2024-25 School District Educator Licensing Final Audits

The "Audit Results' screen now offers a variety of filters so that users can build a report that meets the needs for their specific searches. Filters include:

• School Year: dropdown options starting with current year on top, going back for “x” years.
• Snapshot Phase: dropdown option allowing user to select ‘preliminary’ or ‘final.’
• Hiring Agency: listed alphabetically.
• Working Agency: listed alphabetically.
• Working School: a dropdown that becomes searchable once you select ‘Working Agency.’
• Assignment Position: listed numerically by position code (i.e., 05 - 99).
• Assignment Area: a dropdown that becomes searchable once you select ‘Assignment Position.’
• Entity ID: free type field to enter the Entity ID of an individual staff member.
• WISEid: free type field to enter the WISEid of an individual staff member.
• Audit Result Type: Current options include ‘Audit Error’ and ‘Valid License Available &/or Reject.’
• Special Ed Assignment: a yes/no filter.

Once the filters have been set the way you want, click the blue button for the type of results download you want: Generate Results in PDF or Generate Results in Excel.

The audit report you created, based on your selected filters, will show licensing discrepancies and other audit errors your LEA is responsible for resolving. You can download each report as a .pdf or .xlsx file by selecting the appropriate button.

Critical Aspects to Review and Address

Audit Errors

• Audit errors indicate that the educator is not licensed for their assignment. Please note that any special education errors that remain after the final audit may impact special education categorical aid or other funds associated with having an appropriately licensed staff person.
  • To view audit errors, select Audit Error as the Audit Result Type, then click Generate results button for your preferred file type (PDF or Excel).
  • To view Special Education audit errors, follow the steps above and select Yes as the Special Ed Assignment filter before clicking Generate Results.

Audit Rejects

• Audit rejects indicate an educator’s licensed assignment was 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 means the educator is automatically considered unlicensed for the reported assignment.
  • To view audit rejects, select Reject as the Audit Result Type, then click Generate Results button for your preferred file type (PDF or Excel).

Active Staff

To generate a full list of all active staff including those with valid licenses available and those with audit errors, do not select any filters and click the Generate Results button for your preferred file type (PDF or Excel).

Important Considerations

• WISEstaff does not save the audit result report once generated, so DPI recommends downloading and saving the reports within your own network to refer to later.
• The audit result data is static and will not update as your districts makes changes to assignment codes or grades within WISEstaff or if an educator’s license is updated.

Types of Audit Errors

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 DPI. If you have any questions regarding any educator with this notation, please email Educator Licensing.   
• Revoked
  Educator’s license has been revoked by the DPI. Here is more information about the misconduct investigation process.    

Please follow up and 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 can no longer make corrections in WISEstaff after the final WISEstaff snapshot. You may make any corrections to coding errors after the final snapshot via the data errata process. If you have questions or need assistance with data errata, you may request help using the WISEstaff Help Ticket. The licensing audit reflects data from the final snapshot.

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/Special Ed Audit Error or Reject Reports to apply for the appropriate license. If an application has not already been submitted to the DPI, please have the educator submit an application immediately as we cannot consider applications submitted after June 30, 2025 for the 2024-25 school year.  

LEAs may confirm licensing status and see if an application has been submitted 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.

Other Licensing Reports

There are two ways to view those staff whose licenses will expire 6/30/2025, or lifetime license holder staff who are due to submit a background check by the end of the 2024-25 school year.

Look for the 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.  

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 do not use the filter option. You can sort the results by either expiration date column.
• Click the Download Report button to generate the licensing file.

If you have other questions related to the licensing audit, 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.”

The DPI provides this information as a service to support your LEA in meeting state and federal licensing requirements.