Texas Fire Alarm Planning Superintendent (APS) License Guide

Texas Fire Alarm Planning Superintendent (APS) License Guide

The Fire Alarm Planning Superintendent license, APS, is the Texas credential for the person who plans fire alarm systems and certifies that the plans meet the adopted standards. It is the step above the Fire Alarm Technician License (FAL), and it is issued by the same office: the State Fire Marshal's Office (SFMO) at the Texas Department of Insurance, under Texas Insurance Code Chapter 6002 and 28 TAC Chapter 34, Subchapter F.

What surprises most technicians moving up: Texas does not write a technical exam for the APS. The technical half of the license is a national certification. The only state test is the same statutes-and-rules exam every Texas fire alarm licensee takes.

What the APS license lets you do

Under the SFMO rules, a fire alarm planning superintendent is a licensed individual designated by a registered firm to plan a fire alarm or detection system that conforms to the adopted NFPA standards, and to certify that each system as planned meets those standards.

That makes the APS the plan-signing role inside a Texas alarm firm. A registered firm (an Alarm Certificate of Registration, ACR) must keep at least one full-time employee holding an FAL, APS, or Residential Fire Alarm Superintendent license.

APS requirements at a glance

Requirement	What Texas asks for
State test	TFM-11, Fire Alarm Statutes and Rules
Technical qualification	One of: NICET Level III in Fire Alarm Systems, ESA Level III Fire Alarm Designer, or a Texas Professional Engineer license
Background	Fingerprint background check
Employment	Employed by a registered fire alarm firm
Initial license fee	$120
Renewal	$200, every two years

Fees are the SFMO's published figures at the time of writing. Confirm them on the SFMO fire alarm license and test guide before you apply.

The technical half: NICET Fire Alarm Systems Level III

For most candidates the route is NICET Level III in Fire Alarm Systems. A Texas PE license satisfies it too, and so does the ESA Level III designer certification, but NICET is the path a working technician already recognises.

Two things follow from that:

• There is no "Texas APS exam" to study for. If you are searching for APS practice questions, what you actually need is NICET Fire Alarm Level III preparation.
• The NICET ladder pays twice in Texas. NICET Level II (or ESA Level II) is accepted in place of TFM-12, the technical exam for the FAL. Level III then qualifies you for the APS. A technician who climbs NICET never has to sit a Texas technical test at all.

NICET Level III is an open-book exam weighted toward NFPA 72 design and plan review work: detector spacing, notification appliance circuits, pathway classes, secondary power, off-premises signaling and acceptance testing. Our NICET Fire Alarm Systems practice tests cover Levels I through IV, with every explanation tied to a code section so you learn where the answer lives in the book.

The state half: TFM-11

TFM-11 is the Texas-specific test, and it is the one part of the APS you cannot waive with a national credential. Per the SFMO guide it is based on Texas Insurance Code Chapter 6002 and the fire alarm rules in 28 TAC §34.600 and following.

SFMO tests share one format:

• 50 questions, true/false or multiple choice
• Closed book
• 70% or better to pass
• Administered by PSI

You may schedule each type of test only once a week, and no more than three times in any 12-month period. The rules also give you one year from passing a test to complete the rest of the license requirements, or the test result lapses. If you already hold a Texas FAL you passed TFM-11 to get it; check with SFMO licensing whether your existing result carries to the APS application before you book a seat.

TFM-11 is where technicians who know NFPA 72 cold lose points, because none of it is NFPA content. It asks about license classifications, what each license authorises, firm registration, insurance, record keeping and enforcement. Our Texas FAL practice tests include a dedicated TFM-11 question bank drawn from Chapter 6002 and the Subchapter F rules.

Which editions Texas has adopted

The fire alarm rules adopt specific editions by reference in 28 TAC §34.607, effective September 1, 2023. The ones an APS works with most:

Standard	Adopted edition
NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code	2019
NFPA 70, National Electrical Code	2020
NFPA 101, Life Safety Code	2021
NFPA 13, Installation of Sprinkler Systems	2019

Plans you certify in Texas are measured against these editions, whichever edition your NICET exam happened to test.

Other Texas fire alarm licenses

The APS sits in a family of SFMO fire alarm licenses:

• FAL, Fire Alarm Technician. TFM-11 plus TFM-12. See our Texas FAL requirements guide.
• RAS, Residential Fire Alarm Superintendent. TFM-11, TFM-12 and TFM-13, a residential test based on the household fire alarm chapter of NFPA 72.
• AMT, Fire Alarm Monitoring Technician. TFM-11 plus TFM-14.
• RAL, Residential Fire Alarm Technician. No state test. It requires an SFMO-approved training course instead.

If your work is sprinklers or extinguishers rather than alarm, Texas follows the same pattern there. See our guides to the Texas fire sprinkler RME licenses and the Texas fire extinguisher licenses.

What to do next

1. Confirm your target with your firm. The APS is tied to a registered company designating you.
2. Start NICET Fire Alarm Systems Level III if you do not already hold it. That is the long pole.
3. Prepare for TFM-11 in parallel. It is short, closed book, and entirely Texas law.
4. Apply through the SFMO once both halves are in hand.

You can gauge where you stand on both halves for free: a 10-question NICET Fire Alarm sample test and a 10-question Texas FAL sample test.