Texas TCOLE’s Sept. 1 Rule 218.3: Supervisor and ALERRT Clocks Training Staff Cannot Miss

If you run a Texas training roster, September 1 probably did not feel like a holiday. It felt like someone moved three columns on a spreadsheet you thought was already locked.

TCOLE Rule 218.3, adopted in the August 21, 2026 Texas Register and effective September 1, 2026, did not invent ALERRT for peace officers. Senate Bill 1852 already put that work on the board. What the amendment changed is who else is on the clock, and it added a new continuing-education line for every peace officer in a supervisor assignment.

In plain English: the peace-officer ALERRT unit did not reset, supervisors now owe advanced incident-response and command training every two-year unit, and reserve law enforcement officers plus public security officers picked up their own ALERRT deadlines. Miss any one of those populations and the “we’re covered” spreadsheet is wrong.

Rule 218.3 is a continuing-education rule. It tells you who owes what. It is not a course reporting number.

What the adopted-rules table actually added

TCOLE’s commission-rules page lists Rule 218.3 among the August 21, 2026 adoptions. The Commission’s own one-line summary does two jobs:

• Supervisors: complete advanced incident-response and command continuing education each two-year training unit.
• Reserve law enforcement officers and public security officers: complete ALERRT continuing education each four-year cycle, and complete ALERRT Level 1 by August 31, 2029.

That tracks the statutory hooks staff should already have bookmarked. House Bill 33 added Occupations Code §1701.3526 for the supervisor incident-response and command course. Senate Bill 1852 drove the ALERRT framework for peace officers; the 218.3 amendment extends related ALERRT continuing education expectations to reserve and public-security licenses on the four-year cycle, with Level 1 due by August 31, 2029.

One more distinction that keeps catching people: this is a continuing-education rule, not a course reporting number. It is not TCOLE 1016 (that is SFST Instructor). The user-level active-shooter class already has a home on TCOLE’s specific-course table as 3311 — ALERRT Level 1 (16 to 50 hours).

The peace-officer clock did not reset on September 1

TCOLE’s current Legislatively Mandated Training sheet for peace officers still runs on the unit that started September 1, 2025 and ends August 31, 2027. Officers still owe at least 40 hours this unit, including the State and Federal Law Update and 16 hours of ALERRT training. Senate Bill 1852 still requires every peace officer to complete ALERRT Level 1 at least once by August 31, 2027.

TCOLE lists three courses that satisfy that one-time Level 1 requirement: 3311, 3313, and train-the-trainer 3315. Officers who already have one of those three on the TCOLE record do not repeat Level 1. They still owe 16 hours of ALERRT this unit. Officers who have none of those three must complete 3311 by August 31, 2027.

A practical wrinkle for coordinators: 3313 still appears on the mandated sheet even when it does not currently print on TCOLE’s live specific-course table. Report what is actually on the officer’s Personal Status Report. Do not invent a number onto an event card that does not show it.

Chief administrators sit on a separate ALERRT command-and-control / command-and-leadership requirement each unit. Do not treat the new 218.3 supervisor sentence as the same course as a chief’s command class. First-time supervisors still have the older new-supervisor training window (within one year before or after first assignment) on top of the new each-unit incident-response and command CE.

Three populations, three clocks

Here is the roster problem in training-staff language:

1. Peace officers (line and most detectives): current unit through August 31, 2027 — 40 hours, law update, 16 hours ALERRT, and Level 1 once by that same date if 3311/3313/3315 is not already on the record.
2. Peace officers in a supervisor assignment: everything above, plus advanced incident-response and command CE every two-year unit under the amended Rule 218.3.
3. Reserve law enforcement and public security licenses: ALERRT continuing education each four-year cycle, and ALERRT Level 1 by August 31, 2029.

If your agency still only filters “full-time peace officer” when you build the ALERRT list, September 1 is why that filter is now incomplete.

What to pull before you assign a seat

Before you burn a Level I seat or a supervisor CE slot:

• Flag every peace officer currently in a supervisor assignment for the new incident-response and command CE this unit.
• Flag reserve and public-security licenses for ALERRT CE this cycle and Level 1 by August 31, 2029.
• For peace officers, pull 3311, 3313, or 3315 on the TCOLE record before you send someone back through a two-day Level I. The 16-hour ALERRT block each unit is not optional just because Level 1 is already on the transcript.
• Keep chief-administrator command training on its own line. Mixing that with the supervisor CE sentence is how people get “checked off” on the wrong requirement.

Live Texas Level I seats, and what those two days actually cover, belong in a separate training-announcement piece. This article is the roster problem: three clocks, three populations, one September 1 effective date.

Sources: TCOLE Commission Rules (Rule 218.3 adopted August 21, 2026, effective September 1, 2026); TCOLE, Legislatively Mandated Training – Peace Officers; TCOLE specific course reporting numbers (3311 ALERRT Level 1); Occupations Code §1701.3526 (HB 33) and Senate Bill 1852 / related ALERRT statutes as reflected in TCOLE’s Rule 218.3 adoption summary.