State-by-State Required Dispatcher Training

We're gathering new and updated information on state-required training for public safety dispatchers--not the training that your individual agency provides or requires. If your state has training requirements for initial or on-going training, help us out--e-mail the name of your state, along with the number of hours of initial and on-going training. If your state has no requirement, send us zero for that category, and include any explanatory comments.

Here is the information that we've collected so far. See the footnotes at the bottom of the list. States with no listing indicate we haven't collected information so far.

State

Initial
Training
Hours

On-Going
Training
Hours

80

2

120

24

80

360

40

208 (6)

349 (9)

40

40

8

160

16

320

40

40

24

32

8

80 (8)

24

40

160

40

16+

16/40

16

0 (5)

0

0

320/320(10)

24 - EMD

90

90

120

40

0 (3)

40

80

12-16

104

24+

80

80

80 (7)

8 (2)

40

10

24

12

280

40

360

30

58

20

• (1) work in progress on establishing standards
• (2) every two years, minimum
  
• (3) 40 hours initial training required for sheriff's dispatchers only
  
• (4) 16 hrs within 1 yr of hire and 16 hrs of CDE every 2 years for a single agency type (police, fire, etc.) 911 comm center;
  if you dispatch 2 or more agency types it is 40 hrs within 1 year of hire and 40 hrs of CDE every 2 years following
  
• (5) 80 hours of training available from state academy, but not required
  
• (6) voluntary, not financed. Download legislative bill (pdf)
• (7) within six months of taking the job
• (8) funding started in 1999; standards developed starting in 2005; standard finished in 2007; enabling legislation may be passed during 2009. It includes training standards for trainers.
• (9) 181 classroom and 168 on-the-job
• (10) 320 hours of classroom, 320 hours of mentored training