Licensure, Renewal, and Continuing Education Requirements
Initial licensure
New Hampshire requires a Board license before practicing chiropractic or using a title suggesting chiropractic licensure. The standard pathway is graduation from a chiropractic college accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education, passage of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners examinations required by the Board, a completed application, fee, criminal background check where required, and passage of the Board's jurisprudence examination. The Board may license by endorsement or reciprocity for an applicant already licensed in another jurisdiction with substantially equivalent requirements; the Board still verifies credentials and may impose conditions.
Renewal and CE
Licenses renew biennially. The Board's continuing education rule requires 40 hours per biennium, including at least 2 hours in ethics; licensees must document attendance and retain certificates for audit. CE must be completed within the renewal cycle; courses taken before or after the cycle do not count unless the rule expressly allows carryover. Late renewal usually requires a late fee, and practicing on an expired license is unlicensed practice even if renewal is later granted.
Worked example
A chiropractor's license expires on June 30. He sees patients in July while his renewal is pending and completes 40 CE hours in August. He has two problems: practice after expiration is unlicensed practice, and the August CE falls outside the cycle. The Board may treat the late CE as irrelevant to the expired cycle and require additional hours for reinstatement. The correct move is to renew before expiration and complete CE within the cycle.
Traps
Assuming a grace period exists; counting CE from a non-approved sponsor without checking; treating ethics hours as optional; and failing to disclose a criminal conviction or another state's discipline on the renewal form, which is itself a separate violation.