Continuing Education Audit and License Renewal
A licensed funeral director is up for renewal. The state requires 12 hours of continuing education (CE) biennially, including at least 2 hours in ethics and 1 hour in laws and rules. The director submits a renewal application with 14 hours of CE, but the documentation shows: 6 hours from a national convention (no ethics or laws), 4 hours from an online course on embalming (no ethics or laws), and 4 hours from a local workshop that included 2 hours of ethics and 2 hours of laws. The director also attended a 3-hour course on grief counseling, but it was not accredited. The board audits the director and finds that the ethics and laws hours are insufficient because the local workshop's laws hours were 2, not 1, but the board only requires 1 hour in laws, so that is okay. However, the ethics hours are exactly 2, meeting the requirement. The board questions whether the online course and convention hours are acceptable and whether the unaccredited grief course can count.
1. Does the director meet the CE requirements? Explain your reasoning.
Read the worked answer
The director has 14 hours total, which exceeds the 12-hour requirement. The ethics requirement is met with 2 hours from the local workshop. The laws and rules requirement is met with 2 hours from the local workshop, exceeding the 1-hour minimum. The convention and online course hours are likely acceptable if they are from approved providers; the problem does not state they are unapproved. The unaccredited grief course cannot be counted because CE must be from board-approved providers. So the director has 14 hours of acceptable CE, meeting all requirements. The board should approve the renewal.
2. If the board later determines that the online course was not board-approved, what would be the outcome?
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If the online course is not approved, the director loses 4 hours, leaving 10 hours (6 convention + 4 local workshop). That is below the 12-hour requirement. The director would be 2 hours short. The board would likely deny renewal or issue a deficiency notice, allowing the director to make up the missing hours within a specified period. The director could take additional approved CE to reach 12 hours. The ethics and laws requirements are still met. The board might also impose a fine or require a corrective action plan.