Kansas · Electrical licensing · official-source guide
Kansas issues no state electrical licence. K.S.A. 12-1525 through 12-1528 set the examinations, a seventy five percent passing score, field experience and continuing education, then leave licensing to counties and cities. An electrician is licensed by Wichita and Sedgwick County, Johnson County, Kansas City and Wyandotte County, or Topeka, each on its own fees and renewal calendar.
State-level license
No — see local details
Public lookup
Not published
Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Kansas does not issue a state electrical licence. There is no Kansas electrical board, no state master electrician licence and no state electrical contractor registration. What Kansas has instead is a short run of statutes in Chapter 12, Article 15 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated that set uniform standards and then hand the licensing itself to counties and cities. The four sections that matter are K.S.A. 12-1525 through 12-1528. K.S.A. 12-1525 designates the standard examinations. K.S.A. 12-1526 sets the rules on examination and licensure, the certificate of competency, the uniform fee, where the licence is valid, continuing education and field experience. K.S.A. 12-1527 authorises alternative examinations, lets local government adopt codes, run inspections and fix fees, and deals with reciprocal agreements. K.S.A. 12-1528 makes clear that none of this lets anyone practise engineering without a licence from the Kansas state board of technical professions. The same article treats plumbers the same way at K.S.A. 12-1508. So the answer to who licenses an electrician in Kansas is: the county or the city where the work is. That is not a loophole and it is not an absence of regulation. It means a Kansas electrical contractor working across the state carries more than one credential, renews them on different calendars, and satisfies more than one set of insurance and bond rules. The rest of this page is about the four programmes that cover the largest share of Kansas electrical work: Wichita and Sedgwick County, Johnson County, Kansas City and Wyandotte County, and Topeka.
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Even without a state licence, a Kansas electrician meets four state rules. First, the examination. K.S.A. 12-1525 designates the standard examinations for determining competency of electrical contractors, master and journeyman electricians and residential electricians as those promulgated or administered by the International Code Council, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, or Prometric. That is why Kansas cities all point at the same short list of testing bodies. Second, the passing score. K.S.A. 12-1526 sets a minimum passing score of seventy five percent, higher than the seventy percent several neighbouring states use, and provides for a uniform fee. Third, field experience. For a journeyman or residential certificate the applicant must document a minimum of two years of field experience working under the supervision of a certified professional, or attend trade schooling, with a maximum of one year of the requirement satisfied that way, and trade schooling must run a minimum of nine hundred and thirty programme hours. For a master certificate the applicant must have held a valid journeyman certificate for a minimum of two years. Fourth, continuing education. K.S.A. 12-1526 requires not less than twelve hours biennially or six hours annually of approved continuing education, of which not less than six hours biennially or three hours annually must be code education. That code education requirement is the Kansas version of the code update class. The statute also carries the portability rule: a certificate issued through one of the designated standard examinations is valid in any other county or city that requires electrician licensure, provided the holder meets the documented experience requirements.
K.S.A. 12-1527 is the section that creates the patchwork. It lets a board of county commissioners or the governing body of a city use examinations other than the ones K.S.A. 12-1525 designates, adopt and enforce whatever electrical codes, standards and regulations it deems appropriate, and conduct inspections and fix reasonable fees for them. Then it adds the sting: a licence obtained through a non standard examination does not authorise an electrician to practise outside that jurisdiction unless a reciprocal agreement between the subdivisions exists. So the portability promised by K.S.A. 12-1526 only holds where the local programme used one of the designated standard examinations. Take a locally written test and the licence stops at the city limits. The practical consequence for a contractor bidding across the Kansas City metro is that a job in Olathe, a job in Kansas City, Kansas and a job in Overland Park can sit inside three different administrative systems, and a job in Wichita or Topeka sits in a fourth and fifth. Each has its own application, its own fee, its own renewal date, its own insurance or bond rule and its own continuing education count. There is no state lookup to check them all in one place and no single state registration number to quote. Before you bid outside your home jurisdiction, the question to ask the local building department is not only whether they license electricians but which examinations they accept, because that decides whether your existing certificate travels.
Electrical licensing for Wichita and Sedgwick County runs through the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department. MABCD issues trade certificates in three trades, electrical, mechanical and plumbing, at journeyman and master level. For the electrical journeyman certificate the experience requirement is one year of field experience plus one year of electrical trade school, or two years of field experience. The examinations accepted are International Code Council examinations 558, KGH, 565 or KGX, with a minimum score of seventy five percent. For the electrical master certificate the applicant must already hold the journeyman certificate plus two years of experience, then pass one of ICC examinations 554, KGD, F16, G16 or T16 at seventy five percent or better. MABCD lists approved testing facilities as Block, Experior, Prometric, ICC and IAPMO, and points ICC candidates at the Pearson VUE ICC testing service. The certificate fee is thirty five dollars for a new certificate and thirty five dollars for a renewal. Certificates run for two years. Continuing education is twelve continuing education units by the certificate expiration, made up of six hours relating to your specific trade plus six hours of general trade education. There is also a twenty five dollar Block or ICC application fee on the department fee list. The certificate is the individual credential. It is not the same thing as the contractor licence the business holds, which the next section covers, and a contractor working in Sedgwick County generally needs both.
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The business side in Wichita and Sedgwick County is the MABCD contractor licence. To apply, the department requires a copy of the certificate showing successful completion of the required examination and a certificate of good standing from Kansas or the state of licensure. Insurance is the gate: MABCD requires minimum general liability coverage and requires MABCD to be listed as the certificate holder, with the name of the insured matching the company name on the application. A sole proprietor has the coverage written as the applicant name doing business as the company name, and the insurance address must match the applicant local office address. Waivers are available for auto and workers compensation where those are not mandated by state law. The Wichita Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code sets the general liability minimum at three hundred thousand dollars per occurrence, requires certificates of insurance to be filed with MABCD before a licence issues, and requires those certificates to show that MABCD will get at least thirty days advance written notice of any cancellation or material change in coverage. On fees, the department fee table lists the electrical licence at three hundred and sixty dollars for two years with an odd year expiration. The general contractor classes in the same table run at one thousand dollars for Class A, six hundred dollars for Class B, four hundred and fifty dollars for Class C Residential and three hundred and sixty dollars for Class D Residential Maintenance, which is a Wichita jurisdiction only class. Specialty licences in that table are also three hundred and sixty dollars for two years. The department address is 271 West 3rd, Suite 101, Wichita.
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Johnson County runs a countywide contractor licensing programme from the Administration Building at 111 South Cherry Street, Olathe, and it is the programme most Kansas City metro electrical contractors deal with on the Kansas side. The department issues eleven classifications. Class DE is electrical services only. The others are Class A general contractor for all structures at any height, Class B building contractor up to three stories, Class C residential contractor for single family and duplex only, and specialty classes for fire suppression, fire alarm, HVAC and mechanical, plumbing, roofing, swimming pool and spa construction, and wood framing and rough carpentry. Every application must designate a Qualifying Individual who meets the education standard for the licence type. The documents required are government photo identification, proof of education or examination, general liability insurance on an ACORD form, and workers compensation insurance or a notarised waiver where it is not required. The fees are published: a one hundred dollar new application fee, a two hundred and twenty five dollar licence fee per licence type, and a two hundred and twenty five dollar renewal fee per type. Licences run one year. A renewal filed after February 1 carries a seventy five dollar late penalty per type. A name change costs twenty five dollars and a verification costs twenty five dollars. Applications are not accepted online at present and the licensing line is 913-715-2233. The county runs a contractor licensing system portal at cls.jocogov.org, which is also where the public licence search lives.
