Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

Nothing about your license changes on September 1. Your next course does.

The code edition Texas enforces changes on 1 September 2026. Your license term and your renewal date do not, which is why the effect on you depends almost entirely on where your renewal falls.

Does the September 1 edition change affect my license?

Not on its own. 16 TAC 73.100 adopts a code edition and does nothing to the license term in 16 TAC 73.22 or to the four hours in 16 TAC 73.25. A license issued on 12 March still renews on 12 March.

There is no filing, no notice and no extra fee attached to the adoption. The department does not reissue licenses when the adopted edition moves, and nothing on your record changes that day.

What does move is the content sitting underneath your four hours, because the continuing education rule points at the code as adopted rather than at a particular year.

Which edition does my continuing education have to cover?

16 TAC 73.25(b)(1) names the National Electrical Code as adopted under the Occupations Code, or the current version approved by NFPA. It names no year at all, which is why the requirement follows the adoption without anybody amending the rule.

From 1 September 2026 the code as adopted in Texas is the 2026 edition. A course delivered after that date and taught entirely on 2023 content is teaching an edition the state no longer enforces, whatever its approval number says.

Whether four hours completed on 2023 content before 1 September still satisfy a renewal falling after it is a question the rule does not answer. We are not going to guess at it. It is worth asking the department directly before you rely on the answer you would prefer.

Should I wait until September to buy this year's four hours?

Only if your renewal date lets you. A course bought after 1 September is the one that can be taught against the edition Texas is actually enforcing, and providers publish code update material on the adoption calendar rather than on yours.

If your renewal falls in September or October, look at the course outline before you pay and check that it names the 2026 edition. A course listing that still says 2023 in November is a course nobody has revised.

If your renewal falls in June, this is next year's problem and the four hours you have already completed are fine.

Which edition is a job I am working on held to?

The edition the authority having jurisdiction applies, which is usually the one in force when the permit was issued rather than the one in force today. That is an inspector question, not a licensing one, and the state adoption rule does not decide it.

Cities amend on top of the state adoption, so the governing text in any given city is the state-adopted edition plus that city's own amendments. Ask which edition and which amendments before you price work somewhere unfamiliar.

That is the reason two jobs twenty miles apart can be held to different books in the same week, and it has been true in Texas for as long as cities have had amendment power. September 1 changes the starting point, not the arrangement.

One Texas change worth knowing before you buy a course

Texas did not adopt the 2026 text unaltered. 16 TAC 73.100(b) keeps a ground-fault exception for listed outdoor heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment that the national text retires on 1 September 2026.

It belongs on a licensing page for one reason. Your four hours are supposed to cover the code as adopted in Texas, and a national code update course can be entirely correct everywhere else and wrong here on this point.

If the course you are booking is a national product with a Texas approval bolted on, that is the sort of detail it will miss. Read 16 TAC 73.100(b) yourself. It is one subsection and the difference is a single missing sentence.

What to check on your own record this month

Three dates, all of which you can confirm in under ten minutes.

1. Your renewal date. Take it from the department license search rather than from memory, because it runs from issuance and not from a calendar month.
2. Whether this year's four hours are already completed, and the date on the certificate. You keep that certificate for a year after the course.
3. Which edition the course you are booked on is taught against, if your renewal lands after September.

None of that is new work. It is the same annual cycle with one extra question attached to it this year.

What this page cites

• 16 TAC 73.100 Adoption of the 2026 National Electrical Code effective 1 September 2026, and the Texas amendment at subsection (b). source
• 16 TAC 73.25 Four hours of continuing education for each renewal at (b), the three subjects at (b)(1) through (b)(3), the bar on crediting the same course twice at (e), the one-year certificate at (f), and the approval condition on a provider course at (g). Subsections read in full 24 August 2026. source
• 16 TAC 73.22 One year license term, running from the date of issuance, renewed annually. source
• TDLR Electricians program License search, renewal, registered continuing education providers and the department announcements. source