How to Become a Principal in North Carolina

North Carolina principal requirements, step by step

School Administrator – Principal (Class P at master’s level). Each requirement is stated as North Carolina Department of Public Instruction publishes it, with the governing source cited.

1. 1

   Complete an approved school administration program at the master’s level or above

   Finish a North Carolina-approved school administration program at the master’s level or higher. NCDPI issues the School Administrator – Principal license as Class P at the master’s level.

   Source: dpi.nc.gov

2. 2

   Do not plan on a provisional principal license

   North Carolina does not issue provisional principal licenses for service as a principal. A candidate must hold the appropriate School Administrator – Principal license before serving in that role.

   Source: dpi.nc.gov

3. 3

   Understand the limited provisional assistant-principal option

   Provisional assistant principal licenses are possible only when a local board determines a shortage. The holder must affiliate with a master’s school administration program before the license expires. The provisional assistant principal license is issued for three school years.

   Source: dpi.nc.gov

4. 4

   Treat superintendent as a separate license

   Superintendent licensure is not the Class P principal license. NCDPI describes superintendent as a separate area that requires specialist or doctoral preparation, or a local-board exception with five years of leadership or managerial experience.

   Source: dpi.nc.gov

5. 5

   Apply through the NCDPI Online Licensure System

   Submit the School Administrator – Principal application in the NCDPI Online Licensure System after the approved program posts its recommendation. Use the administrators-and-student-services licensure page and the areas-of-licensure directory to confirm the Class P code.

   Source: dpi.nc.gov

North Carolina’s principal title is exact: School Administrator – Principal, issued as Class P at the master’s level. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s administrators-and-student-services page makes completion of an approved school administration program at the master’s level or above the academic core of that license. There is no published NCDPI principal-exam requirement on the pages used for this bundle, so candidates should confirm any testing expectations with the approved program and NCDPI rather than importing an exam from another state.

The hard line is the absence of a provisional principal license. Districts that are used to placing an unlicensed teacher-leader as “acting principal” while coursework finishes will not find a DPI authorization that matches that practice. Service as a principal requires the Class P license. The only provisional flexibility NCDPI describes in this cluster is for assistant principals, and even that door opens only when a local board determines a shortage.

A provisional assistant principal license is issued for three school years, not for a calendar year and not indefinitely. Before it expires, the holder must affiliate with a master’s school administration program. Affiliation is an enrollment relationship, not a promise to think about graduate school later. Boards that vote a shortage finding without seating the new assistant principal in an approved program are creating a three-year cliff rather than a staffing solution.

Superintendent work lives on a different row of the areas-of-licensure directory. NCDPI treats superintendent as a separate license that ordinarily requires specialist or doctoral preparation, with a local-board exception that demands five years of leadership or managerial experience. A Class P principal license does not become a superintendent license by longevity. Applications for all of these titles file through the NCDPI Online Licensure System; choosing the student-services or curriculum-instructional-specialist area instead of School Administrator – Principal is a preventable coding error on an otherwise complete master’s file.

Required exams and fees

North Carolina uses Confirm with NCDPI / approved program. Fees and cut scores appear only when published by the cited source (as of September 2026).

Institutions with educational leadership programs

The table lists educational leadership CIP codes and award levels from IPEDS. This extract reported no completion counts, so none are shown. An award conferred does not mean the program is approved to recommend candidates for School Administrator – Principal (Class P at master’s level). Verify approval with North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

Moving an administrator credential to North Carolina

Confirm out-of-state administrator evaluation rules directly with North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This site does not republish NASDTEC interstate-agreement text.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction