Michigan Physical Therapy CE Requirements (2026): 24 Hours Every 2 Years

Requirements Overview

Under Michigan Administrative Rule R 338.7161, PTs and PTAs must accumulate 24 PDR credits during the 2 years before their license expires. Michigan calls its credits "PDR" rather than "contact hours," but 1 PDR credit equals 1 clock hour of standard coursework, so no conversion is needed. At least 1 credit must cover pain and symptom management, and no more than 12 credits may come from online programs in any single 24-hour period.

Two separate trainings apply on top of the 24 credits: a one-time human trafficking identification course, and 2 hours of implicit bias training every renewal cycle, required of nearly all Michigan health professions.

Michigan does not allow carrying unused credits into a future cycle, and first-time licensees owe no PDR credits at their initial renewal.

Mandatory Topics

Exemptions

• ✓
  Initial Licensure Cycle Exemption — The 24-PDR-credit requirement does not apply to a licensee during their initial licensure cycle -- i.e., a first-time Michigan PT/PTA licensee owes 0 PDR credits at their very first renewal.
• ✓
  Board Waiver — The department will accept a request for a waiver of PDR credits for the Board's consideration, if received not less than 30 days before the last regularly scheduled Board meeting before the license expiration date.

  The rule text does not itself list specific qualifying grounds (e.g. Hardship/illness/military) for the waiver -- those criteria, if any, are set by the Board's own waiver-request process, which was not detailed in the fetched primary or secondary sources.

How You Can Complete Your CE

Michigan CE Rules & Limits

Details specific to Michigan that generic CE guides tend to miss:

• Michigan measures continuing education in 'PDR' (Professional Development Requirement) credits, not raw 'contact hours', but for the dominant activity type (approved CE programs/coursework) 0.1 PDR credit = 50-60 minutes of instruction, i.e. 1 PDR credit = 1 contact-hour equivalent, so total hours=24 is recorded directly with no separate unit-conversion adjustment needed.
• Human trafficking identification training (R 338.7126) is a ONE-TIME requirement, explicitly separate from and NOT counted toward the 24 PDR credits ('This is a one-time training that is separate from professional development requirement (PDR) credits' -- FAQ Q2). It applies to license renewals beginning with the 2017 renewal cycle and to initial licenses issued on/after January 6, 2022. Training must cover: types/venues of human trafficking in the U.S.; identifying victims in healthcare settings; warning signs for adults and minors; and reporting resources. Acceptable formats: teleconference/webinar, online presentation, live presentation, or printed/electronic media (including reading a qualifying peer-reviewed/healthcare/professional journal article). No specific hour-length is prescribed by rule.
• Implicit Bias training (R 338.7004, a general Public Health Code rule applying to nearly all LARA-licensed health professions, not a PT-specific rule) is a RECURRING requirement (unlike human trafficking training) required at every renewal: 1 hour of implicit bias training for each year of the license/registration cycle, i.e. 2 hours per Michigan PT/PTA 2-year renewal cycle. New applicants need 2 hours completed within the 5 years preceding initial licensure. Effective for renewals/applications on or after June 1, 2022. The Implicit Bias Training FAQ states this training 'may be used to satisfy other training or continuing education requirements' but ONLY 'if permitted by the Public Health Code and rules for your profession' -- the PT-specific PDR rule (R 338.7163(4)) does not list implicit bias training among its enumerated PDR-acceptable-activity types (a)-(l), so it is treated here as an ADDITIONAL requirement on top of (not counted within) the 24 PDR credits, consistent with how the human-trafficking training is explicitly handled. Net practical effect: Michigan PTs/PTAs must complete 24 PDR credits (incl. 1 in pain/symptom management) PLUS a one-time human-trafficking training PLUS 2 hours of implicit-bias training every 2-year cycle.
• Online CE pacing cap: no more than 12 PDR credits may come from approved online programs/activities completed within any single 24-hour period (R 338.7163(1)(a)) -- this limits cramming within a day, not total online hours allowed across the 2-year cycle.
• Per-category caps within the 24 PDR credits (R 338.7163(4)): reading a professional/scientific journal article, 1 credit/article, max 6 credits/renewal period; viewing/listening to professional educational media, 0.5 credit/30 min, max 6 credits/renewal period; postgraduate academic coursework, max 20 credits/renewal period; presenting a CE program, max 12 credits/renewal period; authoring an article, max 12 credits/renewal period; ABPTS certification/recertification or APTA PTA Advanced Proficiency Pathways, max 23 credits/renewal period; postgraduate clinical training (min. 1,000 hours), max 12 credits/renewal period; committee/task force participation, max 6 credits/renewal period; serving as guest instructor, max 12 credits/renewal period.
• A licensee may not earn PDR credit twice for the same or substantially equivalent program/activity within the same renewal period (R 338.7163(1)(b)).
• A licensee must retain documentation of PDR compliance for 4 years from the date of applying for license renewal (R 338.7161(3)); documentation is only submitted to the department if the licensee is selected for audit, not automatically at renewal.
• Michigan requires a separate, one-time Jurisprudence Examination (Michigan Physical Therapist Jurisprudence Exam / Michigan Physical Therapist Assistant Jurisprudence Exam, passing score 75%) as a prerequisite for INITIAL licensure (and, for lapsed licenses relicensed more than 3 years after expiration, again at relicensure) -- this is an examination requirement, not a recurring CE topic, and is not part of the 24 PDR credits (R 338.7133, R 338.7145).

Provider Requirements

The Board does not pre-approve individual courses; instead, a continuing education program or activity is acceptable if it is approved or offered for continuing education credit by any of: another state board of physical therapy; another Michigan health-profession board or task force under Article 15 of the Public Health Code; FSBPT; the APTA or its components (including APTA Michigan, APTA Chapters/Sections/Academies); or an accredited physical therapist or physical therapist assistant educational program. Postgraduate academic courses count if from an accredited PT/PTA educational program or a nationally accredited university/college meeting CHEA or U.S. Dept. Of Education accreditation-recognition standards.

Tips for Michigan PTs

• Track your pain and symptom management credit separately -- it's easy to hit 24 total PDR credits while forgetting the required 1-credit subject-matter minimum.
• Complete the human trafficking identification training once, early -- it never has to be repeated at later renewals, so get it out of the way and stop tracking it.
• Budget 2 hours specifically for implicit bias training each 2-year cycle; it does not count toward your 24 PDR credits, so treat it as a separate checklist item.
• If you're doing an online CE binge close to your renewal deadline, cap yourself at 12 credits per 24-hour period -- Michigan disallows claiming more than that from a single day of online coursework.
• Keep your certificates and completion records for at least 4 years after you apply for renewal; Michigan doesn't require you to submit proof unless you're selected for audit, but you must be able to produce it on request.

Sources

Each figure on this page is taken directly from the Board of Physical Therapy'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.

PT Requirements in Nearby States

Other Professions in Michigan