Armed Security License Renewal Class in Round Rock, Texas

Renewing a Texas security commission is not one task. It is three, and a continuing education course, ours included, only finishes one of them. Round Rock officers who understand that split early tend not to get caught short.

1. Six hours of continuing education: online, ours, included in what you pay here.
2. Firearms proficiency: in person, on a range, scheduled separately, not included.
3. The renewal application itself: filed by you, with both certificates behind it.

One: the hours, and they have a fixed source

§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. That is the entirety of what our course is: those six hours, delivered 100% online, ending in the certificate of completion this site calls PSP 31.

The approved-school requirement is not a soft preference. §35.162(d) removes commissioned security officers and personal protection officers from the in-house continuing education exemption that companies with ten or more licensed employees can otherwise use, and §35.162(f) says credits earned through outside entities may not be used for them either. Between those two, an armed officer has exactly one legitimate source of CE, and it is an approved school.

Two: the range, which we do not sell you here

Our price covers the online training only. The in-person firearms qualification is not included and is arranged separately after the online course is behind you. We are blunt about this because the consequence of assuming otherwise is a rejected filing: under §35.161(g), a commissioned security officer must submit a firearms proficiency certificate with the renewal application. Two certificates, two different processes, one application.

Officers carrying a shotgun authorization have a second range item to account for. §35.146(b) provides for a biennial familiarization of six rounds of “00” buckshot in connection with renewal of a commissioned security officer. That is live fire by definition, so it belongs in the same trip you plan for your handgun qualification, and equally outside what an online class can do for you.

Three: filing, and the timing trap in front of it

§35.161(a) says a renewal application may not be submitted until the required minimum continuing education hours have been earned; proof is maintained by the employer in the employee’s personnel file, and the licensee indicates completion on the application. §35.161(n) adds the constraint people misread most often: CE is valid only if completed within the two-year period preceding the license’s current expiration date. Read that as a window on a calendar, not as “take a class every couple of years”. Hours earned outside the window do not count toward this renewal regardless of quality.

Hold on to the paper. §35.161(m) makes attendees responsible for keeping certificates of completion for two years and furnishing copies to the department on request, and §35.162(b)(3) describes what a compliant certificate looks like: your name and license number, the date of attendance, the number of hours, the courses attended, signed and dated by the school director.

The Round Rock version of the problem

Round Rock’s armed security work leans toward the things that grew with the city: technology manufacturing and the distribution and logistics properties that feed it, hospital and medical office campuses, and a widening ring of commercial and retail development along the I‑35 corridor north of Austin. Officers on those contracts are usually working compressed shifts, and adding a classroom day in Austin traffic on top of an already-required range day is what turns a straightforward renewal into a procrastination problem. Moving the classroom half online cuts the number of trips you have to plan from two to one, and the one that remains is the one no rule will let us remove.

Cases where this course is not the answer

• You work unarmed. §35.161(b) exempts noncommissioned security officers from continuing education altogether. The Level 2 course is the credential in play, not this one.
• You have been out three years or more. §35.141(d) requires an inactive or expired licensee not employed in the industry for three years or more to submit current training certificates to the department, which usually points to the full Level 3 commissioned course rather than a renewal.
• You are a service member. §35.182 allows two additional years to complete a CE or other renewal-related requirement, and §35.181 waives late-renewal penalty fees for military service members.

And keep the two credentials separate in your head: Level 3 is the commissioned security officer, Level 4 is the personal protection officer, a different job, not a promotion, each renewing through the renewal portion of its own course. The text is public at 37 TAC Chapter 35, licensing sits with the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau, and everything we teach is listed on our classes page.