Overland Park is the second largest city in Kansas and the one where contractors most often ask which licence applies. The city states plainly that it does not require a general occupational business licence. The occupational licences Overland Park does issue are a short and specific list: massage therapist and establishment licences, a pawnbroker licence, a precious metal dealer licence, a taxi cab and car or limousine service licence, and a transient merchant licence. Neither the city business licence page nor the city permits, licences and inspections directory lists a contractor licence, a trade licence or an electrical licence among the credentials the city issues. What the city does run is the permit and inspection side. Overland Park reviews commercial and residential construction plans and documents that require a building permit, publishes building codes, construction standards and electronic plan submission standards, and performs electrical inspections, with next day inspections between 8am and 4pm and a morning or afternoon preference available for occupied homes. City Hall is at 8500 Santa Fe Drive and the general number is 913-895-6000. Johnson County Contractor Licensing is the programme that issues the Class DE electrical licence used in Johnson County, and Overland Park is a Johnson County city. Confirm directly with Overland Park which licence it wants to see attached to a permit application before you bid, because the city does not state the answer on its own permit or licence pages and the details were not retrievable from a city source.
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The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas runs its own arrangement and it is the odd one out on insurance. The Business License Division states that general contractors and subcontractors working in Wyandotte County need a city occupational tax licence, which the Unified Government calls a business licence, and that trade masters must maintain a master licence with Building Inspections. So the electrical trade credential is held at Building Inspections while the business registration is held at the Business License Division, and an electrical contractor needs both. On security, the Unified Government states that its jurisdiction does not require a certificate of insurance for contractors, but does require a five thousand dollar surety bond from mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors. The applicant must supply a signed copy of the bond together with the power of attorney page, sent to the business licence email address. That reverses the pattern in the rest of the state, where a certificate of insurance is the standard gate and a bond is rare. A contractor moving work from Johnson County or Wichita into Kansas City, Kansas should budget for the bond specifically, because the general liability certificate that satisfies MABCD or Johnson County does not satisfy this requirement and the bond takes time to place. Occupational tax licence fees vary by business type and may be prorated by the month of issuance. The Business License Division is at 4953 State Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas, on 913-573-8780. The Unified Government also publishes a list of licensed subcontractors covering mechanical, electrical and plumbing, updated on the first of each month.
Topeka licenses the electrical trade in three tiers through the Development Services Division at 620 SE Madison Unit 6. A master electrician, a journeyman electrician and an apprentice, who must work under direct supervision and cannot work alone. The working ratio is one master or journeyman to one registered apprentice, stated both on the city contractor information page and in Topeka Municipal Code 5.63.080. The examinations are the standard master electrical and standard journeyman electrical tests at seventy five percent or better, from Prometric, Thomson Prometric, Experior, NIA Block or Block, with ICC examinations accepted where they are comparable to the Prometric standard. TMC 5.63.080 ties the underlying requirements back to K.S.A. 12-1526 and states there is no alternate education requirement for the trade examinations. Notarised time in trade documentation is required. A master is limited to work within the master trade or speciality area licensed, must oversee all work activity to assure code compliance, and must have direct contact with the job site. On the business side, TMC 5.63.070 requires a licensed trade contractor either to be a master or to have in employ and designate a master on a full time basis. A master may not work for more than one trade contractor at a time, which the code calls loaning the licence and treats as grounds for revocation. If the designated master leaves, the contractor has ninety days to replace them, may continue existing work during that window but gets no new permits, and loses the licence if the replacement is not made. Renewal is a fixed calendar date, December 14 annually, not an anniversary. A retest fee of twenty dollars is paid to Development Services.
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Continuing education is the clearest illustration of what happens when a state sets a floor and the cities build on it separately. The state floor from K.S.A. 12-1526 is not less than twelve hours biennially or six hours annually, of which not less than six hours biennially or three hours annually must be code education. Wichita and Sedgwick County require twelve continuing education units by the certificate expiration, which runs on a two year certificate, made up of six hours relating to your specific trade plus six hours of general trade education. Topeka requires masters and journeymen to complete six hours yearly, of which three hours must be in the electrical trade, and TMC 5.63.080 accepts courses from the local jurisdiction, a nationally recognised trade organisation, a product manufacturer or other sources the Development Services Director finds acceptable. Topeka general contractors in Class A, B or C carry eight hours yearly instead. Johnson County requires its Qualifying Individuals to complete a minimum of eight hours of continuing education per licence classification per year, set by the Contractor Licensing Review Board, and that per classification wording matters for a company holding several classes. Johnson County runs free single day virtual sessions from April to September with a hundred person cap, charges thirty dollars per credit hour for last chance classes from November to February, and holds a Fall Training Conference, with the 2026 event scheduled for October 19 to 23 at the Overland Park Convention Center and registration opening September 8, 2026. Plan the year around whichever count is highest for the jurisdictions you actually work in.
