Ask any Fort Worth scheduler who has tried to keep a roster of armed officers current and they will tell you the same thing: there is no company renewal season. There are only individual dates, and each one sets its own deadline.
The Rule Measures Backward From One Date
Continuing education for a commissioned officer is governed by a window, not a birthday. §35.161(n) provides that a continuing education course is only valid if completed within the two-year period preceding the license’s current expiration date. Everything hangs off that one date, which belongs to the individual officer and not to the employer, the post, or the contract. Two officers standing the same shift at the same site can be eleven months apart in their windows.
This is why the common shorthand, “renew every two years”, quietly causes trouble. It suggests a rhythm you can keep by habit. The actual rule is a test applied to a date: was this course completed inside the twenty-four months before the expiration date currently on the license? If the answer is no, the hours do not count toward the renewal, however recently they were earned.
Hours First, Application Second. Never the Reverse
The other half of the timing problem sits in §35.161(a), which provides that a renewal application may not be submitted until the required minimum continuing education hours have been earned. You cannot start the paperwork and finish the training while it processes. The same subsection also fixes where the evidence lives: proof must be maintained by the employer in the employee’s personnel file, and the licensee indicates completion on the renewal application.
There is a third appointment in the sequence that officers routinely forget when they plan: a commissioned security officer must submit a firearms proficiency certificate with the renewal application. Our renewal course is 100% online and the price covers the online training only: the in-person firearms qualification is not included and is scheduled separately after the online portion is complete. If you also qualify with a shotgun, §35.146(b) sets a biennial familiarization of six rounds of “00” buckshot in connection with renewal of a commissioned security officer.
A Short Self-Audit
- Find your expiration date and write it down. Everything below depends on it.
- Subtract two years. Any continuing education completed before that point is outside the §35.161(n) window.
- Check whether you have already taken a renewal class in this cycle, and whether it was inside the bracket, not merely recent.
- Check that whatever you took came from a department-approved training school. Site refreshers and employer briefings are not the same thing.
- Leave a margin at the end for the firearms qualification appointment and for the application itself.
Six Hours Around a Fort Worth Shift
Fort Worth’s armed security work sits across several sectors that each run their own clock. The hospital and medical district campuses staff around the clock, and healthcare posts are some of the steadiest armed assignments in the city. The energy and natural-gas company offices that came with the Barnett Shale era, plus the aviation and defense manufacturing base on the north and west sides, bring corporate and industrial-site posts. The rail yards, intermodal terminals and distribution centers along the Alliance and I‑35W corridors run to freight schedules, and the Stockyards district and the downtown convention and rodeo venues add seasonal event work on top.
Very few officers working those posts have an easy six-hour block available, which is the practical argument for online delivery: the hours can be taken in pieces, at any hour, from anywhere inside your valid window, with no drive across the metroplex attached to them.
Your Employer Cannot Teach These Hours to You
§35.161(g) requires commissioned security officers and personal protection officers to complete six hours of continuing education, satisfied by completing the renewal portions of the Level III or IV training course, as applicable, and taught by department-approved training schools and instructors. Two provisions specifically block the shortcuts a large contractor might reach for: §35.162(d) says the in-house continuing education exemption available to companies with ten or more licensed employees does not apply to commissioned security officers or personal protection officers, and §35.162(f) says credits earned through outside entities may not be used to satisfy their requirement. The rule text is public in 37 TAC Chapter 35.
The certificate you receive is PSP 31. Under §35.162(b)(3) it records your name and license number, the date of attendance, the number of hours and the courses attended, signed and dated by the school director, and §35.161(m) makes you responsible for keeping it two years and furnishing copies to the department on request. That obligation does not transfer when you change employers, so keep your own copy rather than relying on a personnel file you may not have access to later.
Cases Where the Dates Shift
Three situations change the calendar. Military service members get two additional years under §35.182 to complete a continuing education requirement or any other renewal-related requirement, with late-renewal penalty fees waived under §35.181. Officers who have been out of the industry three years or more fall under §35.141(d) and must submit current training certificates to the department, which generally points to the full Level 3 course instead of a renewal. And officers working unarmed on a Level 2 non-commissioned license have no window at all. §35.161(b) exempts noncommissioned security officers from continuing education entirely.
One clarification that matters when you enroll: Level 3 is the commissioned security officer credential and Level 4 is the personal protection officer credential. They are distinct licenses that share a renewal pathway, not two ranks of the same one. If you are unsure which renewal portion applies to you, check the FAQ or our class list before paying for a course, and take licensing questions to the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau.
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