In addition to the payment of the license renewal fee, each licensee, except for
those graduating from an optometry
school within 12 months of the date of the application renewal, shall furnish to the
Executive Officer evidence of completing 24 hours of continuing education each
year, a total of 48 hours.
Continuing education programs must be approved by the board in the year just preceding such application for
license renewal. Additional guidelines are:
C.E.subjects must fall within the generally accepted optometric body of knowledge and must be pertinent to the clinical practice of primary care optometry and/or optometric sub-specialties. The Board recognizes the course category definitions as defined by the Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE). Educational content of courses should be minimally at the level of courses taught at optometric colleges, and instructors should have education and credentials that would qualify them for at least adjunct instructor status at a college of optometry.
A maximum of two of the twenty-four hours required for re-licensure may be practice management courses. Five hours must be in ocular pharmacology, therapeutics or related topics of study approved by the State Board of Examiners in Optometry.
A maximum of eight of the required twenty-four hours may be obtained from courses with a format other than live (e.g. web-based, magazine, correspondence, tape, CD, VCR). Alternative media courses with COPE approval offered by accredited institutions will be granted full C.E. credit. The Kansas Board of Examiners in Optometry reviews and accepts most COPE courses. CPR courses are not accepted.
The Board prefers that an ophthalmic association, school, institute, or other organization sponsor the continuing education event.
A comprehensive program package outlining the following must be submitted for non-COPE approved courses:
Course Outline
Instructors
Date(s), Time(s)
Location
Course Description
Curriculum vita and/or biographical sketches of instructors
How sponsor will track and report attendance at the course
The Board has the right to deny credit at license renewal time for any course work that is not COPE approved or submitted to the Board for approval prior to execution of the course.
Educational meetings will be closely monitored to assure strict adherence to the approved course outline for content and duration. Any deviation from content or duration, such as substitution for self promotion, referral requests, product endorsements, or anything else the board judges as deviating from the approved program may result in future rejection of the provider. Courses endorsing a particular product are not accepted. An hour of class credit must have at least 50 minutes of presentation to be counted as one hour.
The Kansas Board of Examiners in Optometry utilizes the ARBO OETracker system. It is strongly recommended that sponsors of continuing education apply for COPE approval and participate in this program, too. More information about this program may be obtained at the ARBO website http://www.arbo.org. To reduce paperwork in the Board office, licensees are encouraged to submit their personal list of COPE approved courses printed from the OETracker site rather than certificates from each course attended.
Questions on course approvals should be directed to the Executive Officer of the Board.
The official address for the Board is:
OR
Penny Keelan Bowie, Executive Officer
KS Board of Examiners in Optometry
3109 W 6th Street, Suite B
Lawrence, KS 66049