Dr. Jofreon, a department staff member who opened the call, and certification staff highlighted processing metrics and team performance during the monthly certification call.

Dr. Jofreon said the certification specialist and background credentialing teams processed nearly 2,600 applications in June, with “90 almost 91% of those applications processed within our 15 business day goal,” and an average processing time “less than 10 business days.” She also said the team resolved nearly 1,300 questions and answered those within one business day.

Paula Bell added that between Jan. 1 and July 11 the department had “granted 11,314 clear credentials,” which reflects background checks that produced no disqualifying convictions and allowed educators to proceed with certification applications.

Staff set a higher throughput target for July and said their goal was to process 3,000 applications in the month; according to the call they had about 1,300 applications remaining to reach that goal at the time of the meeting.

The call included recognition of individual teams and an extended demonstration of the new certification portal; staff encouraged partners to clear pending PDFs before the portal transition so applications would not have to be reentered.