{"id":23,"date":"2014-03-10T14:57:28","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T14:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2025-05-12T09:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:25:11","slug":"certification-levels","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/certification-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Certification Levels"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>VDEM Tracking Certification Levels<\/h3>\n<p>SARTI provides\u00a0qualified trackers to assist in search and rescue\u00a0missions and in law enforcement cases as requested. We are\u00a0an active member of the Virginia Search and Rescue Council (VASARCO) with an MOU agreement with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). SARTI&#8217;s certification levels come from tracking standards created and approved by those two organizations. These certification levels were developed over several years by a committee of accomplished trackers (including SARTI members) who sought to raise the bar on how to evaluate tracking skills for search and rescue resources.<\/p>\n<p>Three certification levels are available: Operational Tracker, Tracking Technician, and Tracking Specialist. Trackers are evaluated objectively in field stations and during a written test. Certification in each level requires specific scores to be earned, and also associated pre-requisites as outlined below. Our <a title=\"Publications\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/resources\/publications\/\">publications<\/a> page includes a documentation section for each certification level, which includes more specific details about the scores required for certification.<\/p>\n<h3>Operational Tracker<\/h3>\n<p>Prerequisites<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>VDEM Search Team Member (STM)<\/li>\n<li>CPR &amp; First Aid<\/li>\n<li>NIMS ICS 100, 700, 800<\/li>\n<li>Annual VDEM Body Fluid Exposure Prevention Course<\/li>\n<li>Minimum Training Hours and Test Scores<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Tracking Technician<\/h3>\n<p>Prerequisites<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>VDEM Search Team Leader (STL)<\/li>\n<li>VDEM Management Team Member (MTM)<\/li>\n<li>CPR &amp; First Aid<\/li>\n<li>NIMS ICS 100, 200 700, 800<\/li>\n<li>Annual VDEM Body Fluid Exposure Prevention Course<\/li>\n<li>Minimum Training Hours and Test Scores<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Tracking Specialist<\/h3>\n<p>Prerequisites<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>VDEM Search Team Leader (STL)<\/li>\n<li>VDEM Management Team Member (MTM)<\/li>\n<li>CPR &amp; First Aid<\/li>\n<li>NIMS ICS 100, 200 700, 800<\/li>\n<li>Annual VDEM Body Fluid Exposure Prevention Course<\/li>\n<li>Minimum Training Hours and Test Scores<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>What can I do if I am not certified yet?<\/h3>\n<p>Achieving certification requires completion of a written test and 7 field stations with the required scores. The entire certification process takes time &#8211; including lots of &#8220;dirt-time&#8221; (practice). In the meantime, applicants to SARTI serve a probationary period. Once applicants successfully get voted on as members of the group they become <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>SARTI Trainees<\/strong><\/span>. SARTI Trainees are only allowed to respond to searches if they are supervised by a fully certified VDEM Tracker (see levels above).<\/p>\n<h3>SARTI Trainee<\/h3>\n<p>Prerequisites \u2013 VDEM STM, CPR &amp; First Aid, NIMS ICS <a href=\"https:\/\/training.fema.gov\/is\/courseoverview.aspx?code=is-100.c&amp;lang=en\">100<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/training.fema.gov\/is\/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-700.b&amp;lang=en\">700<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/training.fema.gov\/is\/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-800.d&amp;lang=en\">800<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Looking for links?<\/p>\n<p>The <a title=\"Resources\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/resources\/\">resources<\/a> section has links to various Tracking and Search &amp; Rescue resources and the <a title=\"Publications\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/resources\/publications\/\">publications<\/a>\u00a0area has the current\u00a0VDEM tracking standards. Check out the <a title=\"Training\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/training-2\/\">training<\/a>\u00a0page for\u00a0tracking evaluation and training event dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VDEM Tracking Certification Levels SARTI provides\u00a0qualified trackers to assist in search and rescue\u00a0missions and in law enforcement cases as requested. We are\u00a0an active member of the Virginia Search and Rescue Council (VASARCO) with an MOU agreement with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). SARTI&#8217;s certification levels come from tracking standards created and approved by&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/certification-levels\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Certification Levels<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Certification Levels - SARTI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SARTI strives to provide certified and qualified trackers to assist law enforcement and emergency management personnel during search and rescue incidents..\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sarti.us\/WP\/certification-levels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Certification Levels - 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