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Kansas does not adopt the National Electrical Code statewide for general construction. K.S.A. 12-1527 gives each board of county commissioners and each city governing body the power to adopt and enforce such electrical codes, standards and regulations as it deems appropriate, and to conduct inspections and fix reasonable fees for them. The edition therefore changes with the jurisdiction, and a contractor who prices to one edition and installs in another has a rework problem, not a paperwork problem. Topeka publishes its adoption in the municipal code. Topeka Municipal Code 14.30.010, National Electrical Code Adopted, states that the National Electrical Code, 2023 Edition, is adopted as the electrical code of the City and incorporated in the chapter as if fully set out. The adopting ordinance is number 20440, passed July 11, 2023. Topeka keeps its electrical code in its own chapter, 14.30, separate from the building code at 14.20, the plumbing code at 14.35 and the mechanical code at 14.50, which makes the electrical adoption easy to check. Wichita and Sedgwick County enforce electrical work through Article 4 of the Wichita Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code, titled Electrical and Elevator Code, which the code states applies to the installation of electrical systems including alterations, repairs, replacement, equipment, appliances, fixtures, fittings and appurtenances. The current adopted edition for Wichita and Sedgwick County could not be confirmed from a MABCD page and is not stated here. Ask the building department in each jurisdiction which edition is in force and from what date before you bid.
Sourceskslegislature.gov 1topeka.municipal.codes 2topeka.municipal.codes 3sedgwickcounty.org 4
Kansas has no state advertising or licence display rule for electricians, because it has no state licence. The rules exist at city level and two of them are specific enough to price for. The Wichita Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code is the strictest. Section 4.1(a) requires every licensed contractor to have and maintain an established place of business at a definite address with the registered company name and licence number displayed as it appears on the licence. Section 4.1(d), Truth in Advertising, makes it unlawful to advertise as a Licensed Contractor without a valid contractor licence at the time the advertisement occurs, and requires any such advertisement to include the full name of the licensed person, firm or legal entity and the licence number assigned by MABCD. Section 4.1(b) covers vehicles: vehicles used in performance of installations or service regulated under the code must display the contractor permanent vehicle permit numbers, affixed to both sides in a conspicuous place, by paint of a contrasting colour or a permanent decal, at a minimum of two inches high with a half inch wide stroke per character. There is an exception: a contractor who chooses to advertise the business on the vehicles and complies with the truth in advertising requirement does not have to carry the permit numbers. Topeka Municipal Code 5.63.110 requires contractors to display or post the licence in their place of business, requires licensed masters and journeymen to carry their licences on their persons and exhibit them on demand of the inspector, and requires the contractor or business name on each side of every service or work vehicle by paint, decal or magnet in letters or numbers not less than two inches high.
Penalties are local as well. The Wichita Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code sets a civil penalty for starting work without the permit. For trades work it is a one hundred and fifty dollar civil penalty in addition to the required permit fee, rising to three hundred dollars for a second violation within twelve months and six hundred dollars for a third within a twelve month period, each still on top of the permit fee. For building work the civil penalty is twice the amount of the applicable permits, capped at five thousand dollars. Topeka attaches its own consequences to lapses rather than to unlicensed work alone: certificates of insurance must remain current, with a thirty day grace period before a thirty dollar reinstatement fee applies, address changes must be reported or a ten dollar return mail fee is charged, and failure to replace a departed master ends the trade contractor licence. Verification has no single Kansas address. There is no state electrical licence lookup because there is no state electrical licence. Johnson County publishes a contractor search through its licensing system portal. Topeka publishes a licensed contractor list through the city business pages. Wichita and Sedgwick County verification runs through MABCD, on 316-660-1840 or by email. The checklist for a Kansas customer is to ask which jurisdiction the job sits in, ask for the licence or certificate number issued by that jurisdiction, and check it with that jurisdiction. A licence from a neighbouring county is not proof of anything in the one you are standing in.
