The Marriage and Family Therapy advisory committee of the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board heard an update from Executive Director David Fye on the rollout of CE Broker and the board’s longer-term licensing-system transition.

Fye said the board implemented an agreement with “a company called the e broker” to allow licensees to upload continuing-education documentation for audits. He told the committee the rollout was done in phases and the final phase went live in January. “So we're coming up on about 5 to 6 months since we've had all professions underneath an agreement with CE broker,” he said.

Fye described practical benefits: uploaded CE records can be reviewed through a portal during audits and could shorten the audit process. He said the board will meet with CE Broker representatives to collect metrics on signups and common user problems. He also described a technical issue some licensees encountered when entering their license identifiers and said staff have updated website instructions and are considering adding a direct CE Broker link on profession pages.

The board is pursuing a longer-term migration to an enterprise licensing system called Acela that would allow applicants to submit electronic applications (the board already offers electronic renewals). Fye said the Acela implementation is in a discovery phase and will take additional time because other agencies are ahead of the BSRB in the queue. “It'll still be another year and a half, I think, but part of that is because we're seventh in line with some other, agencies,” he said.

Committee members offered early, mostly anecdotal feedback: one member said she had created an account but needed customer service help to register her license; others said they had not yet used the portal because their renewal cycle had not arrived. Fye said the board hopes to add a “live look” from CE Broker at renewal so licensees can verify they have uploaded required hours before they submit a renewal, but that feature requires an API integration the board has not yet implemented.

The board also noted that audits are a limited, not universal, process and that Kansas reviews about 10% of renewals for CE compliance. Fye warned that incomplete CE documentation discovered during an audit can lead to disciplinary complaints and potential review by the complaint review committee.

The advisory committee requested Fye report back at a future meeting with sign-up and usage numbers collected from CE Broker and welcomed improved instructions and direct links on the BSRB website to smooth user experience.

Less urgent updates delivered in the same report included internal records archiving and continuity-of-operations planning for the agency.