North Dakota Physical Therapy CE Requirements (2026): 25 Hours Every 2 Years
Requirements Overview
The North Dakota Board of Physical Therapy, under Administrative Code Article 61.5-03, requires 25 units of continuing competence every 2 years to renew a PT or PTA license. One unit equals one hour, so the requirement is effectively 25 contact hours per cycle, attested at the January 31 deadline following the two-year period.
No mandatory topic is named — no recurring jurisprudence, ethics, or opioid course (a one-time Jurisprudence Exam applies only at initial licensure and reinstatement). Accepted activities include APTA- or board-approved programs, specialty certification (15 units), a full residency program (25 units), and clinical instruction or teaching (each capped at 5 units).
Carry-over is not permitted: units beyond 25 are lost at the next cycle. The board audits 10% of licensees yearly. Endorsement licensees from other states without 25 recent units must complete 13 units within their first year before moving to the standard cycle.
Renewal Pathways
Exemptions
- Extenuating Circumstances — A licensee who claims extenuating circumstances preventing them from meeting the continuing competence requirements may petition the board for consideration of those special conditions.
How You Can Complete Your CE
North Dakota CE Rules & Limits
Details specific to North Dakota that generic CE guides tend to miss:
- Unit-to-hour conversion: North Dakota's rule uses 'units' of continuing competence rather than 'contact hours' as the nominal term, but NDAC 61.5-03-02-01 defines 'One unit equals one hour of participation in competence activities,' so the 25-unit requirement is a direct 1:1 equivalent of 25 contact hours; total hours is recorded as 25 accordingly.
- Verification/audit: registrants self-attest compliance with the 25-unit requirement at the January license renewal deadline following their 2-year cycle (NDAC 61.5-03-03-01(1)). The board draws a 10% annual audit sample of licensees and may require documentation directly from the licensee or from state/national organizations that maintain those records (61.5-03-03-01(2)).
- Enhanced/alternate unit credit: APTA specialty certification or recertification = 15 units; completion of a PT residency program = 25 units (satisfies the entire 2-year requirement); clinical instruction = 1 unit per 165 hours of instruction, capped at 5 units per 2-year reporting period; teaching at an accredited PT/PTA program (not as primary occupation) = 1 unit per direct contact hour, capped at 5 units per reporting period; a person teaching an approved activity gets extra prep-time credit up to a 5:1 prep-to-presentation ratio, limited to one course per year.
- Ineligible activities: no credit for entertainment/recreational activities, employment orientation sessions, holding office or serving as an organizational delegate, policy-making meetings, noneducational association meetings, meals, keynote speeches, or introductory/postsession filler around a CE program (NDAC 61.5-03-02-01(3)-(4)).
- First-year reduced track for endorsement/foreign licensees: a licensee newly licensed in ND for the first time from another state or country, who does not already hold 25 units earned within the prior two years, must complete 13 units within one year of initial ND licensure before moving onto the standard 2-year/25-unit cycle (NDAC 61.5-03-03-01(4)). No comparable reduced-hours provision is stated for a brand-new graduate entering practice for the first time (in any state); such a licensee appears to be on the standard cycle from initial licensure, with the first attestation due at the January deadline following their 2-year cycle. A third-party CE-provider aggregator site (not an official source) separately claims new graduates are 'exempt' from reporting continuing competence for their first renewal cycle; this could not be corroborated on the board's own site or in the administrative code and is not treated as a confirmed exemption here.
- Manual therapy competence (NDAC Chapter 61.5-03-04) is a separate scope-of-practice qualification standard, not a recurring CE-hour requirement: it lists acceptable evidence pathways (entry-level accredited PT/PTA education, foreign-education equivalence, OCS/SCS certification, formal manual-therapy fellowship, or post-entry-level education) for standard manual therapy and, additionally, for high-velocity low-amplitude (HVLA) thrust manipulation specifically.
- Jurisprudence Exam: both initial licensure (by examination or by endorsement) and reinstatement require passing an open-book Jurisprudence Exam covering North Dakota's practice act and board rules.
- Reinstatement: the board's reinstatement application page does not publish a specific numeric CE make-up tier (e.g., a fixed number of hours tied to lapse length); it instead requires the standard 25-unit/2-year attestation plus Jurisprudence Exam passage, current license copies and verification letters from all other states, and employment verification letters from the last two employers, and directs licensees who have not practiced in the past 3 years or have not passed the NPTE to contact the board directly for individualized guidance.
- License renewal deadline is January 31 annually (renewal portal on ndbpt.org 'currently closed and will reopen on November 1' outside the renewal window); the January 31 deadline is administrative (annual renewal cadence) and is distinct from the underlying 2-year continuing-competence reporting cycle.
- PT/PTA renewal fee is $100; initial licensure application fee is $200 (non-refundable) plus a criminal background check fee (~$40-41.25); these fee figures are sourced from the board's own website (secondary source) rather than the codified rule, and are included here for context only, not as CE-requirement data.
Provider Requirements
No single board-approval list of providers. Units are earned through activities related to physical therapy approved by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), state physical therapy associations, and state physical therapy boards; through APTA specialty certification/recertification (15 units); a physical therapy residency program (25 units); clinical instruction (1 unit per 165 hours, max 5/cycle); and teaching at an accredited PT/PTA program (1 unit per direct contact hour, max 5/cycle). The board determines unit values for each activity based on its complexity and educational value, and self-attestation is used at renewal with a 10%-per-year audit sample.
Tips for North Dakota PTs
- Track your 25 units against the full 2-year cycle rather than assuming a yearly quota — the renewal deadline is January 31, but attestation covers the whole biennial period at once, not a fixed annual number.
- If you're licensing into North Dakota by endorsement from another state and don't already hold 25 recent units, budget for the reduced 13-unit requirement due within your first year before you shift to the standard 2-year cycle.
- Don't bank on rolling extra units forward — carry-over isn't allowed, so hours completed beyond 25 in one cycle are wasted once the next cycle begins.
- Since the board audits a random 10% of licensees annually, keep attendance records, certificates, or transcripts on hand rather than relying solely on the online attestation.
- High-value activities can shortcut the requirement: completing a physical therapy residency program earns the full 25 units for the cycle, and an APTA specialty certification or recertification is worth 15 units on its own.
Sources
Each figure on this page is taken directly from the North Dakota 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.