The Ohio House State Government Committee took testimony June 25 with regard to HB243, an AIA Ohio supported bill to make changes governing the architects board and the landscape architects board regarding continuing education requirements.
Rep. Schaffer offered sponsor testimony on the bill, which revises the law regarding architect training.
He said the bill will bring Ohio’s continuing education (CE) requirements for architects and landscape architects into alignment with national trends and will give the state boards more control over CE requirements.
“Ohio’s CE requirements are currently in conflict with model law set forth by the respective national associations, which is used in most other states,” he said, noting the reason for this request is an issue that arose during the Landscape Architects Board five-year rule review with the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) in 2014.
“JCARR’s position is that the board did not have authority to change the types of activities which qualified for CE credit. After almost a decade of experience with mandatory continuing education, both boards have found that some of the activities do not constitute the acquisition of new knowledge,” he said. “For example, one license applicant submitted a book that they had written 20 years ago to try to qualify for CE credit. Others have submitted irrelevant community service as continuing education credit. JCARR has insisted that these activities remain in the rules as options.”
He said the Ohio Architects Board and the Ohio Landscape Architects Board would like to fix their language in the same fashion.
“By adopting the model law set forth by the national trade associations, Ohio will have standards that more clearly define CE activities that are related to the health, safety and welfare of the public and the profession,” Schaffer said.