Coming Down the Pike: Mandatory CE Reporting

By Edwin Bayó, PARTNER, GROSSMAN, FURLOW & BAYÓ, LLC

Edwin Bayó is a former Counsel to the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. He is Board Certified in State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice by the Florida Bar.

Engineers in Florida are primarily regulated by two Florida Statutory Chapters, 455 and 471. Chapter 471, also known as the “Florida Engineering Practice Act,” contains laws that only apply to Professional Engineers (PEs).

One of these laws requires engineers to complete 18 hours of Continuing Education (CE) every two years. Of the 18 hours, one hour must relate to the Florida laws and rules for PEs from a Board-approved provider, and one hour must relate to professional ethics. Four hours must relate to an area of practice. The remaining 12 hours may be related to any topic pertinent to the practice of engineering.

Engineers licensed in multiple states face the challenge of keeping up with different state rules on the number of required CE hours and what qualifies as acceptable courses. Currently, 42 states and the District of Columbia require CE for renewal of licensure. In addition, some of these states require that engineers report their CE as part of the licensure renewal process.

Starting next November, Florida will be one of these states.

How CE Reporting Became Mandatory

Chapter 455 contains several laws applicable to all practitioners under the umbrella of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), including PEs. One of these laws is section 455.2177, Fla. Stat., “Monitoring of compliance with continuing education requirements.”

This somewhat obscure statute requires DBPR to monitor licensee compliance with applicable CE requirements. The DBRP must determine whether each licensee was in full compliance with the applicable CE requirements as of the time of the licensee’s renewal.

The statute also allows DBPR to waive the CE monitoring requirements for any profession that has a program in place that measures compliance through statistical sampling techniques or other methods that can indicate at least 95 percent licensee compliance.

Pursuant to that statute, the Board of Professional Engineers (BOPE) adopted Rule 61G15-22.006, F.A.C., which established the random CE audit process that has been in place since 2001. Under that rule, as part of the renewal process, PEs had to click the button that served as a declaration that they had completed all the required CEs. The BOPE then randomly audited a minimum of 3 percent of licensees to ensure that the CE requirements were being met.

Unfortunately, these random audits demonstrated a compliance rate of 85 to 90 percent. Because the 95 percent requirement in the statute was not being met, actual monitoring for CE compliance will now become a reality.

Starting with the renewal cycle of November 2024, PEs will not only have to click the button declaring that they have completed their required CE hours, but they will also have to actually demonstrate that they have done so.

There are many professions in Florida that already require licensees to record their CE in a database that can be accessed by their respective licensing board to verify the subjects and hours of CE taken. Something along those lines will now be required for Florida PEs.

What Will Reporting Look Like?

The BOPE is currently deciding how to implement this mandatory reporting requirement. There is a CE tracking tool currently available to engineers through the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), the same outfit that provides all those wonderful engineering licensure examinations.

NCEES uses the acronym CPC (Continuing Professional Competency) in their tracking tool. This service allows you to select the appropriate licensing state, add the course information and corresponding CE hours, upload supporting documentation to your account, and transmit a transcript electronically to a state licensing board. The best part of this service is the cost, which is free.

Rule 61G15-22.006, F.A.C. will be amended to establish what mechanism(s) or process will be required. The BOPE will be reviewing proposed rule language at the Dec. 7 meeting, with the expectation to proceed with rulemaking shortly thereafter. Stay tuned.

More Rule Revisions

While I am on the subject of continuing education, there is another rule that is being revised. 61G1522.001(3), F.A.C. required that, beginning with the Fifth Edition of the Florida Building Code (FBC), all PEs actively participating in the design of engineering works or systems in connection with buildings, structures or facilities covered by the FBC must complete at least one advanced FBC Course within 12 months of the effective date of each new edition of the FBC. A certificate of completion showing the course number, hours, code edition year and course focus must be submitted to the BOPE.

The law authorizing this rule requires the BOPE to keep an easily accessible database of PEs that have taken these courses so that the local code enforcement folks can determine compliance when reviewing and processing design documents. Compliance with this rule has been a bit spotty, and a lot of PEs have received non-disciplinary notices of noncompliance from the BOPE for being engaged in this type of work without evidence of having taken the requisite courses.

The BOPE is proposing to amend the rule to update the reference to the Eighth Edition, which becomes effective at the end of 2023, and to delete the requirement that the course be taken within 12 months of each new edition.

Practitioners must keep in mind that although the requirement to complete the course within 12 months of the effective date is being deleted, excessive delay in keeping up with the latest edition of the FBC may result in problems down the road.