Board staff told the Continuing Education Committee on Dec. 13 that they have implemented a paperless continuing-education (CE) course approval workflow, are exploring an interactive course‑listing tool to replace static PDFs, and are planning to ramp up CE audits next year with advance notice to providers.

Executive Officer Kristen Walker said the board’s Connect system upgrade was temporarily paused because of vendor resource limits, so staff will develop CE functionality in the current system and pursue interim improvements. Walker reported a decline in CE course applications after recent fee changes: staff cited a decrease from about 1,900 applications (roughly 10,000 hours) to about 1,100 applications (around 4,000 hours), which the office expects to be the new baseline under a three‑year approval cycle.

Staff said Connect adoption is climbing and is now a little over 40 percent following outreach and changes to renewal notices. Walker said staff cannot yet perform full audits using Connect because not all supporting documents have been uploaded, but the long‑term goal is provider integration that will remove much of the licensee burden. For audits in the near term staff proposed a statistically sampled approach (roughly 5 percent of renewals with a four‑year look‑back) designed to be more efficient than prior annual audits.

On hardship relief, staff outlined a 2022 proposal and committee recommendations to replace open exemptions with a standardized extension process for qualifying events (natural disaster, declared emergency, or temporary/permanent medical condition). Tammy Pinto said the proposed extension would be up to 180 days, require substantiating documentation (for example, proof of residency in an affected area or a provider statement), and include timelines for staff to grant or deny requests and for reconsiderations. The committee favored an extension model and asked staff to draft a standardized form, explicitly allow asynchronous (on‑demand) course completion during the extension when appropriate, and return to the committee with revised language.

Next steps: staff will refine the hardship language (including the proposed 180‑day extension, documentation/form requirements and asynchronous‑learning guidance) and return to the committee before any board referral.