ARC 7410C

ARC 7410C

ENGINEERING AND LAND SURVEYING EXAMINING BOARD[193C]

Notice of Intended Action

Proposing rulemaking related to professional development

and providing an opportunity for public comment

The Engineering and Land Surveying Examining Board hereby proposes to rescind Chapter 7, "Professional Development," Iowa Administrative Code, and to adopt a new chapter with the same title.

Legal Authority for Rulemaking

This rulemaking is proposed under the authority provided in Iowa Code section 542B.6.

State or Federal Law Implemented

This rulemaking implements, in whole or in part, Iowa Code chapter 542B and Executive Order 10.

Purpose and Summary

These proposed revisions to Chapter 7 implement changes recommended by Executive Order 10. The rules of Chapter 7 provide information on compliance for professional development.

Fiscal Impact

This rulemaking has no fiscal impact to the State of Iowa. No current fees are being changed, and no new fees are being imposed.

Jobs Impact

After analysis and review of this rulemaking, no impact on jobs has been found.

Waivers

Any person who believes that the application of the discretionary provisions of this rulemaking would result in hardship or injustice to that person may petition the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing for a waiver of the discretionary provisions, if any, pursuant to 481—Chapter 6.

Public Comment

Any interested person may submit written or oral comments concerning this proposed rulemaking. Written or oral comments in response to this rulemaking must be received by the Department no later than 4:30 p.m.on January 31, 2024. Comments should be directed to:

Public Hearing

Public hearings at which persons may present their views orally or in writing will be held as follows:

The Department may address agenda items out of sequence to accommodate persons appearing before the Department or to aid in the efficiency or effectiveness of the meeting.

All meetings held by the Department are accessible to everyone. Any persons who need special accommodations to participate should call 515.281.0254 (TDD: 1.800.735.2942) as soon as possible in advance of the meeting to ensure sufficient time to make the appropriate accommodations.

Public attendees may make comments at the conclusion of each board director's report.

The boards reserve the right to limit the length of comments based on the number of individuals who wish to speak.

Persons who wish to make oral comments at a public hearing may be asked to state their names for the record and to confine their remarks to the subject of this proposed rulemaking.

Review by Administrative Rules Review Committee

The Administrative Rules Review Committee, a bipartisan legislative committee which oversees rulemaking by executive branch agencies, may, on its own motion or on written request by any individual or group, review this rulemaking at its regular monthly meeting or at a special meeting. The Committee's meetings are open to the public, and interested persons may be heard as provided in Iowa Code section 17A.8(6).

The following rulemaking action is proposed:

Item 1. Rescind 193C—Chapter 7 and adopt the following new chapter in lieu thereof:

CHAPTER 7

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

193C—7.1(542B,272C) General statement. Completion of continuing education for professional development is a condition of licensure renewal for each licensee.

193C—7.2(542B,272C) Definitions. As used in these rules, the following definitions apply:

"College or unit semester or quarter hour" means the unit of credit given for advanced technical and graduate courses from universities with programs accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.or other related college course qualified in accordance with this chapter.

"Continuing education" means education obtained by a licensee in order to maintain, improve, or expand skills and knowledge obtained prior to initial licensure or to develop new and relevant skills and knowledge.

"Continuing education unit (CEU)" means the unit of credit customarily granted for continuing education courses. One continuing education unit is given for ten hours of class in an approved continuing education course.

"Course or activity" means any qualifying course or activity with a clear purpose and objective which will maintain, improve, or expand the skills and knowledge relevant to the licensee's field of practice.

"Independent study" means any course or activity in which there is no real-time interaction between the training provider and the licensee, such as courses offered on the Internet.

"Professional development hour (PDH)" means a contact hour of instruction or presentation and is the common denominator for other units of credit.

193C—7.3(542B,272C) Professional development hours.

