Debbie Critchfield

Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary

Term Expires: 01/03/2027

Residence: Oakley

Debbie Critchfield was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction in November 2022 and was sworn in on January 2, 2023.

Previously, she served as a seven-year member of the Idaho State Board of Education and was president during her final two years. Debbie was co-chair to Governor Little’s Education Task Force in 2019 and committee chair for Governor Otter’s Higher Education Task Force in 2017. She chaired the Re-Open Idaho Schools Committee in 2020 and was a member of the Governor’s K-12 Council.

Debbie was an elected school board member in Cassia County for ten years, five as board chair, and was on the executive committee of the Idaho School Boards Association. She is a former local library trustee and Oakley Valley Arts Council president.

She worked as the public information officer for Cassia School District for nine years, stepping down before her election as state superintendent.

A fourth-generation Idaho farm family, Debbie and her husband Dave live in Oakley, where they raised their four children. They have three grandsons.