It’s getting easier for military spouses to transfer professional licenses
Military spouses who are teachers often face barriers when transferring their license between states. (DoDEA Pacific/Flickr)
When Libby Jamison went to law school in California she thought she was choosing a career path that would be conducive to her new life as a military spouse.
“I thought, ‘There’s lawyers everywhere,” she said on a recent episode of The Spouse Angle podcast. “‘This is a great career choice. It’s going to be easy no matter where we land I am going to be able to find a job because everybody always needs an attorney.’”
But as Jamison would soon realize, state licensing requirements would make it difficult for her to work, depending on where her family moved. After 10 years in San Diego, her Navy-pilot husband got orders to Florida, which meant Jamison would have to take another bar exam and pay hefty fees to be able to practice there.
So, as many other military spouse attorneys have done, Jamison opted not to.
Now, some states are making it easier for military spouses in licensed professions — including teaching, medicine, cosmetology and other career fields — to transfer their licenses when they move, potentially saving families hundreds of dollars and monthslong waits.
About one-third of military spouses are in a career field that requires a certification or license of some kind, Military Times recently reported. And a recent Defense Department survey found that one in five active-duty spouses in these types of professions was waiting 10 months or more to get their credential after a permanent change of station move, or PCS.
Kim Lopez, an Air Force spouse who has worked as an educator for 20 years, said there have been many professional compacts in the past few years, which she considers the best way to mitigate this issue, since most licensing laws are made at the state level, not federal.
“Some states are now, at least in the education realm, starting to be so much more aware of these processes and realizing that they put up barriers that they didn’t ever intend to have there, especially with major teaching shortages,” she said. “They want to pull those barriers down. So many of them are doing state legislation, which is helpful.”
In February, the governor of Massachusetts signed an executive order improving license portability by participating in interstate compacts, or collaborations that simplify the process for professionals moving between states. Lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Arkansas also recently signed similar bills into law.
The military also recently upped the amount it reimburses spouses for transferring their licenses — from $500 per PCS to $1,000 — and entered into an agreement with the Council of State Governments’ National Center for Interstate Compacts to offer grants that will help develop model legislation to help address license transfer issues affecting military spouses and others in five fields: teaching, social work, cosmetology, massage therapy and dentistry/dental hygiene.
Jamison, a past president of the Military Spouse JD Network, said she believes all states have some type of plan in place to combat this issue.
But getting the compact or legislation in place is only the first step, both guests said on the episode. Next is making sure that the states can fulfill their obligations under those agreements and making sure they’re culturally competent to the military spouse lifestyle.
“The overarching goal, from my perspective, is that we find a seamless process for a military spouse who is a licensed professional to make a move, to make a PCS, without reinventing the wheel,” Lopez said. “The smoother we can make that process, the easier and less stressful it is for a military family. Therefore, we’re not having those conversations at the dinner table where spouses are saying, ‘I’m not happy anymore with this military lifestyle.’”