7.3(1) Allowable activities. Licensees may earn professional development hours by participating in a variety of activities. The following is a list of allowable activities and is not all-inclusive:

a. Successful completion of college courses;

b. Successful completion of continuing education courses;

c. Successful completion of correspondence, televised, videotaped, and other short courses or tutorials;

d. Successful completion of courses online via the Internet;

e. Active participation in seminars, in-house courses, workshops, technical committees of professional engineering organizations, and professional conventions;

f. Teaching or instructing in the activities set forth above if such teaching or instruction is outside of the licensee's regular employment duties and if the licensee can document such teaching activity or instruction was newly developed and presented for the first time;

g. Authoring published papers, articles or books;

h. Obtaining patents;

i. Attendance at online video courses;

j. Participation on an NCEES examination development committee;

k. Attendance at engineering college graduate research seminars.

All of the allowable activities listed above must adhere to this chapter to be accepted by the board.

7.3(2) PDH conversion. The following chart illustrates the conversion from other units to PDH:

7.3(3) Determination of credit. The board has final authority with respect to approval of courses, credit, PDH value for courses, and other methods of earning credit. No preapproval of offerings will be issued. The board may deny any renewal or reinstatement upon a determination of insufficient or unsatisfactory continuing education.

193C—7.4(542B,272C) Professional development guidelines. Continuing education activities that satisfy the professional development criteria are those that relate to engineering or land surveying practice or management. It is recognized that an engineer's specialized skills must have as their foundation a fundamental knowledge of chemistry, physics, mathematics, graphics, computations, communication, and humanities and social sciences. However, continuing education in the fundamentals alone will not be sufficient to maintain, improve, or expand engineering skills and knowledge. For that reason, licensees will be limited in their use of fundamental courses in proportion to ABET criteria for accreditation of engineering curricula. Continuing education activities are classified as:

7.4(1) Group 1 activities. Group 1 activities are intended to maintain, improve, or expand skills and knowledge obtained prior to initial licensure. The following chart illustrates the maximum PDH allowable per renewal period for Group 1 activities:

7.4(2) Group 2 activities. Group 2 activities are intended to develop new and relevant skills and knowledge. Credit for participation in activities in the group is unlimited, subject to maximum carryover. Typical areas include postgraduate level engineering science or design, new technology, environmental regulation and courses in management of engineering or land surveying activity (regular work duties do not qualify).

7.4(3) Independent study. To be readily acceptable by the board, independent study as defined in rule 193C—7.2(542B,272C) meets all of the following criteria:

a. A written evaluation process is completed by the independent study provider; and

b. A certificate of satisfactory completion is issued by the provider; and

c. An evaluation assessment is issued to the licensee by the provider; and

d. Documentation supporting such independent studies is maintained by the licensee and provided to the board as required by subrule 7.8(2).

A maximum of ten professional development hours of independent study activity will be allowed per biennium per licensee.

7.4(4) Exclusions. Types of continuing education activities that will be excluded from allowable continuing education are those in which it is not evident that the activity relates directly to the licensee's practice of professional engineering or land surveying or the management of the business concerns of the licensee's practice, or that do not comply with the board's administrative rules. Examples of activities that do not qualify as continuing education include the following:

a. Regular employment;

b. Toastmasters club meetings;

c. Service club meetings or activities;

d. Personal estate planning;

e. Banquet speeches unrelated to engineering;

f. Professional society business meeting portions of technical seminars;

g. Financial planning/investment seminars;

h. Foreign travel not related to engineering study abroad;

i. Personal self-improvement courses;

j. Real estate licensing courses;

k. Stress management;

l. Trade shows;

m. Peer review;

n. Accreditation review;

o. Independent study or self-study that does not meet the requirements of subrule 7.4(3);

p. Basic CAD and fundamental computer application courses;

q. Undergraduate engineering seminars.

193C—7.5(542B,272C) Biennial requirement. The biennial requirement may only be satisfied during the biennium prior to licensure renewal except for the carryover permitted.

7.5(1) Completion of 30 professional development hours, including at least 2 professional development hours in the area of professional ethics, satisfies the continuing education necessary for biennial licensure renewal in engineering or land surveying. Completion of 40 professional development hours, including 20 professional development hours in engineering and 20 professional development hours in land surveying and at least 4 professional development hours in the area of professional ethics, satisfies the continuing education necessary for biennial licensure renewal for individuals actively licensed in both engineering and land surveying. Up to 15 professional development hours may be carried forward only into the next biennium. For individuals actively licensed in both engineering and land surveying, up to 10 professional development hours for each profession may be carried forward only into the next biennium.

