On the Department of Education’s monthly certification call, Lana Hutchinson and Rachel Norman walked listeners through recent Louisiana Educator Portal (LEP) enhancements and repeated a key clarification about the CLEAR credential.

Hutchinson described several user-facing changes intended to reduce processing errors: a "clear all" button on in-state verification forms to remove imported applicant data, alphabetical ordering of the 'send a start application request' pick list, a new search box above active applications to search across name, application type and site codes, and a Praxis-score search for program providers inside LEP. She also previewed a new application directory read-only view so staff and the public can preview form layouts without entering data.

"The clear all button will just remove everything that's already been entered on that form so you can start from a fresh clean form," Hutchinson said, adding that some dynamic features may not render fully in the preview but the directory is a helpful troubleshooting tool.

Both Hutchinson and Rachel Norman emphasized the operational consequence of misreading certification records: "the clear credential is not a certificate," Norman said, explaining the CLEAR designation only indicates a fingerprint-based criminal background check with no disqualifying convictions and cannot be used in place of an active certificate when requesting certification actions.

Staff urged HR personnel and program providers to verify the 'certificates held' display pulled from the Teacher Certification Management System (TCMS) before routing or approving requests, because ancillary or CLEAR entries are commonly mistaken for active certificates and can lead to denied requests and lost processing fees. Hutchinson recommended using the posted user guides, the LEP applicant guide and the LEC application crosswalk to reduce errors and to contact local security coordinators or data administrators for login and synchronization problems.

The Department also posted role-specific training recordings, links to the School System Support Calendar, and guidance documents on TeachLouisiana.net to support the changes.