To meet the statutory continuing education requirement for renewing licenses for funeral directors, embalmers, funeral director interns and embalmer interns, the board requires the following:
(1) To maintain active practice, licensees must accumulate five hours of continuing education hours (CE) for the upcoming one year renewal period.
(a) The five hours of CE must include one hour of OSHA/WISHA training.
(b) Credits in excess of five hours cannot be carried forward to another renewal period.
(2) The CE accumulated is subject to audit by the board.
(3) Licensees are responsible to seek out qualifying CE that can be demonstrated to the board as relevant to professional development.
(a) Activities are not preapproved by the board.
(b) Activities must be relevant to the practice of funeral directing (for licensed funeral directors and funeral director interns) or embalming (for licensed embalmers and embalmer interns) and may include technical, ethical, or managerial content.
(c) All activities must have a clear purpose and objective that will maintain, improve, or expand skills and knowledge relevant to the practice of the profession(s).
(4) The board is the final authority with respect to claimed CE and the respective CE credit.
(5) The CE becomes eligible for credit upon completion of the given activity.
(6) Licensees must maintain the records of the CE and have the records available for inspection at their place of employment. The records must include the date of the activity, the provider's name, a description of activity and the number of CE hours.
(7) Licensees must keep their records for the cumulative time in the current renewal period plus the two years before the last renewal (three years total).
(8) By renewing a professional funeral director license, embalmer license, funeral director intern license or embalmer intern license, the licensee attests they have completed the required continuing education for that renewal period.
(9) The board will audit a random sample of licensees yearly. If a licensee is selected for an audit, the board will provide instructions about how to respond.
(10) Licensees may face disciplinary action for failing to complete the continuing education requirement or falsifying CE records.
(11) If an audit disqualifies credits that a licensee reported to the board and results in them failing to complete the CE requirements, the board may require the shortage to be made up over a period of time established by the board.
[Statutory Authority: RCW
68.05.105 and
18.39.175. WSR 20-09-031, § 308-48-530, filed 4/6/20, effective 5/7/20. Statutory Authority: RCW
18.39.175 and chapter
34.05 RCW. WSR 07-03-027, § 308-48-530, filed 1/5/07, effective 2/5/07. Statutory Authority: 1984 c 279 § 53(b). WSR 85-01-077 (Order PL 504), § 308-48-530, filed 12/19/84.]
