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Modification of Licensing Requirements

In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, states have taken measures to alleviate the occupational licensure policy burdens that impede state response efforts and which are counterintuitive to social distancing practices. The following information presents a collection of policy actions states have implemented to modify licensing requirements.

The attainment and maintenance of an occupational credential/license normally involves several components including testing, background checks and education/experience verification. To the effect that it will relieve regulatory burdens in the time of the public health emergency and limit physical contact, many states have suspended certain requirements regarding obtaining and renewing licensure, including continuing education and exam requirements. The suspension of these requisites also serves to lessen the regulatory barriers that may impede licensed practitioners actively involved in the COVID-19 response.

Click to view each state’s actions

Louisiana

Pennsylvania

Texas

Washington

The executive orders, administrative orders and legislation included in this web resource represent a sample of the actions states have enacted in response to COVID-19. Therefore, this resource is not intended to be represented as an exhaustive list of state actions, but rather used to review the variances in strategies states have implemented through occupational licensing policy to effectuate response efforts. The descriptions of the policy actions have been summarized to include relevant detail but should be viewed in full for their entire context. CSG will continue to update the list of policy actions throughout the duration of the state public health emergency response and recovery efforts.