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OPR previews new professions, sunrise reviews and bills for the legislative session
Summary
General Counsel Jennifer Cohen told the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee that OPR is processing sunrise reviews and will present bills this session to add or modify professions including perinatal community-based doulas, early childhood educators, optometry scope changes, compacts and others.
Jennifer Cohen, general counsel for the Office of Professional Regulation, told the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee on Jan. 22 that OPR uses two governance models (board and advisor) and that the sunrise-review process is governed by "26 BSA Chapter 57," which directs OPR to assess whether regulation is necessary and, if so, to adopt the least-restrictive form of regulation.
Cohen explained differences between the models: board professions (about 14 currently) have siloed licensing budgets, board members are appointed by the governor and boards serve as the triers of fact for disciplinary cases; advisor professions are overseen by two to three practitioners appointed by the secretary of state, their licensing budgets are pooled, and disciplinary matters go to an administrative law officer. She noted that recent open-meeting-law changes have required board meetings to offer hybrid and recorded sessions while advisor meetings remain remote.
Cohen identified several items OPR expects to advance this session: legislation for perinatal community-based doula regulation, a sunrise-linked bill for early childhood educators, a bill to expand optometry scope of practice, licensure compacts for dental professionals and dieticians, a bill related to psychologists prescribing, and legislation concerning regulation of septic installers and inspectors. She said OPR has recently produced a number of reports tied to that work — including an Early Childhood Educator Sunrise Report and a Doula Sunrise Report — and expects to release a psychologist-prescribing report soon.
Cohen also described OPR's process for sunrise reviews under the cited chapter, emphasizing the statutory requirement that if a public-protection need is demonstrated, the state must adopt the least-restrictive form of regulation necessary to protect the public interest. "This language ... ensure[s] that we right size regulation for public protection, but that we don't go beyond and over regulate through unduly burdensome requirements," she said.
OPR officials indicated they will continue stakeholder engagement and return with draft bill language and budget impacts as the session progresses.
