Two of the eight entries in 28 TAC § 34.611 are not licenses at all. The INSTRUCTOR APPROVAL is issued for providing training at an approved training school in installing, certifying, inspecting, and servicing fire alarm or detection systems in single-family or two-family residences. The TRAINING SCHOOL APPROVAL is issued for conducting the training necessary to obtain a residential fire alarm technician license. They exist because that one class is entered through a course rather than through the usual testing route, so the state regulates the course. The same rule adds that approvals are not transferable, and 28 TAC § 34.627 confirms that an approval applies only to the entity named as responsible on the application.

The eligibility rules put the trade in charge of teaching itself, with one deliberate exception. Under Insurance Code § 6002.158, an instructor must hold a fire alarm planning superintendent license, a residential fire alarm superintendent license, or a fire alarm technician license, and must have at least three years of experience in fire alarm installation, service, or monitoring. But a REGISTERED FIRM, OR AN AFFILIATE OF ONE, IS NOT ELIGIBLE for approval as a training school — a separation the rule repeats in 28 TAC § 34.627. So the people teaching are licensees, and the entity teaching cannot be a firm that employs them. The state fire marshal reviews the submitted materials and approves or denies in a letter not later than the 60th day after receiving the application, with specific reasons for any denial, and an applicant refused approval may reapply at any time.

The course itself is specified more tightly than anything else in this chapter, which is what makes the residential technician route auditable. Insurance Code § 6002.158 requires a curriculum of at least seven hours of instruction on installing, servicing, and maintaining single-family and two-family residential fire alarm systems as defined by National Fire Protection Association Standard No. 72, plus an examination on that standard with at least one hour allocated for completion, at least 25 questions, and a passing mark of at least 80 percent. 28 TAC § 34.628 then allocates those hours, and they are worth taking one at a time. One hour goes to Insurance Code Chapter 6002 and the Fire Alarm Rules. One hour goes to the National Electric Code, NFPA 70. Four and one-half hours are combined across NFPA 72, NFPA 101 the Life Safety Code, and the International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings. The remaining half-hour goes to the monitoring of household fire alarm systems. Approval lasts one year, and an approved school must annually hold at least two classes open to the public within 125 miles of each county with a population greater than 500,000.