(a)

(1) The State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Professional Surveyors shall issue rules establishing the continuing education requirements for professional surveyors and surveyor interns.

(2) The rules shall take into account the accessibility to applicants of the board's continuing education requirements.

(3) The rules may:

(A) Rely upon guidelines and pronouncements of recognized educational and professional associations;

(B) Prescribe the content, duration, and organization of courses;

(C) Provide for the relaxation or suspension of requirements for:

(i) Applicants who certify that they do not intend to engage in the practice of surveying; and

(ii) Instances of individual hardship;

(D) Exempt from licensed continuing education requirements a professional surveyor sixty (60) years of age or older with twenty (20) or more years of experience as a practicing professional surveyor; and

(E)

(i) Prescribe the manner and condition under which credit shall be given for participation in a program of continuing education that the board considers necessary and appropriate to maintain competency in the practice of surveying.

(ii) Examples of programs of continuing education that are acceptable include without limitation programs or seminars sponsored by higher educational institutions, government agencies, and professional surveying organizations and related professions.

(b)

(1) An application for renewal of a certificate of licensure shall be accompanied by evidence documenting the completion of acceptable continuing education credit during the previous renewal period.

(2) Failure by an applicant to provide this evidence upon request by the board is grounds for disciplinary action unless the board determines the failure is due to a reasonable cause or the applicant was not engaged in the practice of surveying during the previous renewal period.

(3) The board may renew a certificate of licensure despite an applicant's failure to furnish satisfactory evidence of meeting continuing education requirements and may issue a certificate of licensure to an applicant who has previously maintained inactive status under § 17-48-204(c) if the applicant follows a particular program or schedule of continuing education prescribed by the board.