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These are common details other guides publish about Kansas, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. Kansas issues no state electrical licence and has no state electrical board. K.S.A. 12-1525 through 12-1528 set uniform examinations, a passing score, experience and continuing education, then leave the licensing itself to counties and cities. The licence you need is the one issued by the jurisdiction where the work is.
K.S.A. 12-1525 designates the standard examinations for electrical contractors, master and journeyman electricians and residential electricians as those from the International Code Council, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, or Prometric. K.S.A. 12-1527 lets a city or county use a different examination, but a licence from a non standard exam does not travel outside that jurisdiction without a reciprocal agreement.
Seventy five percent. K.S.A. 12-1526 sets the minimum passing score, and Wichita and Sedgwick County, Topeka and other Kansas programmes apply the same figure. Topeka Municipal Code 5.63.080 states there is no alternate education requirement for the trade examinations, so the test has to be passed.
K.S.A. 12-1526 requires a minimum of two years field experience under the supervision of a certified professional for a journeyman or residential certificate. Trade schooling can satisfy a maximum of one year of that requirement and must run a minimum of nine hundred and thirty programme hours. A master certificate requires holding a valid journeyman certificate for at least two years.
It depends on the jurisdiction. Wichita and Sedgwick County charge thirty five dollars for a new or renewed trade certificate and list the electrical licence at three hundred and sixty dollars for two years. Johnson County charges a one hundred dollar new application fee plus two hundred and twenty five dollars per licence type, renewed annually at two hundred and twenty five dollars.
Again it depends on the jurisdiction. The Wichita Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code requires general liability of three hundred thousand dollars per occurrence with MABCD as certificate holder and thirty days notice of cancellation. Topeka Municipal Code 5.63.020 requires commercial general liability of three hundred thousand dollars per occurrence. Johnson County requires general liability on an ACORD form.
Yes. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas states that its jurisdiction does not require a certificate of insurance for contractors but does require a five thousand dollar surety bond from mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors, with a signed copy of the bond and the power of attorney page filed with the Business License Division.
K.S.A. 12-1526 sets a floor of not less than twelve hours biennially or six hours annually, with not less than six hours biennially or three hours annually in code education. Wichita and Sedgwick County require twelve units per two year certificate, six trade and six general. Topeka requires six hours yearly with three in the electrical trade. Johnson County requires eight hours per classification per year.
Only if it came from one of the standard examinations. K.S.A. 12-1526 makes a certificate issued through a designated standard examination valid in any other county or city requiring electrician licensure, provided the documented experience requirements are met. K.S.A. 12-1527 says a licence from a non standard examination does not authorise practice outside that jurisdiction absent a reciprocal agreement.
In Wichita and Sedgwick County, yes. The Unified Building and Trade Code section 4.1(d) requires any advertisement as a Licensed Contractor to include the full name of the licensed entity and the licence number assigned by MABCD, and makes advertising as a Licensed Contractor without a valid licence unlawful. Section 4.1(a) also requires the name and number displayed at the place of business.
Yes, in two of the largest cities. The Wichita Sedgwick County code requires permanent vehicle permit numbers on both sides of regulated vehicles, minimum two inches high with a half inch stroke, unless the contractor advertises the business on the vehicle and complies with the truth in advertising rule. Topeka Municipal Code 5.63.110 requires the business name on each side of every work vehicle in letters not less than two inches high.
There is no state lookup because there is no state licence. Ask which jurisdiction the job sits in, then check with that jurisdiction. Johnson County publishes a contractor search through its licensing system portal, Topeka publishes a licensed contractor list, and Wichita and Sedgwick County verification runs through MABCD on 316-660-1840.
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