Maryland Physical Therapy CE Requirements (2026): 30 Hours Every 2 Years
Requirements Overview
The Maryland State Board of Physical Therapy Examiners requires licensed physical therapists to earn 30 CE hours every 2-year renewal period, tracked in a fixed window from June 1 through May 31. Physical therapist assistants have a separate, lower total of 20 hours under the same rules. One CE hour equals 60 minutes of actual learning time, not counting breaks, registration, or meals.
Unlike many states, Maryland doesn't mandate any specific subject area, such as jurisprudence or ethics, within the 30-hour total — any course relevant to PT practice and reviewed favorably by the Board qualifies, and coursework from APTA or FSBPT is automatically approved. Home study and self-directed/online courses are explicitly permitted, with no stated cap on how many hours can come from them.
Unused hours cannot carry over into the next cycle, and anything completed after May 31 of your renewal year won't count. If your license was issued within the last year, the Board may waive the CE requirement entirely for that first renewal.
First Renewal vs. Standard Renewal
Exemptions
- First Renewal New License Exemption — A physical therapist whose original license was issued 1 year or less before the renewal period may have that first renewal period's CE requirement waived entirely by the Board, provided all other renewal requirements are met.
How You Can Complete Your CE
Maryland CE Rules & Limits
Details specific to Maryland that generic CE guides tend to miss:
- Carry-over — Maryland explicitly prohibits carrying CE hours forward: all 30 (PT) hours must be earned fresh within each 2-year qualifying window (June 1 - May 31); hours completed after May 31 of the renewal year, or excess hours from a prior cycle, are not accepted.
- 1 CE hour = 60 minutes of engagement in a learning activity, and does not include time spent on registration, breaks, social networking, or meals (COMAR 10.38.08.02.B(2)). No CCU/point-system conversion is used; total hours is recorded directly in these contact hours.
- Physical therapist assistants (PTAs) have a lower requirement: 20 CE hours per 2-year renewal period (vs. 30 for PTs), under the same COMAR 10.38.08 chapter and the same June 1-May 31 qualifying window, no-carry-over rule, and first-renewal exemption. This evidence file and total hours/renewal option cover the physical-therapist (PT) profession only.
- Maryland has NO subject-matter mandatory CE topic (no jurisprudence, ethics, or similar carve-out) within the 30/20-hour requirement -- CE need only be 'relevant to the professional practice of physical therapy' and meet general quality criteria (COMAR 10.38.08.03.B).
- SEPARATE, NON-CE-HOUR REQUIREMENT: under 2025 Maryland House Bill 783 (Health Occupations Article Section 1-225) and Health-General Article Section 20-1306, all Maryland health occupation license/certificate renewal applicants -- including PTs -- must ATTEST, at their first renewal after April 1, 2026, that they have completed an implicit bias and structural racism training program approved by the Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Professional Competency Program. This is a one-time attestation, not repeated at subsequent renewals once completed. The statute allows (but does not require) each health occupations board to adopt regulations letting this training count toward CE hours; no such regulation was found in COMAR 10.38.08, so it is treated here as separate from, not part of, the 30-hour PT CE total. (Effective date note: the Maryland Dept. Of Health's Minority Health and Health Disparities page states the underlying requirement took effect October 1, 2025, while the Board of PT Examiners' own renewals page frames it as an ongoing 'requirement' without repeating the October 1, 2025 date; the attestation itself is only required starting an applicant's first renewal after April 1, 2026 per the statute text.)
- Approved non-traditional CE credit values (COMAR 10.38.08.08): postgraduate academic coursework = 10 CE hrs/course credit; presenting CE = 2 CE hrs per hour presented (same subject matter counted once per renewal period); authoring/co-authoring/editing a book, book chapter, or peer-reviewed journal article = 30 CE hrs; authoring an abstract = 10 CE hrs; approved self-directed or home-study course = 1 CE hr per interactive hour; workplace/community-service and leadership CE = 1 CE hr, once per renewal period only; supervising PT/PTA students in a clinical rotation = 10 CE hrs once per renewal period (1 CE hr per 40 supervision hours); research = 10 CE hrs.
- The Board audits a sample of licensees' CE records each renewal period (COMAR 10.38.08.06); audited licensees must submit supporting documentation, and failure to substantiate claimed CE hours results in denial of renewal or reinstatement (COMAR 10.38.08.05.G).
- License renewal fee (2026 cycle): PT = $271, PTA = $190. A separate expired-license reinstatement track exists (fee $400 for both PT and PTA), requiring 30 (PT) / 20 (PTA) CE hours earned in the 2 years immediately preceding reinstatement (COMAR 10.38.08.07).
Provider Requirements
The Board maintains an Approved course list for fulfilling the 30 (PT) / 20 (PTA) contact-hour requirement and has final approval authority over the relevancy of continuing education. Courses offered by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) are automatically approved/accepted by the Board without separate review.
Tips for Maryland PTs
- Track your CE window as June 1 through May 31, not the calendar year — courses taken outside that window, especially after May 31 of your renewal year, won't be accepted.
- Since Maryland has no mandatory topic requirement, prioritize APTA- or FSBPT-approved courses first; they're automatically accepted without needing separate Board review.
- Don't bank extra hours expecting to use them later — Maryland explicitly disallows carrying CE hours into the next renewal period, so hours beyond 30 in one cycle are simply lost.
- If this is your first renewal and your license is a year old or less, check whether the Board's waiver applies before spending money on CE you may not need.
- All Maryland health license renewals now require a one-time attestation of completed implicit bias and structural racism training at your first renewal after April 1, 2026 — this is separate from your 30 CE hours, so budget for it independently and confirm with the Board whether it can also count toward your CE total.
Sources
Each figure on this page is taken directly from the Maryland State Board of Physical Therapy Examiners's official rules and continuing-education sources and recorded with the exact source excerpt. Last verified Jul 2026. Read how we compile and verify this data.