Board staff reports faster license processing, pilot Connect adoption and first temporary military-spouse license

The Board of Chiropractic Examiners Licensing Committee heard a licensing-program update on June 13, 2025, including staffing additions, faster license turnaround, progress on national exam validation and program accreditation, and early adoption figures for the state’s Connect online licensing system.

The update matters because the licensing program’s processing times and rules affect how quickly new and transferring chiropractors can begin practice in California and how the board monitors out-of-state programs and national exams.

Licensing staff reported three recent hires and internal reorganizing intended to cut application processing times. "Amanda Oppo recently accepted our lead licensing and CE analyst position. She started in that role effective June 2," said Miss Walker, a licensing-program staff member, who gave the report. Walker also said Shelly Anderson begins as a licensing technician and Jose Diaz will join as an administration and licensing manager in mid-July.

Walker told the committee the program issued its first temporary DC license under the 2023 authority that allows temporary licenses for military spouses. "We've gotten 1 application ... and that applicant passed the CCLE and was recently issued that license," Walker said. She described steady volumes of new DC licenses and satellite certificates and said staff has reduced processing time for initial licenses to same-day or next-business-day once all documentation is provided.

On satellite certificates and other secondary approvals, Walker said current turnaround is about 10 days and staff’s internal target had been 14 days; the longer-term goal is to cut that to 1–3 business days. The committee heard an independent public comment from Brian Ota, who said his employer’s campus-based chiropractic team needs flexibility to work at multiple campus locations and asked the committee to consider a campus- or area-limited license or a mobile chiropractic license. "Sometimes our chiropractors need to work in an alternate location than the one that's listed on their satellite license," Ota said. The committee said staff and licensing have already discussed the matter and would consider placing it on a future agenda if Ota provided contact information.

Staff also summarized national and program-level monitoring. Walker reported the DCA Office of Professional Examination Services (OPES) completed an occupational analysis for chiropractic in California and is finishing a validation report of the national exam (parts 1–4 and physiotherapy) expected in July; OPES is scheduled to present to the board at the August 1 meeting. On accreditation, Walker said the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) granted initial accreditation to Campbellsville University (Kentucky) earlier this year, and Kaiser University (Florida) remains on probation with CCE because of licensing-exam success-rate noncompliance; Kaiser’s next report to CCE is due in December.

The committee discussed legislation touching licensing. Walker said the most impactful introduced bill this year, SB 687 (on animal chiropractic), is not moving in 2025 and will be revisited in 2026. She described a pending bill to prioritize certain applicants (referred to in discussion as AB 742) and said implementation would have modest staffing and IT costs. "There'd be a few thousand dollars in staff time to make those edits and then a few thousand dollars in IT costs for us to modify the application," Walker said when asked about cost impacts.

Staff reported adoption rates for the department’s Connect online system: about 90% of brand‑new applicants use Connect and licensee adoption has risen to roughly 50% from about 30% a year earlier; staff’s goal is roughly 75% adoption among licensees. Walker said Connect improvements and cashiering/testing of a paper‑to‑Connect workflow are in progress and that new AI tools (Microsoft Copilot) are arriving at the department for staff business‑process use.

The committee postponed approval of an item to the September 5 meeting to allow members more time to review materials and to accommodate ongoing conversations. The committee also asked staff to follow up on satellite-certificate options and to accept public contact information for potential future agenda placement.

Looking ahead, staff said several regulation packages remain in the pipeline, including curriculum requirement text and edits to renewal and restoration language; those items are planned for the August 1 meeting. OPES’s validation report and board engagement on exam development are also scheduled for August.

For now, staff emphasized the licensing program’s reduced processing times and continuing work on satellite certificates, Connect adoption and regulatory text. The committee did not take any formal final rulemaking actions at the meeting.

Ending: Staff will return to the committee with proposed regulatory text and with concept papers on satellite/multi-site licensing and on the upcoming OPES validation report; committee members asked staff to circulate materials in advance so members can raise details at the August and September meetings.