Prairie State Wire

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation issued the following announcement on March 18.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced several proactive measures to help professional licensees and education providers in light of the challenges confronting all Illinoisans during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Recognizing the limitation of in-person course availability and to further reduce contact between individuals, the Department has issued a series of variances that provide relief from the provisions of certain Administrative Rules pertaining to license renewal terms and to continuing education requirements.  The five Variances may be found here.

Any professional licenses issued by the Department that have renewal dates between March 1, 2020 through and including July 31, 2020 are granted an automatic extension to renew to September 30, 2020.  Additionally, all current licensees under the Department's jurisdiction whose license renewal deadlines fall within the period beginning March 1, 2020 through and including July 31, 2020 shall have up to, and including, September 30, 2020 to complete their continuing education coursework.  The Department is also allowing licensees to complete their continuing education coursework without requiring live attendance and permit for interactive webinar and online distance education courses in addition to currently permitted methods.  These and all Departmental licensees must continue to comply with all pertinent provisions of their respective licensing Acts.

"We are committed to primarily protecting the health and welfare of the people of Illinois and understand the challenges that the current COVID-19 pandemic creates for our licensees.  These variances help alleviate some of the obstacles our licensees face during this time that are in line with our commitment and action towards responsible regulation efforts," said Mario Treto, Jr., Director of the Division of Real Estate.  "Serving our licensees and consumers is core to our Department's mission and by temporarily permitting virtual and on-line education courses in lieu of in-classroom attendance for our licensees, we are protecting their well-being by encouraging social distancing and further reducing person-to-person contact," said Cecilia Abundis, Acting Director of the Division of Professional Regulation.

Additionally, during the period beginning March 17, 2020 through and including July 31, 2020, all massage therapy schools are permitted to offer on-line instruction for their lecture-based, non-hands-on courses. Finally, all cosmetology schools licensed under Article IIID of the Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding, and Nail Technology Act of 1985 ("BCENT") are permitted to teach online theory courses above the current ten percent (10%) hour limitation for students who are graduating on or before July 31, 2020.

Please note that all Continuing Education requirements MUST be completed at the time of renewal.  Applications for renewal must indicate that all Continuing Education requirements are met. 

For a complete list of professions that are affected by this renewal extension, please click here.

Original source can be found here.