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INFO ABOUT
CE CREDIT

Therapy and education professionals must achieve a set amount of continuing education during a licensure period to maintain their license and certification (where applicable) and to keep fresh in their practice.    In our effort to make continuing education (CE) in AAC more accessible, we thought it would be helpful to offer some basic information to help participants in our trainings understand how to use their training with AACcessible toward certification maintenance.  

FOR SLP'S

Hey SLP's! Did you know that you don't have to limit your professional development to ASHA "approved" CEU's (Continuing Education Units) in order to maintain your C's (Certificate of Clinical Competence)? It's true-and not new-but many professionals don't know this fact or find this whole certification maintenance process confusing. Although there are many awesome courses that offer ASHA CEU's, there are also many awesome courses that do not. Don't miss out on those learning opportunities! They count for maintaining your C's too!

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Here's what you need to know: but first, a quick disclaimer.

This information has been provided to help you understand the difference between ASHA-CEU's (Continuing Education Units) and ASHA CMH's (Certification Maintenance Hours). While all efforts have been made to ensure this information is accurate and up-to-date, it is ultimately your responsibility to understand the specific certification and licensure requirements set out by ASHA, your state licensing entity, and any other governing bodies which mandate your practice (e.g., school districts, employers). Connect with each of these for clarity.

 

Ongoing Professional Development is Required for SLP's

You already knew this, of course, but here are some additional details. ASHA requires 30 hours of professional development (CMH's) every three years. (certification maintenance period) to maintain your Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC, or C's). The requirements for state licensing entities (e.g., department of health in your states) are generally the same, but check with your state resource to be sure. Your professional development is defined by you as the certificate holder (using some general ASHA guidelines on what counts as professional development) and does not need to be pee-approved by ASHA. When presenters develop their professional development coursework, they may decide to partner as an "ASHA CE Provider" which means that they submit an application with their course objectives etc.. to ASHA and pay a fee. ASHA then endorses this course as meeting professional development criteria and keeps track of the CEU's reported by the course administrators for attendees who are members of the ASHA CE Registry. If you do t pay the extra fee each year for the ASHA CE Registry, ASHA does not track your courses, even if they are ASHA CE courses. But no worries, because you can track them yourself. More on that at the end of this section.  

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ASHA Considers ASHA CEU's and CMH's Equal in Value

So what is the difference between an ASHA CEU and a CMH? The first difference is the unit

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0.1 ASHA CEU = 1 CMH

1 ASHA CEU = 10 CMH

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So the ASHA CEU is just a more compact unit of measure but the actual value of the unit does not change. In other words, during the three year certification period mentioned above, you need 30 hours (30 CMH) OR 3 ASHA CEU's. if you have a combo of ASHA CEU's and CMH's, that's okay, so long as they add up to 30 hours by the end of the three year period.

 

To crack the code on how CMH's and CEU's compute, visit ASHA's page on reporting units

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The last difference between CEU"s and CMH's is that ASHA CEU's are submitted to the ASHA CE Registry and CMH's are not. This means that if you pay an extra fee each year for the ASHA CE Registry, any courses you take which offer ASHA CEU's will be logged on the registry. At the end of the certification period, you do not have to submit the compliance form outlining your professional development for these courses because that has been verified and tracked by ASHA as part of the registry service. If you have received CMH's during the certification period and wish to count those toward your compliance with the professional development requirements, you will need to submit your compliance form outlining the details of this coursework and retain the proof of attendance you received (usually a certificate) by the course administrator to serve as evidence of your attendance in the event that you are chosen by ASHA to be audited. More in this next section.

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Tracking Your Hours is as Easy as 123

 

  1. . Use the ASHA Record Keeping Form for CMH Audit to log the necessary details for your professional development course

  2. Retain your proof of attendance/completion certificate or other document from the course.

  3. Once you reach your 30 hours for the certification period, submit your form online to ASHA. You don't need to send your proof of attendance certificate document but keep it in your records in case you are chosen to participate in an ASHA CMH audit.

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Do the trainings offered on AACcessible qualify for ASHA CEU's?

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All of the live and recorded trainings offered on AACcessible are more than "acceptable" for ASHA certification maintenance.  All courses and classes offer CMH's for all participants.  ASHA "approved" CEU's are not currently offered but will be offered in the future for select classes and courses.  This means that all participants will need to track their own CMH's as described above because AACcessible will be submitting participant information to ASHA's CE Registry.  

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FOR EDUCATORS

All educators are required to obtain a set amount of "clock hours" during their renewal period to maintain their teaching certification and uphold best practices in education.  Clock hours are offered for continuing education courses which have obtained prior approval by a state's educational governing body.    Educators are free to participate in continuing education opportunities that do not offer clock hours for their own professional development' however, these will likely not count toward clock hour requirements for certification maintenance.  

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Do the trainings offered on AACcessible qualify for clock hours?

At this time, our trainings are not affiliated with each state's clock hour administrator and therefore, we are unable to offer clock hours but hope to provide this opportunity for our educators in the future.  We welcome educators to participate in our trainings for pure professional development.  

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FOR BEHAVIOR PROFESSIONALS

Behavior professionals, such as Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA's), are required to obtain a set amount of continuing education units to maintain their certification within each certification period.  These CEU's must be obtained from an ACE Provider.  

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Do the trainings offered on AACcessible qualify for BACB CEU's?

At this time, we are not an ACE Provider and are unable to offer BACB CEU's.  We hope to share trainings in the future that qualify for ACE and to offer these to our behavior professionals in the future.    We welcome behavior professionals to attend our trainings for pure professional development purposes.  

WHAT TO EXPECT

FROM OUR TRAININGS

To ensure quality continuing education that you can easily keep track of, each of our trainings guarantees the following:

  • Quality, practical content, developed from evidence-based practice and presented by knowledgeable and experienced professionals in the field.  

  • Clearly posted learning objectives with measurable course outcomes.

  • An exit survey to assess each participant's base understanding and application of content presented in the training.  

  • A certificate of completion for each attendee completing the training and accompanying assignments (when applicable), as well as the exit survey.  

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