Pennsylvania Physical Therapy CE Requirements (2026): 30 Hours Every 2 Years
Requirements Overview
Under 49 Pa. Code § 40.67, the Pennsylvania State Board of Physical Therapy requires every licensed physical therapist to log 30 contact hours of continuing education each 2-year renewal period. Of that total, 2 hours must cover law or ethics and 2 hours must be Board-approved child abuse recognition and reporting training; the remaining 26 hours can be any qualifying subject matter.
Hours earned in one biennium cannot apply to a later one — a contact hour may satisfy the requirement for only the renewal period in which it was completed. First-time renewers owe no continuing education for that initial biennial cycle.
Courses from preapproved providers (APTA, FSBPT, CAPTE-accredited programs, and similar) count automatically; other providers need Board approval at least 60 days ahead. Direct Access Certificate holders face a separate 30-hour requirement on top of standard renewal hours.
Mandatory Topics
| Topic | Hours | Frequency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law or ethics applicable to the practice of physical therapy | 2 | Every renewal | Part of the 30-hour total, not additional to it. |
| Child abuse recognition and reporting | 2 | Every renewal | Must be Board-approved CE in child abuse recognition and reporting, per § 40.208(b). Part of the 30-hour total. Note: a separate 3-hour child abuse recognition/reporting course is required for INITIAL licensure (before first renewal), per the Department of State licensure snapshot -- distinct from this 2-hour renewal requirement. |
Exemptions
- First Renewal New Licensee — A licensee is not required to complete any continuing education during the biennial renewal cycle in which the licensee was first licensed.
- Physical Disability Illness Or Undue Hardship — The Board may, in individual cases involving physical disability or illness, or undue hardship, grant a waiver of the continuing education requirements or an extension of time to complete them. A written request is required; for disability/illness, supporting documentation from a licensed physician must be received by the Board no later than 90 days preceding the biennial renewal.The Board may condition a granted waiver on the licensee making up all or part of the continuing education involved.If the underlying disability, illness, or hardship continues beyond the granted waiver period, the licensee must reapply for an extension.
- Expired License No Practice Before Reactivation — A licensee who allowed the license to expire at the end of a biennial period for which the required CE was not completed, and who did not practice the profession before reactivating the license, is not subject to the disciplinary-action penalty of subsection (f) once the licensee demonstrates that the deficient continuing education was subsequently completed upon reactivation.
How You Can Complete Your CE
Pennsylvania CE Rules & Limits
Details specific to Pennsylvania that generic CE guides tend to miss:
- Pennsylvania uses direct contact hours as its native unit; there is no CCU/point conversion system, so total hours needs no conversion.
- Direct Access Certificate holders (PTs certified to evaluate/treat patients without a physician referral) face a SEPARATE continuing education requirement under 49 Pa. Code § 40.63: 30 contact hours per biennium beginning after their first certificate renewal, at least 10 of which must be in evaluative procedures to treat without a referral (20 hours, 10 in evaluative procedures, for renewal periods before January 1, 2013). This is in addition to, not a substitute for, the base license requirement in § 40.67, and is not folded into this file's core hours/topics fields.
- A licensee providing clinical instruction to PT/PTA students in a CAPTE-accredited program's affiliated clinical facility may earn 1 contact hour of CE per 40 hours of clinical instruction, capped at 4 contact hours per biennium (49 Pa. Code § 40.67(c)(7)).
- Authoring publications can earn CE credit within the biennium of publication only: authoring/editing a book (up to 15 hours), a book chapter (up to 10 hours), a peer-reviewed article (up to 10 hours), or a non-peer-reviewed article in a PT publication (up to 5 hours) (49 Pa. Code § 40.67(e)).
- Continuing education credit may NOT be earned for courses in office management or practice building, and a licensee may not receive repeat credit in the same biennium for substantially similar course content (49 Pa. Code § 40.67(c)(2)-(4)).
- Licensees must retain proof of CE completion for 5 years and must fully respond to a Board audit notice within 30 days (49 Pa. Code § 40.67(b)).
- Failure to complete required CE subjects a licensee to a civil-penalty citation; the licensee then has 6 months after the citation to make up the deficiency and prove completion, or face further discipline for unprofessional conduct (49 Pa. Code § 40.67(f)).
- Pennsylvania participates in the PT Compact; physical therapists/PTAs practicing in Pennsylvania under an out-of-state compact privilege are generally subject to their home-state CE requirements rather than this Pennsylvania rule (not modeled in this file).
Provider Requirements
The Board preapproves specific provider categories outright: APTA and its components; FSBPT and its jurisdictions; CAPTE-accredited PT/PTA educational programs; the American Heart Association and American Red Cross (only for emergency-health-condition CE); APTA-credentialed fellowship- and residency-conferring organizations (only for those purposes); the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialization (only for specialty certification); and any provider whose course is certified by FSBPT's ProCert or approved by FSBPT/APTA or their components. Other providers must apply to the Board (with fee) at least 60 days before the course date; if a provider has not sought approval, an attending licensee may apply for course approval themselves prior to attending. The Board maintains public lists of preapproved providers and approved courses/programs.
Tips for Pennsylvania PTs
- Skip the CE scramble in your first renewal cycle — Pennsylvania waives the 30-hour requirement entirely for the biennium in which you were first licensed.
- Don't bank extra hours hoping to apply them later: a contact hour can only satisfy the requirement for the single biennium in which it was completed, with no carry-over to the next cycle.
- If you hold a Direct Access Certificate, budget for a second, separate 30-hour continuing education requirement (at least 10 hours in evaluative procedures) beyond your standard PT license renewal hours.
- Keep completion certificates for at least 5 years — the Board audits licensees and gives only 30 days to respond once an audit notice is sent, so scrambling to find old records after the fact is avoidable.
- If a course isn't from a preapproved provider (APTA, FSBPT, a CAPTE-accredited program, AHA/Red Cross, etc.), confirm the provider applied to the Board at least 60 days before the course date, or the hours may not count.
Sources
Each figure on this page is taken directly from the Pennsylvania State 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.