Alabama Public Safety Telecommunicator Certification Program

During the 2022 Regular Legislative Session, HB414 was introduced.  Part of this bill mandated that the Alabama 9-1-1 Board establish a certification program to train and certify public safety telecommunicators (PST) employed by primary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs).  Following passage by the House and Senate, HB414 was signed into law by Governor Ivey on April 14, 2022 becoming Act 22-387.  In the latter half of 2022, Board staff began implementation of its Certification Program.   An administrative rule-making occurred and resulted in Rule 585-X-5, Public Safety Telecommunicator Certification Program becoming effective in mid-October 2022.

Also during this timeframe, Board staff worked to gather data from its 85 Emergency Communication Districts (ECDs) and the primary PSAPs within each of those ECDs.  Through these efforts, nearly 1,600 PSTs have been identified as employed by primary PSAPs and in need of certification according to the Code of Alabama, 1975, as amended.  The Alabama 9-1-1 Board Public Safety Telecommunicator Program officially launched on January 3, 2023.   

Enrollment & Forms:

An initial requirement of the program is that every PST employed by a primary PSAP must be enrolled in Virtual Academy, the platform through which certifications will be issued and tracked,including CEUs and renewals.  To enroll in Virtual Academy, a PST must contact the Admin user for the agency they are employed by or the office of the Alabama 9-1-1 Board at 334-440-7911.

The following forms are associated with the program:

  • PST Certification New Employee Form - This will be filled out quarterly to notify the Board of any new telecommunicators you hired during the preceding quarter.
  • PST Certification Employee Update Form - This will be filled out quarterly to notify the Board of any telecommunicators who have changed positions or left employment and no longer answers 911 calls.  These reasons include -- retirement, promotion, resignation, termination, etc.
  • PST Course Approval Form - If you utilize an in-house program or on-the-job training for your telecommunicators, submit it here for Board approval for certification.  You can watch a webinar on filling out this form here.
  • ALPST-1 Intent to Test Form - This form will be used by test proctors to request the Competency Exam be assigned in Virtual Academy.  For more information, watch this webinar. The bulk of the content on the exam begins at minute 15:00.  To help PSTs prepare for the competency exam, we have prepared a list of recommended courses in Virtual Academy.  The list can be downloaded here.

Webinars:

Webinars about the program are: