How Physical Therapy CE Approval Works in North Carolina
Sep 1
North Carolina’s continuing competence system gives Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist Assistants several ways to use professional education toward license renewal.
The important point is that a course does not have to appear on the North Carolina Board’s own published course list to qualify.
The North Carolina Board of Physical Therapy Examiners recognizes several pre-approved provider pathways.
A separate North Carolina application is generally not required when a course has already been approved by:
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a state chapter or section of APTA
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the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy
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IACET
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a state physical therapy licensure board in the United States or Canada
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certain North Carolina public health and education organizations for PT-related activities
The Board also states that its published list contains only courses submitted directly to NCBPTE and is not a comprehensive list of all qualifying continuing competence activities.
A provider can submit a course to North Carolina for review, or seek approval through another qualifying organization such as an APTA chapter, FSBPT, or another state physical therapy board.
For direct North Carolina review, the current application fee is $150 for providers.
An individual licensee may also submit a course for approval for their own use. The current fee is $25.
North Carolina limits the number of points that may be earned from certain types of online learning.
For an approved non-interactive electronic course completed on demand:
1 contact hour = 1 point
The maximum allowed in one reporting period is 10 points. Approved-provider home-study programs are also capped at 10 points per reporting period.
This distinction matters because a course may contain more than 10 hours of instruction while North Carolina still limits how many points can be claimed from that activity category.
North Carolina allows up to 10 points earned in excess of the reporting requirement to carry into the next reporting period.
Carryover does not apply to points from Jurisprudence Exercises, Clinical Practice, or Self-Assessment activities. Category-specific maximums still apply.
Pose Method® of Running is a 20-hour online course for Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist Assistants covering running assessment, correction, video analysis, and retraining.
The course qualifies through a recognized physical therapy continuing education approval pathway. Under North Carolina’s limits for non-interactive online education, licensees may claim up to 10 continuing competence points from the course during a reporting period.
For clinicians who work with runners, athletes, military personnel, or return-to-running patients, the course combines continuing competence credit with a practical running assessment and retraining system.
