All students who are recommended for certification in Missouri must begin the certification process by establishing a "profile" on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website. If the student has been a substitute teacher or holds other certificates, this process may already be complete. If not, please follow the instructions below to establish a profile.
Please begin by going to the following website: http://www.dese.mo.gov/
Click “DESE Web Applications” (last option in the blue column on the left of the screen)
Have you created a profile before?
- If yes, login accordingly
- If no, follow these steps:
Profile Creation Steps:
- If you do not have a user name & password, Click “Register”
- Fill the information out accordingly (first name, last name, birth date, etc.)
- Once you choose a User Name & Password, write them down!! Without your user name and password, you will not be able to access this system in the future!!
- Once you are finished, click “Create User”
- Click “Continue”
- Enter User Name & Password, Click “Login”
- The third option under “User Applications” is called “Office of Educator Quality”, click the subcategory: “Licensure System Educator Request Access”
- Click “Submit”
- Click “Close”
- Again, click the subcategory of “Office of Educator Quality”: “Licensure”
- Enter your SSN & Date of Birth, Click “Submit”
- Finally, you can create your profile
- Profile:
- Fill in all Personal Information & Contact Information
- Click “Save Profile” once complete
- Since you have a new profile, the Fingerprint Information, Praxis II Test(s), & Application Status should fill in automatically within 72 hours
- Education:
- Click “Add”
- Fill in all institutions you've attended. If you can’t remember exact attendance dates, use the 15th of the month you started and stopped attending. If you are graduating from MSU this semester, use today’s date in place of your graduation date (the program will not process future dates).
PLEASE NOTE: If you have completed the Praxis II exam or have an FBI Background check on file, those items will not immediately show up once you have created your profile. The DESE online system will link your profile to your Praxis II and background check overnight, so it may be 24 hours before those items appear.
- If you have completed both items but they do not appear within 48 hours of establishing your profile, It's still likely that they have them but their system was not able to match your records automatically. DESE recommends you wait until Missouri State recommends you for certification. At that time, they will attempt to manually locate your Praxis II score report and your FBI background check and transfer them into their system. If they can't, they will then contact you with instructions.