Continuing Education and the Lapsed Renewal
A licensed Arkansas funeral director, Ms. Okafor, let her license lapse in 2022 by failing to renew before the deadline. She continued to work at a funeral home for eight months, signing arrangement documents and supervising visitations, believing her employer had renewed for her. In 2023 she applies for reinstatement. Her continuing-education records show 12 hours completed in the prior two-year cycle, but Arkansas requires a specific number of CE hours per renewal period, and her records are missing certificates for four of those hours. Her employer submits a letter saying the lapse was 'an administrative oversight' and asking the Board to waive the CE requirement and backdate her license. The Board also learns she performed two embalmings during the lapsed period.
1. Evaluate Ms. Okafor's conduct during the lapsed period and her reinstatement request.
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Practicing on a lapsed license is unlicensed practice, regardless of her belief that the employer renewed. Signing arrangement documents, supervising visitations, and performing two embalmings are each practice acts during a period when she held no license. Her reliance on the employer is not a defense to unlicensed practice, though it may bear on discipline. On reinstatement, the Board should apply its rules for lapsed licenses, which may require a reinstatement fee, proof of CE, and possibly examination or additional conditions. The Board should not backdate the license - backdating would retroactively legitimize unlicensed acts and is improper. The employer may face separate establishment-level scrutiny for allowing an unlicensed person to practice.
2. How should the Board handle the missing CE certificates and the waiver request?
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The Board should apply the CE requirement as written and require documentation; missing certificates for four hours mean those hours cannot be credited unless she obtains duplicate documentation. The employer's letter does not establish the hours. A waiver should be granted only if the Board's rules authorize one and the circumstances fit; 'administrative oversight' by the employer is generally not a basis to waive a requirement designed to protect the public. The Board may allow her to cure the deficiency by completing the missing hours before reinstatement rather than waiving them. The two embalmings during the lapse should be weighed as an aggravating factor in any consent agreement or disciplinary order.
3. The employer asks the Board to treat the lapse as harmless because no consumer was harmed. Is that relevant?
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Lack of demonstrated consumer harm may be mitigating on penalty but does not eliminate the violation. Licensure and CE requirements are prophylactic - they protect the public before harm occurs. The Board's concern is that an unlicensed, potentially out-of-date practitioner handled human remains and signed documents. The Board should consider the absence of complaints alongside the duration (eight months) and the embalmings, and may impose a reprimand, fine, or conditions rather than revocation, but it should not dismiss the matter.