NYS APPROVED PDHs - Mike Hayes, PE
I am often asked
if this, that, or the other thing qualifies for a PDH. It turns out the New York
is stricter than most other states about what qualifies for continuing education credits.
What qualifies in other states often does NOT qualify in NY. As a general rule,
the sponsoring organization, the presenter, AND the topic all must be approved. It’s
the last item (topic) that seems to cause the most confusion. Here’s the
NY State Education Department’s position, which I copied from their web site.
“18. What are appropriate subjects for continuing education?
Not all courses and educational activities offered by an approved sponsor are acceptable for continuing education
credit in New York State.
Courses and educational activities must contribute to the professional practice of professional engineering or land surveying.
The subject matter of the course or educational activity must be related to professional practice. Subject areas that are
not so
related, such as, risk management,
limiting the design professional's liability, project management related to profitability and maximizing fees, marketing and
public relations, insurance, laws related to arbitration, mediation, liens (unless they related to safeguarding the health,
safety, and welfare of the public), real estate, real estate development, expanding a design professional's business, basic
Auto CAD, personal development, general office management, accounting/financial planning, succession planning, zoning as it
relates to increasing a developer or engineer/land surveyor's profitability, design build (unless it includes information
on the laws related to design build and its limitations in New York State) are non-acceptable subjects.
Service on Boards and/or professional committees, and active participation in technical and/or professional organizations
are not eligible for continuing education credit.
Acceptable subjects
may include:
Professional
Engineering: aerospace engineering, agricultural engineering, architectural engineering, bioengineering, ceramic engineering,
chemical engineering, civil engineering, construction engineering, control systems engineering, electrical/computer engineering,
environmental engineering, fire protection engineering, geological engineering, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering,
mechanical engineering, materials/metallurgical engineering, mining/mineral engineering, naval architecture/marine engineering,
nuclear/radiological engineering, ocean engineering, petroleum engineering, structural engineering, systems engineering, architecture,
land surveying; or other matters of law and/or ethics which contribute to the professional practice in engineering and the
health, safety, and/or welfare of the public; and in other topics which contribute to the professional practice of engineering
as such practice is defined in section 7201 of the Education Law.”
Our web site includes information received from Kelly Norris, NYSSPE Executive Director. The key point is that
not all presentations the NSPE (and other organizations, such as ASCE) will qualify for a PDH for New York PEs. This was in response to a question about some of the presentations NSPE is offering at the National Conference
in Boston that are advertised as offering PDHs.
“NSPE assigns
PDHs to all courses according to the NCEES Model for Continuing Education. New York does not follow the NCEES Model in its
entirety, so if you are looking for credits for NYS, you need to be sure that it is being offered by an approved sponsor of
continuing education in NYS, and you have to be
sure that the content of the course is appropriate in NYS. For example, IACET is an approved sponsor and they offer PDHs for a course that contains no technical content, therefore
that particular course is not acceptable for NYS credit, even though they are an approved sponsor.”
How can you know
if a presentation is approved for NY PDHs? Unfortunately, the only way to be
reasonably certain is if the advertising/announcement specifically states the presentation
is approved for NY PEs.
I guess because
my name is on our web site, I get a lot of questions from people about PDHs, including some from PEs who have NY licenses
who live outside of NY. It is obviously much more difficult to get PDHs acceptable
to NY if you don’t live in NY. So, what can you do if you move out of NY
and want to maintain an active license. I can think of three ways:
Take on-line courses advertised as approved for NY PEs
Take qualifying courses from an approved IACET provider (such as IEEE and ASCE)
Take engineering courses from an ABET or NY Regents accredited college or university
Here’s what NYSED says about on-line courses (item 1 above):
“20. Are
courses limited to a traditional "classroom setting" in which I am in the same room with the instructor?
No, however you must be able to interact with the instructor. Examples include: a live lecture, a course
in which you and the other practitioners discuss a taped presentation assistance; a computerized course in which
you are able to interact directly with the instructor. On the other hand, a televised lecture with no means of direct
interaction would not be acceptable as a live course even if it were a live telecast.”
My comment: the course material must cover an approved topic.
Regarding item 2 above: There are many IACET approved providers. However,
not all IACET approved courses will qualify for NY PDHs. Even the ones that will
often will not advertise that fact, especially if the provider is not in NY. In
this case, you’d have to use your judgment. If the course subject matter
is clearly on the topic list above, the credits you receive will meet SED requirements.
For example, I got a course I planned to teach about National Electrical Code requirements for motor circuits approved
by IEEE in 2001 or 2002 for CEUs. IEEE is an IACET provider, and the course material
clearly covered an electrical engineering and public safety topic. That course
would have qualified for NY PDHs. Unfortunately, not all courses will be this
clear cut; you’ll have to use your judgment in that situation.
For item 3, the main thing you need to make sure of is that the course is part of the ABET approved engineering curriculum
if it’s an out of NY State college or university.
Finally, here’s what SED says about record keeping. Again, this is
a direct quote from their web site.
“22. What
records will I have to keep?
Sponsors must provide a Certificate of Completion to licensees who completed courses or educational activities for continuing
education credit. The information on each course or educational activity should be retained in your records for six years
from the date of completion.
A Certificate of Completion should include the following information:
· title of the course or program, subject area, and any identification number assigned to it by the sponsor
· number of hours completed
· the sponsor's name and any identifying number
· verification by the sponsor of your attendance
· the date and location of the course or activity”
We will post more current
information on the website, www.cnype.org, as it becomes available
