Section 12 AAC 18.210 - Continuing education requirement(a) A licensee applying for renewal of a social worker license shall complete the continuing education contact hours set out in this section for a biennial licensing period. For the licensee's (1) first biennial renewal, the licensee shall complete (A) 21 contact hours, if the licensee has been licensed for fewer than 12 months during the concluding biennial licensing period; (B) 45 contact hours, if the licensee has been licensed for at least 12 months during the concluding biennial licensing period; or (2) second or subsequent biennial renewal, the licensee shall complete 45 contact hours. (b) To be eligible for renewal, a licensee shall complete the following minimum continuing education contact hours during each biennial licensing period: (1) six contact hours in substance abuse education;(2) six contact hours in cross-cultural education; (A) for the first biennial renewal, all six hours must include issues relating to Alaska Natives; (B) for the second or subsequent biennial renewal, at least three hours must include issues relating to Alaska Natives; (3) three contact hours in professional ethics; (4) three contact hours in teletherapy practice; (5) three contact hours in suicide education. (c) The board will only accept hours earned from an academic course that a licensee audited as continuing education contact hours if(1) the licensee only claims the hours during which the licensee attended instructional class time; and (2) the licensee does not claim more contact hours than the academic semester credit, academic quarter credit, or other academic credit hours offered for that course; for purposes of this paragraph, (A) one academic semester credit equals 15 contact hours; (B) one academic quarter credit equals 10 contact hours. (d) A licensee applying for renewal shall complete at least 10 contact hours of the required continuing education contact hours under this section by attending live, live online, or synchronous training courses. The licensee may obtain the remaining hours through (1) a correspondence program;(2) a prerecorded videotape, audiocassette, digital medium, or other optical medium program;(3) an asynchronous program; for purposes of this paragraph, "asynchronous" means non-real-time transmission of instruction, classwork, and discussion between an instructor and a student; or(4) another individual study program. (e) A licensee applying for renewal may not earn more than 12 contact hours of continuing education activities required under this section in one day. (f) A licensee applying for renewal under this section may receive up to three hours of professional ethics continuing education credit under (b)(3) of this section once every biennial licensing period for each 150 minutes that the licensee attends a regularly scheduled board meeting. (g) For the purposes of this section, (1) one "contact hour" equals 50 to 60 minutes of classroom instruction between an instructor and a participant; (2) "relating to Alaska Natives" means a structured educational experience, including a course, lecture, workshop, or other organized training that focuses on the indigenous peoples of Alaska as applicable to social work practice; and (3) "teletherapy practice" means the use of audio, video, or data communication to perform, while physically separated from a client, the function or practice within the training required for licensure under AS 08.95 and this chapter.Eff. 9/26/91, Register 119; am 10/14/99, Register 152; am 11/4/2015, Register 216, January 2016; am 3/26/2020, Register 233, April 2020; am 6/11/2023, Register 246, July 2023; am 11/29/2024, Register 252, January 2025Authority:AS 08.95.030
AS 08.95.040