Education Department

NOTICE OF ADOPTION

Mandatory Continuing Education for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians

I.D. No. EDU-42-11-00025-A

Filing No. 1382

Filing Date: 2011-12-20

Effective Date: 2012-01-04

PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following action:

Action taken: Amendment of section 62.8 of Title 8 NYCRR.

Statutory authority: Education Law, sections 207, 6504, 6506, 6507(2)(a), 6704-a and 6711-b; and L. 2010, ch. 328

Subject: Mandatory continuing education for veterinarians and veterinary technicians.

Purpose: To implement statutory authority requiring continuing education for licensed veterinarians and veterinary technicians.

Text or summary was published in the October 19, 2011 issue of the Register, I.D. No. EDU-42-11-00025-P.

Final rule as compared with last published rule: No changes.

Text of rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from: Mary Gammon, State Education Department, Office of Counsel, State Education Building Room 148, 89 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-8857, email: legal@mail.nysed.gov

Assessment of Public Comment

Since publication of a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in the October 19, 2011 State Register, the State Education Department received three comments raising the following issues:

Comment

The commenters expressed concern about the $900 fee required of sponsors of continuing education for veterinarians. The commenters indicated that veterinarians working in research laboratories and those working in other specialized areas of practice often obtain specialized continuing education from national organizations that focus on laboratory animal medicine. They expressed concern that these organizations are unlikely to pay the $900 fee to become continuing education sponsors in New York State. The commenters write that as a result of this fee being imposed on such national organizations, who will elect not to participate, they will likely be required to participate in more generalized continuing education in veterinary medicine provided by State approved sponsors in addition to participating in continuing education relevant to their specialty areas of practice. They maintain that this will be cost and time prohibitive to the individual licensees and the government funded and not-for-profit institutions for which many of them work. The commenters recommend that the State Board for Veterinary Medicine accept, without fee, continuing education credits obtained from certain, specified veterinary continuing education programs.

Response

Section 6704-a(2) of the Education Law requires applicants for reregistration as a veterinarian to complete 45 hours of acceptable formal continuing education. Section 6704-a(4) provides that "acceptable formal continuing education" is to be "offered by sponsors of veterinary continuing education approved by the department in consultation with the state board for veterinary medicine." Subdivision (4) further provides that "sponsors of veterinary medicine continuing education shall file an application with the department and pay a fee of nine hundred dollars." Based on these statutory provisions, neither the Department nor the State Board for Veterinary Medicine has the discretion to waive the $900 sponsor fee, which is required by law without exception. That does not, however, prevent a group providing veterinary medicine continuing education from working with an approved sponsor to make their programs available and eligible for continuing education credit in New York State.