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SCOTA Continuing Education Sanctioning Guidelines


SCOTA Continuing Education Guidelines and Application Sanctioning Process

  • SCOTA is committed to providing appropriate and quality continuing education opportunities for SCOTA members and other allied health professionals.
  • SCOTA will do its best to provide affordable continuing education courses throughout the state of South Carolina.
  • SCOTA will have a Standing Continuing Education Committee that will be Chaired by the SCOTA Vice President and whose members shall be the Special Interest Sections Chairs.
  • SCOTA, through the Continuing Education Committee, will try to ensure the quality of speakers and presentations.
  • SCOTA will maintain records for 5 years of speakers/presentations, roster of attendance and course evaluations.
  • SCOTA will certify continuing education courses and contact hours.
  • SCOTA will provide the necessary documentation of continuing education courses as prescribed by the practice act.
  • SCOTA will approve and certify speakers and presentations on an event by event basis.
  • SCOTA will provide courtesy rosters of attendees, lists of speakers and presentation information to the South Carolina Board of Occupational Therapy (SCBOT) annually.
  • SCOTA may solely sponsor or co-sponsor continuing education opportunities. SCOTA may charge a fee for sanctioning and/or certification.
  • SCOTA Sanctioning is defined as SCOTA approved and/or endorsed events. The host individual or organization soliciting SCOTA's approval is responsible to provide the certificates of participation to participants and to maintain documentation for auditing purposes.
  • The host individual or organization is required to provide SCOTA a courtesy roster of attendees and sample certificate.
  • SCOTA Certification is defined by SCOTA approved and endorsed events that SCOTA issues the certificates and maintains the files of record.
  • SCOTA may charge a fee for attendance at continuing education events.
  • SCOTA will try to offer continuing education opportunities at District meetings, SIS meetings, and/or at the SCOTA Annual Conference and Exposition.
  • SCOTA will try to offer other continuing education opportunities as appropriate.

SCOTA will use the following process to Sanction and/or Certify Continuing Education Events:

  • Applicants must contact SCOTA to request an application (or download the application from the SCOTA Website).
  • Applicants must submit the application for approval at least 30 days in advance of the event.
  • Approved applicants agree to follow the following SCOTA rules/regulations.
  • No certification of continuing education contact hours will be awarded if:
    • Participants are more than 10 minutes late or leave 10 minutes early for a course is less than 90 minutes in duration.
    • Participants are more than 15 minutes late or leave 15 minutes early for a course that is less than 3 hours in duration.
    • Participants are more than 20 minutes late or leave 20 minutes early for a course that is less than 5 hours in duration.
    • Participants are more than 30 minutes late or leave 30 minutes early for a course that is more than 5 hours in duration.
    • Participants do not complete and return a course evaluation form.
      • ~Note: partial award of continuing education contact hours may be granted for courses with multiple sessions with prior authorization.
  • Participants not qualifying to receive a SCOTA Certification secondary to late arrival and/or early departure, may submit the course for consideration by the SCBOT for "in-service" continuing education credits or other credit issued at SCBOT's discretion.
  • Approved applicants will submit a roster of attendees and copies of course evaluations within 15 days of the course's completion to the SCOTA Office.
  • Certificates of attendance will be issued to qualified participants at the close of the courses or by mail if necessary.
  • SCOTA may charge a fee for certificate replacements.
  • SCOTA will do its best to provide quality and appropriate continuing education opportunities.
  • It is the responsibility of each practitioner to ensure that the continuing education course(s) meet(s) his/her needs and the standards of the SCBOT or other boards.
  • The SCBOT does not pre-certify events.
  • SCOTA is a SCBOT presumptive provider of continuing education for occupational therapy practitioners.
  • The SCBOT has the discretion to approve or reject continuing education credits per the SCBOT standards and/or regulations.

SCOTA Advertising for Non-Sanctioned Courses:

If a company would like a course advertised on the SCOTA website but do not want to go through the sanctioning process, there is a different fee schedule. If the company is an AOTA provider, that will be noted. For other courses, there will be a disclaimer stating that although course content may be acceptable for CE credit through the SC licensure, the provider of the course chose not to go through the SCOTA sanctioning process.