Renewal and continuing education
Keeping the right to practice usually means maintaining a jurisdiction license. Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants who use OTR or COTA also renew a separate national certification through NBCOT, and ASHA-certified speech-language pathologists log 30 professional development hours every 3 years. Those are not the same process as license renewal.
Quoted from official pages checked November 10, 2026. Confirm current requirements, fees, and dates on those sites. This page is not legal advice and does not guarantee eligibility, certification, or licensure.
Two different renewals
NBCOT’s Get Certified page states: “Certification is not the same as licensure.” State or territory boards set license renewal, continuing-education hours, fees, and deadlines. Use the state and territory directory and confirm every requirement on the board site. This page does not invent state hours or fees.
NBCOT certification renewal
NBCOT’s certification renewal page, checked November 10, 2026, states that if you complete your certification renewal requirements by your scheduled renewal date, you will be granted Active in Good Standing certification status for another three years. It states: “The certification renewal season occurs between January and March annually.”
That page lists these steps: read the Certification Renewal Handbook; “Earn 36 units to renew”; review the certificant attestation statement; and complete the online renewal application. It states: “Renew online for $65 USD.” It also states that a paper application will increase processing time by two weeks and that “the cost is $75 (USD).”
After renewal, that page says you will receive an email about accessing your digital certificate, badge, and wallet card within three weeks after your application is processed. If you have both the COTA and OTR credentials, it points readers to NBCOT’s Dual Certification Policy. If you did not renew within your renewal year, it states that you must apply for reinstatement and be approved before using your OTR or COTA credential.
How NBCOT counts continuing education
Quoted from the official NBCOT continuing education page checked November 10, 2026:
- 1 contact hour (not to include meals or breaks) = 1 PDU
- 1 clock hour (not to include meals or breaks) = 1 PDU
- 0.1 continuing education unit (CEU) = 1 PDU
- One contact hour earned through successful completion of education (workshops, seminars, online courses, or conferences) with an assessment component at the end of the program (scored test, project, paper) = 1.25 PDUs
- 1 competency assessment unit (CAU) = 1 contact hour or 1 PDU
- NBCOT adheres to the CEU definition defined by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) of 1 CEU = 10 contact hours
That page also states that NBCOT encourages all certificants to use CE Broker to record and track certification and state licensure requirements, and that “CE Broker is already used by OT boards in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee, with more states expected to join.” Using CE Broker is not a substitute for confirming your own board’s rules.
ASHA certification maintenance (SLP and SLPA)
ASHA’s Maintaining Your Certification page, checked November 10, 2026, states: “Certification maintenance standards require that all certificate holders (CCC-A and CCC-SLP) must accumulate 30 professional development hours (PDHs) during each 3-year certification maintenance interval in order to maintain their ASHA Certificates of Clinical Competence (CCC).” It says the 30 hours include “3 hours of training in specific content areas,” and lists submitting the compliance form, abiding by the ASHA Code of Ethics, and paying annual dues or the annual certification fee.
For assistants, ASHA’s C-SLPA guide says to maintain certification “during each 3-year interval” by completing the certification maintenance assessment module, following the Assistants Code of Conduct, and paying annual certification fees. This page does not copy ASHA fee amounts.
ASHA certification is separate from a state license. ASHA’s State-by-State page lists “Continuing education requirements” among the state topics it covers; read the state’s own rules for license CE. Under the ASLP-IC, the official FAQ states: “Practitioners only need to complete continuing education requirements in their home state.”
State license maintenance
Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants renew through the jurisdiction that issued the license. Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants do the same for the license itself, even if they also renew NBCOT certification. Boards differ on hours, topics, ethics or jurisprudence requirements, and reporting. Start from the directory and read the board site. For a first set of states, OT license renewal by state and PT license renewal by state quote the board, rule, or statute for twenty-nine OT states and twenty-seven PT states, including Virginia, Washington, Florida, New York, Texas, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa, and Tennessee.
If you practice under the PT Compact, the official site states: “Only need to meet the continuing competence requirements for your home state license.” Confirm current compact rules there. For the OT Compact, read the official OT Compact site and our compacts page; do not assume a compact privilege replaces either a home-state license or, for OT/OTA, NBCOT certification.
Some physical therapy jurisdictions use a jurisprudence exam or a jurisprudence assessment module as part of initial licensure or renewal. FSBPT says to contact the licensing authority for current rules.
If certification lapses
Expired NBCOT or ASHA certification
What NBCOT and ASHA say about reinstating OTR, COTA, and CCC-SLP certification.
How certification CE works
What counts toward NBCOT units and ASHA PDHs, audits, and records.
CE requirements by state
OT, PT, and SLP state license CE summaries in one table.