Teacher’s in Florida now have until December 31st to renew their teaching license.

The extension was authorized on Wednesday as part of an emergency order that the state’s Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran signed.

Hundreds of teachers were concerned that they would no longer be able to teach in the state because their licenses expired this summer, but testing centers that would allow them to take their certification exam, were closed due to the coronavirus.

President of the Florida Education Association Frederick Ingram spoke about the extension saying that it is an significant and welcomed change:

“The DOE order is a significant improvement over the previous one-month extension, although it doesn’t go as far as we had asked, to extend waivers through the end of the 2020-21 school year. Hopefully, this issue will be revisited in the future to give teachers more time. No educator should unnecessarily lose her or his job because of the disruption from this pandemic. Florida already has a severe teacher shortage. We need to keep teachers in the classroom.”