dates without meeting the 150-hour requirement. Solutionwhere stores approved provider records and flags courses that do not carry SCECH approval.

The platform generates reports showing specialty hour compliance for counselors and psychologists. Districts use Solutionwhere to document internal professional learning activities and then submit rosters to their intermediate district for SCECH approval. Agencies that manage SCECH compliance across multiple member districts use Solutionwhere to upload rosters in bulk and to verify that every participant record has been transmitted to MOECS within the 30-day window.

Buy one module, not a suite. Independent since 1996, and a real person answers the phone. See how districts manage SCECH compliance in Solutionwhere.