Armed Security License Renewal Class in San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio contract security companies run big rosters, and the supervisor tracking expiration dates across forty armed officers hits the same wall an individual officer does: a continuing education certificate is only half of what the renewal file needs.

What this course is, stated narrowly

It is the six hours of continuing education that §35.161(g) requires of commissioned security officers and personal protection officers, earned the way that rule specifies, by completing the renewal portions of the Level III or IV training course, as applicable, and taught, as the same rule requires, by a department-approved training school and instructors. We deliver all six hours 100% online and issue the certificate of completion the site refers to as PSP 31. That is the whole of what is included.

What this course is not

It is not your firearms qualification. The price covers the online training only; the in-person qualification is not included and has to be scheduled separately after you finish online. There is no version of this that happens through a screen, and the reason it matters administratively is right there in the same subsection that sets the six hours: a commissioned security officer must submit a firearms proficiency certificate with the renewal application. A roster spreadsheet that tracks only CE completion is tracking half the obligation.

If your commission covers a shotgun, add one more range item. §35.146(b) provides for a biennial familiarization of six rounds of “00” buckshot in connection with renewal of a commissioned security officer: stated exactly like that, tied to renewal, and impossible to satisfy anywhere but a range.

“We do our own training” does not substitute

Large employers in this market often do run substantial internal training programs, and the instinct is to assume that covers CE. For armed personnel it does not. §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. §35.162(f) closes the other route: CE credits earned through outside entities may not be used to satisfy the requirement for those same officers. The practical reading is simple. For your commissioned staff, the hours come from an approved school and nowhere else.

Counting the window backwards from expiration

§35.161(n) makes continuing education valid only when completed within the two-year period preceding the license’s current expiration date. Count from the expiration date backwards, not from the last class forwards. That is the difference between a window and an interval, and it is where good-faith early training occasionally lands outside the lines. Then §35.161(a): the renewal application may not be submitted until the minimum hours are earned, proof is maintained by the employer in the employee’s personnel file, and the licensee indicates completion on the application.

The officer has a retention duty of their own under §35.161(m). Keep certificates of completion for two years and furnish copies to the department on request. §35.162(b)(3) sets out what the school’s certificate must show: name and license number, date of attendance, number of hours, courses attended, signed and dated by the school director, with the school holding its records for two years.

The San Antonio picture

Few Texas cities have a wider spread of armed posts than San Antonio. The South Texas Medical Center concentrates hospital and clinical security into a few square miles, the downtown tourism and convention district generates hotel and venue work, and the surrounding ring, logistics parks, manufacturing along the southern and eastern edges, utility and data facilities, keeps a steady demand for commissioned officers who can hold a fixed post. It is also a city with an unusually large population of veterans and active-duty service members moving into private security, which makes one rule worth flagging louder here than elsewhere: §35.182 gives military service members two additional years to complete a continuing education requirement or any other renewal-related requirement, and §35.181 waives late-renewal penalty fees for them. If a deployment cost you a renewal cycle, ask before you assume the worst.

Check you are buying the right thing

• Unarmed officers have no CE obligation at all. §35.161(b) exempts noncommissioned security officers. If that is your license, the non-commissioned Level 2 training is your track.
• Inactive or expired and out of the industry three years or more? §35.141(d) requires current training certificates to be submitted to the department, which normally means the full commissioned officer course rather than a renewal module.
• Level 3 and Level 4 are separate credentials sharing one renewal pathway. Commissioned security officer and personal protection officer respectively. Level 4 is not a senior version of Level 3.

Everything cited here is in Chapter 35 of Title 37 and licensing is administered by the DPS Private Security Bureau. Supervisors enrolling several officers at once, or anyone unsure which course applies, will find the usual questions answered on our FAQ.