7.5(2) Inactive licensees are exempt from the continuing education requirements.

7.5(3) A licensee who is active in one profession and inactive in another is obligated to meet the continuing education requirements for licensure in the profession in which active licensure is maintained.

7.5(4) A new licensee is obligated to satisfy one-half of the biennial continuing education requirement at the first renewal following initial licensure. Professional engineers and professional land surveyors licensed by comity are not new licensees and are not eligible for the one-half continuing education requirement.

193C—7.6(542B,272C) Exemptions.

7.6(1) The continuing education requirements may be reduced in proportion to the following:

a. Periods of time that the licensee serves honorably on active duty in the military services;

b. Periods of time that the licensee is licensed in and a resident of another state or district having continuing education requirements for professional engineering or land surveying and meets all requirements of that state or district for practice therein;

c. Periods of time that the licensee is a government employee working as a professional engineer or professional land surveyor and assigned to duty outside the United States; or

d. Documented periods of the licensee's active practice and absence from the United States that are approved by the board.

7.6(2) No exemption will be granted without a written request from the licensee with documentation of the period of absence.

193C—7.7(542B,272C) Hardships or extenuating circumstances. Upon a written request to the board, the board may, in individual cases involving hardship or extenuating circumstances, grant waivers of the continuing education requirements for a period of time not to exceed one year.

193C—7.8(542B,272C) Reports, records, and compliance review. At the time of application for license renewal, each licensee reports, on a form provided by the board, the number of professional development hours achieved during the preceding biennium.

7.8(1) Record keeping. Maintaining records to be used to support professional development hours claimed is the responsibility of the licensee. It is recommended that each licensee keep a log showing the type of activity claimed, sponsoring organization, location, duration, instructor's or speaker's name, and PDH credits earned. The licensee is obligated to maintain documentation of reported PDHs for two years after the period for which the form was submitted.

7.8(2) Compliance review. The board may select licensees for review of compliance with continuing education on a random basis or upon receiving information regarding noncompliance and will review compliance with continuing education for reinstatement of lapsed or inactive licenses. Each licensed board member is audited for PDH compliance for a biennium that is within each member's respective three-year appointment term. For each PDH claimed, licensees chosen for compliance review will furnish:

a. Proof of attendance. Attendance verification records in the form of completion certificates, or other documents supporting evidence of attendance;

b. Verification of the hours claimed; and

c. Information about the course content.

7.8(3) Compliance review sanctions. Any discrepancy between the number of PDHs reported and the number of PDHs actually supported by documentation may result in a disciplinary review. If, after the disciplinary review, the board disallows any PDH, or the licensee has failed to complete the required PDHs, the licensee has 60 days from board notice to either provide further evidence of having completed the PDHs disallowed or remedy the discrepancy by completing the required number of PDHs (provided that such PDHs are not used again for the next renewal). Extension of time may be granted on an individual basis if requested by the licensee within 30 days of notification by the board. If the licensee fails to comply with the requirements of this subrule, the licensee may be subject to disciplinary action. If the board finds, after proper notice and hearing, that the licensee willfully disregarded these requirements or falsified documentation of required PDHs, the licensee may be subject to disciplinary action as further identified in 193C—paragraphs 9.3(1)"c" and 9.3(3)"e."

7.8(4) Out-of-state residents. A person licensed to practice engineering or land surveying or both in Iowa shall be deemed to have complied with the continuing education requirement of this state during the periods that the person is a resident of another state or district which has a continuing education requirement for engineers or land surveyors and the individual meets all requirements of that state or district for practice therein. However, if selected for compliance review, such individuals must provide documentation as specified in subrule 7.8(2).

These rules are intended to implement Iowa Code sections 272C.2, 272C.3, 542B.6, and 542B.18.