(1) All licensees shall submit evidence of completion of continuing education requirements biennially with their license renewal. Training for entry into a field is not considered adequate assurance of continued competence throughout a physical therapist or physical therapist assistant career.

(2) The board/staff will not preapprove continuing education programs or sponsors. Qualifying criteria for continuing education is specified in these rules. It is the responsibility of the licensee to select quality programs that contribute to their knowledge and competence which also meet these qualifications.

(3) The continuing education program must meet the following criteria:

(a) the activity must have significant intellectual or practical content. The activity must deal primarily with substantive physical therapy issues as contained in the physical therapy definition in Montana. In addition, the board may accept continuing education activities from other professional groups or academic disciplines if the licensee demonstrates that the activity is substantially related to his or her role as a physical therapist or physical therapist assistant. A continuing education program is defined as a class, institute, lecture, conference, workshop, cassette or videotape, correspondence course or peer-reviewed publication of a journal article(s) , textbook(s) , or online course;

(b) the activity must be conducted by an individual or group qualified by practical or academic experience;

(c) all acceptable continuing education courses must issue a program or certificate of completion containing the following information: full name and qualifications of the presenter; title of the presentation attended; number of hours and date of each presentation attended; name of sponsor; and description of the presentation format;

(d) excluded are programs that promote a company, individual or product, and programs whose subject is practice economics, except those programs specifically dealing with workers' compensation or public health, medicare and insurance coverage issues;

(e) Presentation of a course will only be allowed for four hours of continuing education each two-year cycle. The course must be presented to a group including physical therapists and physical therapist assistants for continuing education credit. Licensees whose regular occupation is teaching of physical therapy related courses will not be allowed continuing education credit for these regular teaching duties.

(4) Implementation for continuing education shall be as follows:

(a) one continuing education credit shall be granted for each hour of participation in lab or lecture of the continuing education activity, excluding breaks and meals. A maximum of two credits by cassette or videotape and a maximum of four credits from online or correspondence courses will be allowed. A maximum of ten credits is allowed per reporting period for peer-reviewed publication of a journal article(s) , textbook(s) and publication(s) .

(i) Commencing on or before April 30, 1998, licensees with even-numbered licenses shall submit at least 20 continuing education hours earned within the 24 months prior to the renewal date in each even-numbered year. Licensees in this category will not report continuing education on the odd-numbered years, but must renew their license each year.

(ii) Commencing on or before April 30, 1999, licensees with odd-numbered licenses shall submit at least 20 continuing education hours earned within the 24 months prior to the renewal date in each odd-numbered year. Licensees in this category will not report continuing education on the even-numbered years, but must renew their license each year.

(b) no continuing education is required for licensees renewing their license for the first time;

(c) all licensees must submit to the board, on the appropriate year's license renewal, a report summarizing their obtained continuing education credits. The board will review these reports and notify the licensee regarding his/her noncompliance by December 1. Licensees found to be noncompliant with the requirement will be asked to submit to the board for approval a plan to complete the continuing education requirements for licensure. Prior to the next reporting year's license renewal deadline, those licensees who were found to be in noncompliance will be formally reviewed to determine their eligibility for license renewal. Licensees who at this time have not complied with continuing education requirements will not be granted license renewal until they have fulfilled the board-approved plan to complete the requirements. Those not receiving notice from the board regarding their continuing education should assume satisfactory compliance. Notices will be considered properly mailed when addressed to the last known address on file in the board office. No continuing education used to complete delinquent continuing education plan requirements for licensure may be used to meet the continuing education requirements for the next continuing education reporting period;

(d) if a licensee is unable to acquire sufficient continuing education credits to meet the requirements, he or she may request a waiver. All requests for waiver will be considered by the board and evaluated on an individual basis;

(e) it is the responsibility of the licensee to establish and maintain detailed records of continuing education compliance (in the form of programs and certificates of attendance) for a period of two years following submission of a continuing education report;

(f) from the continuing education reports submitted each biennium, the board will randomly audit 5 percent of the reports.