Officers reach a renewal page from three very different places. Find yourself below, and read that part first: the answer for a Laredo officer who is early is not the answer for one who is late.

Reader One: Your Expiration Date Is Coming and You Want It Handled

You owe six hours of continuing education. That number comes from §35.161(g), and the same provision says how the hours are earned: by completing the renewal portions of the Level III or Level IV training course, as applicable. The hours must be taught by department-approved training schools and instructors. If you are a commissioned security officer, you also have to submit a firearms proficiency certificate with the renewal application.

Timing is the part people get wrong, and getting it wrong wastes the class. §35.161(n) says continuing education is only valid if it was completed within the two-year period preceding the license’s current expiration date. That is a validity window, not a calendar habit. Hours earned outside it do not count toward this renewal. On the other side of the same clock, §35.161(a) says the renewal application may not be submitted until the required minimum hours have been earned, so there is a floor and a ceiling, and the sensible move is to land comfortably inside both.

Reader Two: You Let It Slide

How far you slid decides which class you need. If you are simply behind but still connected to the industry, the renewal course is still the right product. If you have been away longer, read §35.141(d) carefully: someone inactive or expired who has not been employed in the industry for three years or more must submit current training certificates to the department. In practice that can mean the full Level 3 commissioned officer course rather than a six-hour refresher. Ask first. Buying the wrong class is a slower fix than asking a question.

One exception is worth knowing and almost nobody mentions it. Under §35.182, military service members get two additional years to complete a continuing education requirement or any other renewal-related requirement, and §35.181 waives late-renewal penalty fees for service members. If you have been on orders, you may not be as late as you think.

Reader Three: You Changed Employers and Nobody Told You Whose Records Matter

This comes up constantly in a market like Laredo, where officers move between warehouse and transloading contracts, retail corridors and yard posts as the freight volume shifts. Here is the clean answer: the license is yours, and so is the obligation. §35.161(a) says proof of continuing education is maintained by the employer in the employee’s personnel file and that the licensee indicates completion on the renewal application, but §35.161(m) puts a duty directly on you to keep your certificates of completion for two years and furnish copies to the department on request. If you leave a company, do not assume their file follows you. Keep your own copy.

Officers who move to a larger employer sometimes hear that the company handles continuing education internally. For armed officers, it does not work that way. §35.162(d) states that 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) adds that credits earned through outside entities may not be used for them either. Your six hours come from an approved school, whoever signs your paycheck.

A Fourth Reader, Briefly: You Are Unarmed

If you hold a Level 2 non-commissioned license and work unarmed, none of the above is aimed at you. §35.161(b) specifically exempts noncommissioned security officers from continuing education. And if you are weighing the step up to armed work in the Laredo logistics corridor, the path is the Level 3 course, not this one.

What the Course Is and What It Is Not

• The classroom portion runs 100% online, which matters when six hours has to fit around a rotating shift.
• The price covers the online training only. The in-person firearms qualification is not included and is scheduled separately afterward.
• You receive a certificate of completion, referred to on our site as PSP 31.
• Under §35.162(b)(3), a continuing education school’s certificate shows your name and license number, the date of attendance, the number of hours and the courses attended, signed and dated by the school director.
• Two credentials share this pathway: Level 3, the commissioned security officer, and Level 4, the personal protection officer. They are separate credentials, not two grades of one license.
• If your post involves a shotgun, §35.146(b) sets a biennial familiarization of six rounds of “00” buckshot in connection with renewal of a commissioned security officer.

Nothing here is our interpretation dressed up as law. You can read 37 TAC Chapter 35 directly, and licensing questions belong to the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau. If your situation does not fit any of the three readers above, our FAQ and the full course list are the next two places to look.