 Continuing Education Review
by
Cindy Bradshaw, ACC
President, NCCAP
Having recently had the
opportunity to review numerous
applications for certification renewals,
I would like to highlight some commonly
made mistakes as well as to review for
you the members the process of renewals;
both of which may facilitate a speedier
process.
Let’s reiterate what
the past couple newsletters have given as
a time line. 60 days prior to your
expiration date you should receive your
renewal notice in the mail.
- This gives you time
to complete the form and submit
your certificates of attendance
to the office on a timely basis.
What frequently occurs is that a
person waits until right before
their date of expiration (a day
or two sometimes) to even submit
their application. Some
individuals even wait until 30 -
60 days after their expiration
date to submit their renewal.
This slows down the process.
- Once the office
receives the renewal application,
it is recorded and then forwarded
to one of eight, trained nccap
certified volunteers. These
reviewers are asked to review the
file within a 14 day turn around
time, and return the file to the
office.
- One of two things
then occurs -- 1) you are sent a
“needs more info sheet”
stating what else is needed to
proceed with your renewal or 2)
you receive your new certificate
and card in the mail.
Common areas with regard to
the certificates of attendance:
- They need to have
your name on them (not with white
out - an original issued to you)
- They need the
required components as stated in
the standards (which are also
posted on our Web site) - If this
information is not on the
certificate - add it, or attach
materials that have the
information such as the brochure.
- They must be within
the past 2 years (from the past
date of your certification
expiration forward 2 years
example: 7/97 - 7/99)
- They must fit in the
body of knowledge - you’d be
amazed at what items/categories
are submitted
- If they are a
college course being used for the
continuing education component of
the renewal process the
documentation must be authentic
(red stamped, signed, verified,
official student copies are only
accepted for renewals)
- YOU DO NOT need to
send 220 hours of continuing
education - you only need to
submit the necessary hours with
the correct information contained
on them - (refer to the sample
certificate in our standards or
again on our Web site)
- The renewal form
asks you to list the topic(s) --
in this space you are asked to
list each individual session or
workshop by name - example -
Documentation, Pet Therapy etc.
NOT the program type areas from
the body of knowledge.
- You are to total the
hours submitted - and not leave
that space blank
- Remember to only
submit the allowed 20% for the
personal enrichment, health
related etc..the area with the
most confusion seems to be with
the facility inservices. We
recognize that not all facilities
provide you the certified member
with a completed certificate of
attendance after each 1 hour
offering - BUT NCCAP does provide
you the sample certificate and
encourages you to complete it and
have the speaker or facilitator
sign it for verification.
We encourage you to begin
preparing for your renewal immediately
after your new expiration date. Although
there is two years in between, the time
can pass so quickly. Keeping these
organized helps in the long run. As we
often hear that a person can’t
locate the speaker or needed information
once too much time has passed. I should
also mention that your renewal date is 2
years after the previous expiration. For
example, if a person’s certification
expired 3/1/99 and didn’t submit
their renewal until 5/31/99, then after
reviewing the file if we found items to
be incomplete and we needed to go back to
the applicant for more information - this
process could go on until the file is
complete.
If this person finally
completes the necessary paperwork by,
let’s say 9/1/99, their expiration
date would still be 3/1/2001 -- 2 years
after the applicant should have been
completed.
We trust these hints will be
helpful to you -- and again encourage you
to begin preparing for your renewal as
soon as possible. NN
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