IPMBA Instructor Status Extension (COVID-19)
Thank you for your support of IPMBA. We hope that you are weathering the COVID-19 storm both personally and professionally. We wish you strength and good health as you continue to protect and serve your communities.
We have received a number of inquiries about maintaining instructor status. As you know, in addition to keeping their memberships current, IPMBA Instructors are required to teach at least one approved course every 24 months in order to maintain active instructor status. If they are unable to do so, they have six months during which to complete a supervised co-teach, that is, teach with an active instructor, who must submit the reinstatement form with the balance of the course paperwork.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread cancellation of public safety training, including the IPMBA Conference and numerous IPMBA courses. This has negatively impacted those instructors whose 24-month teaching period or six-month co-teach period was scheduled to expire in 2020.
Because it may be impossible or illegal for instructors to conduct classes in the immediate future, the teaching period for all affected instructors will be extended by 12 months, using the date of the last course on file. This means that your new teaching period expiration date will still be dictated by the date of your last course.
For instance, if your last course submitted was July 2018, your last course date will be advanced to July 2019, which means your instructor status will go inactive at the end of July 2021 instead of July 2020 (if you do not fulfill the teaching requirement) and your co-teach period will be in effect until the end of June 2022.
As a reminder, your 24-month teaching period resets each time you submit course paperwork, so if you are able to teach a course in 2020, your instructor status will be active through the end of the corresponding month in 2022.
Should the crisis continue into 2021, additional extensions will be considered. Individual instructors may also submit requests for further extensions to the Education Coordinator, which will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
If you do not recall the dates of your last class and need to know your revised instructor status expiration date, please contact IPMBA HQ to request that information. Please be patient as the current stay-at-home order may affect the speed at which you receive a reply.
We remain hopeful that those IPMBA Courses that have been cancelled will be rescheduled for later in the year, and those that have not yet been cancelled will be held as planned.
IPMBA remains committed to providing world-class training and resources to public safety cyclists and appreciates the continued support of our members and instructors.
Good luck and good health!