21 NCAC 34B .0409          COURSE Accreditation Standards

(a)  The content of a CE activity must have intellectual or practical content designed to maintain or increase the participant's professional competence and proficiency as a licensee or the participant's understanding of the professional responsibilities of a licensee. The activity shall constitute an organized program course of learning dealing with matters directly related to the practice of funeral directing, embalming, or funeral service. The activity shall include an opportunity for the participants to ask questions of the presenter about its content. Courses that cross academic lines, such as insurance seminars, may be considered for approval by the Board. However, the Board must be satisfied that the content of the activity is directly related to preneed or would otherwise enhance funeral directing and funeral service skills.

(b)  Credit may be given for continuing education activities where live instruction is used or mechanically or electronically recorded or reproduced material is used, including videotape or satellite transmitted programs. Subject to the limitations set forth in 21 NCAC 34B .0408(a) and 21 NCAC 34B .0414, credit may also be given for continuing education activities on CD-ROM and on a computer website accessed via the Internet.

(c)  Continuing education materials shall be prepared, and activities conducted, by an individual or group able to lead the CE activity and to answer questions from the participants about its content. Examples of individuals and groups able to lead the CE activity and to answer questions from the participants about its content include:

(1)           Funeral professionals licensed by the Board or by the authority of another jurisdiction who are actively engaged full time in a capacity consistent with the individual's license designation for at least three years immediately preceding the date of the CE activity.

(2)           Instructors employed by a program or college of mortuary science in a capacity consistent with the courses of study required as a prerequisite to licensing, as defined in G.S. 90-210.25(a)(1)e1., (2)e1., and (3)e1. and 2.

(3)           Instructors employed by academic institutions in a capacity consistent with the instruction of the courses of study required as a prerequisite to licensing, as defined by G.S. 90-210.25(a)(1)e1., (2)e1., and (3)e1. and 2.

(d)  Continuing education activities shall be conducted in a setting physically suitable to the educational activity of the program and equipped with suitable writing surfaces and sufficient space for taking notes.

(e)  Thorough, high quality, and carefully prepared, written materials must be distributed to all attendees at or before the time the course is presented. As used in this Paragraph, "thorough, high quality, and carefully prepared written materials" means materials that correspond to the content of the CE activity and are free from errors, including written materials printed from a computer website or CD-ROM, but excluding any materials that refer to a product of a specific manufacturer or to a service offered by a specific provider. The Board may waive the requirement that written materials be provided if written materials would not be suitable or readily available for the CE activity.

History Note:        Authority G.S. 90-210.23(a); 90-210.25(a)(5);

Eff. July 1, 2005;

Amended Eff. March 1, 2008;

Pursuant to G.S. 150B-21.3A, rule is necessary without substantive public interest Eff. August 19, 2017.