Relates to continuing education requirements for landscape architects; provides that adjustments to such requirements may be granted for health reasons, active duty, or other good cause; limits the number of credit hours that may carry over to the next registration period.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7220
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 4, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. WEBB -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to continuing education
requirements for landscape architects
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 7328 of the education law, as added by chapter 683
2 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 7328. Mandatory continuing education for landscape architects. 1.
4 (a) Each licensed landscape architect required under this article to
5 register triennially with the department to practice in the state shall
6 comply with provisions of the mandatory continuing education require-
7 ments prescribed in subdivision two of this section except as set forth
8 in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subdivision. Landscape architects who
9 do not satisfy the mandatory continuing education requirements shall not
10 practice until they have met such requirements, and have been issued a
11 registration certificate, except that a landscape architect may practice
12 without having met such requirements if [he or she is] they are issued a
13 conditional registration certificate pursuant to subdivision three of
14 this section.
15 (b) Landscape architects shall be exempt from the mandatory continuing
16 education requirement for the triennial registration period during which
17 they are first licensed, in accordance with the intent of this section,
18 an adjustment and/or exemption to the mandatory continuing education
19 requirement may be granted by the department for reasons of health
20 certified by an appropriate health care professional, for extended
21 active duty with the armed forces of the United States, or for other
22 good cause acceptable to the department which may prevent compliance.
23 (c) A licensed landscape architect not engaged in practice as deter-
24 mined by the department, shall be exempt from the mandatory continuing
25 education requirement upon the filing of a statement with the department
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10831-02-5
S. 7220 2
1 declaring such status. Any licensee who returns to the practice of land-
2 scape architecture during the triennial registration period shall notify
3 the department prior to reentering the profession and shall meet such
4 mandatory education requirements as shall be prescribed by regulations
5 of the commissioner.
6 2. During each triennial registration period an applicant for regis-
7 tration shall complete a minimum of thirty-six hours of acceptable
8 continuing education, as specified in subdivision four of this section,
9 provided that a minimum of twenty-four hours of such continuing educa-
10 tion shall be in the areas of health, safety and welfare. [Up to one-
11 half of the total hours of continuing education may consist of non-
12 course activities.] Any landscape architect whose first registration
13 date following the effective date of this section occurs less than three
14 years from such effective date, but on or after January first, two thou-
15 sand seven, shall complete continuing education hours on a prorated
16 basis at the rate of one hour per month for the period beginning January
17 first, two thousand seven up to the first registration date thereafter.
18 A licensee who has not satisfied the mandatory continuing education
19 requirements shall not be issued a triennial registration certificate by
20 the department and shall not practice unless and until a conditional
21 registration certificate is issued as provided for in subdivision three
22 of this section. [With the exception of continuing education hours taken
23 during the registration period immediately preceding the effective date
24 of this section, continuing education hours taken during one triennium
25 may not be transferred to a subsequent triennium] No more than six
26 continuing education hours taken during one triennium may be transferred
27 to a subsequent triennium.
28 3. The department, in its discretion, may issue a conditional regis-
29 tration to a licensee who fails to meet the continuing education
30 requirements established in subdivision two of this section but who
31 agrees to make up any deficiencies and complete any additional education
32 which the department may require. The fee for such a conditional regis-
33 tration shall be the same as, and in addition to, the fee for the trien-
34 nial registration. The duration of such conditional registration shall
35 be determined by the department but shall not exceed one year. Any
36 licensee who is notified of the denial of registration for failure to
37 submit evidence, satisfactory to the department, of required continuing
38 education and who practices landscape architecture without such regis-
39 tration, may be subject to disciplinary proceedings pursuant to section
40 sixty-five hundred ten of this title.
41 4. As used in subdivision two of this section, "acceptable continuing
42 education" shall mean courses of learning and educational activities
43 [which] in landscape architecture, architecture, engineering, interior
44 design, land surveying, and geology that may contribute to professional
45 practice in landscape architecture and which meet the standards
46 prescribed by regulations of the commissioner. Completing courses of
47 learning and educational activities that fall within the scope of prac-
48 tice of another licensed profession does not authorize a licensed land-
49 scape architect to lawfully practice a profession that they are not
50 authorized to practice as defined in section seventy-three hundred twen-
51 ty-one of this article. The department may, in its discretion and as
52 needed to contribute to the health and welfare of the public, require
53 the completion of continuing education courses in specific subjects.
54 5. Landscape architects shall maintain adequate documentation of
55 completion of acceptable continuing education and educational activities
56 and shall provide such documentation at the request of the department.
S. 7220 3
1 6. The mandatory continuing education fee shall be forty-five dollars,
2 shall be payable on or before the first day of each triennial registra-
3 tion period, and shall be paid in addition to the triennial registration
4 fee required by section seventy-three hundred twenty-four of this arti-
5 cle.
6 § 2. This act shall take effect eighteen months after it shall have
7 become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
8 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
9 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
10 on or before such effective date.
