Continuing-education committee backs mandatory BLS certification, directs staff to finalize regulatory text

The Board of Chiropractic Examiners Continuing Education Committee on Dec. 13, 2024, voted to recommend that the full board adopt a rule requiring all active licensees to maintain current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification at either the provider or advisor level and directed staff to finalize regulatory text for board consideration.

The committee, meeting by teleconference with its primary location at the Department of Consumer Affairs in Sacramento, also received a staff update on continuing-education (CE) modernization efforts, heard plans to ramp up CE audits, and discussed a proposed process to grant limited extensions for licensees affected by natural disasters or medical hardships.

Why it matters: committee members and staff framed the BLS recommendation as a public-safety measure and a regulatory change that will require drafting justification and regulatory language for Office of Administrative Law (OAL) review. The committee approved the motion by roll call; the recommendation now goes to the board for consideration. The committee also discussed operational changes that affect how providers apply for and how licensees document CE credits.

Kristen Walker, the board's executive officer, told the committee the office has "developed and implemented a new paperless CE course approval workflow" and that the department is exploring ways to replace static PDF course lists on the board website with a searchable, interactive listing. Walker said a planned upgrade to the DCA Connect system was "temporarily paused" because of limited vendor resources, and staff now plan to build CE functionality in the current system while preserving compatibility with the forthcoming regulatory changes.

Walker presented application statistics that show an apparent decline in annual CE course applications and reported hours after the…