Team Showcase: Team Pictures

2004 Winner

Region One The Bureau of Educator Certification Team Florida Department of Education Tallahassee, FL [Press Release]

The Bureau of Educator Certification "72 Can Do Team" is from the Florida Department of Education. The Bureau receives more than 60,000 applications for teaching certificates each year, analyzes them to determine eligibility, and issues certificates. The team's improvement project has resulted in: a 44% increase in application processing capacity; a reduced processing wait time from an average of 113 days to 35 days; the elimination of a backlog of 7,000 delinquent applications; and 100% compliance for all complete applications that are now processed in less than the 90-day state requirement.

The team faced the challenge from the Florida State Board of Education and Commissioner of Education, Jim Horne, to greatly improve processing efficiency and to improve customer satisfaction. A few of the improvements and enhancements were: implementing a secure online certification status lookup for applicants; providing for the electronic submission of required forms from school districts; and making available to school district offices, via the internet, images of all outgoing documents sent from the bureau to applicants.

Counties in Region 1: Bay, Calhoun, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Wakulla, Walton, Washington