OFFERING ASHA CEU’S IN COOPERATION WITH SHAA

Interested in offering ASHA CEU’s for a professional development event/activity?

The following information will help you through the process to develop a cooperative CE course that offers ASHA CEUs in cooperation with SHAA.

A cooperative CE course is one offered jointly by an ASHA Approved CE Provider and an organization that is not an ASHA Approved CE Provider (aka cooperative organization). Conducting a cooperative course with an ASHA Approved CE Provider is the only way a non-ASHA Approved CE Provider can offer a course for ASHA CEUs. SHAA is an ASHA Approved CE Provider

THE PROCESS

1. Review the Guidelines for Cooperative Courses found here:  Guidelines for Cooperative Courses (asha.org)
2. Communicate questions about the planning, promoting, implementing, evaluation, or reporting of your course to MaryHBryan@gmail.com prior to submitting your application
3. Complete SHAA CEU Application HERE (the link asks you to SAVE and the form will open as a Word document) and submit 6-8 weeks prior to event date to:
   Mary H. Bryan, M.Ed. CCC-SLP
   ASHA CE Administrator/SHAA CE Director
   MaryHBryan@gmail.com
   205-394-2302
4. After your application is reviewed and approved, you will receive an official ASHA Approved CE Provider Brand Block with ASHA CE Sentence to put on your event promotional materials.
5. You will receive Participant Packets via email for use at your event. Make sure participants complete the paperwork fully and submit to you in a timely manner.
6. Return participants packets to MaryHBryan@gmail.com within 2 weeks following the event. Ensure that you provide ASHA id, first and last name, mailing and email addresses of those who satisfactorily meet completion requirements and who wish to document their participation with ASHA CEUs.
7. Your participants seeking ASHA CE for your event will be reported to ASHA.

RIGHTS AND OPTIONS FOR OFFERING ASHA CEUS

If you wish to conduct your event in cooperation with SHAA (as one method for offering ASHA CEUs), you must abide by all SHAA's requirements, all detailed on the Application. SHAA reserves the right as an ASHA Continuing Education Provider to decline requests for offering ASHA CEUs. In such a case, you can contact ASHA to explore other options.

DEADLINES

Applications to offer ASHA CEU’s in cooperation with SHAA are due 6-8 weeks prior to the event. Time is needed to review the proposed event, register it with ASHA at least 30 days prior to the event date, and prepare your participant packet documents.

Participant Packets containing all CE Reporting Information are due 2 weeks after the event. SHAA will submit the list of participants seeking ASHA CEU’s to ASHA. Participant packets and completed Report-of-Course Participants excel document should be submitted to Mary Bryan no later than 2 weeks after the event. Excel document may be found here: Report-of-Course-Participants.xlsx (live.com)If SHAA does not receive the required participant forms from the cooperative organization (event host) by the 2-week deadline following the event, the participants must submit a participant appeal and the cooperative organization must pay a penalty.  The ASHA Participant Appeal Form can be found here: Participant Appeal Form (asha.org). 

FEES

The fee to offer ASHA CEU’s in cooperation with SHAA is $500 per event (beginning 1/1/2022). This fee includes a $100 SHAA administrative fee and $400 ASHA cooperative agreement fee. The total is due at the time the application is submitted. Electronic payment may be made at Speech and Hearing Association of Alabama-SHAA - ASHA CEUs ADMIN FEE (alabamashaa.com)

If participants can register for any part of your event separately, then each of the separate parts is considered a separate event, and both the ASHA fees and SHAA fees must be paid for each. Example: Day 1 is a pre-conference with separate registration fees; Days 2 & 3 are the main conference, with a separate registration fee. Even if someone may get a discount for registering for both the pre-conference and the conference together, these are still considered to be two events/activities. ASHA fees would be $400 for each, and SHAA fees would be $100 for each, for a total of $1000.

If an event is being offered more than once, there will be an ASHA additional offering fee of $50 per offering. All additional offering fees are due at the time of application submission.

PENALTIES

Missing either of the deadlines referenced above will result in penalties imposed by ASHA. For SHAA to register events or report participants after a deadline, appeal fees are accessed to the cooperative organization (event host). The appeal fee is $200 per appeal. SHAA is granted three appeal allowances per year. SHAA reserves the right to act in its own interest, even if that means declining to work with an event host or submitting incomplete records to ASHA to meet deadlines. In such extreme cases, no refunds will be made, and the event host bears full responsibility for attendees potentially not having their CE time logged in the ASHA CE Registry.

RESCHEDULING

If you reschedule an activity after SHAA's CE Administrator has registered it with ASHA, SHAA's $100 administrative fee will be charged again to cover additional processing. ASHA's fee only must be paid once in such cases.

ADDITIONAL CONTINUING EDUCATION INFORMATION

Offering ASHA Approved CE Events benefits course participants through:

• Licensure renewal: Licensing agencies with mandatory continuing education requirements accept ASHA CEUs.
• ASHA Certification renewal: ASHA CEUs are accepted toward ASHA's Certification Maintenance Requirements.
• Recognition of CE achievement: Earning ASHA CEUs is the only way to earn the Award for Continuing Education (ACE).
• High quality professional continuing education: Because Providers participate in a review process and meet explicit requirements, participants receive quality professional development activities.

Although many state regulatory agencies and boards of education accept ASHA CEUs for purposes of licensure renewal and board of education recertification, ASHA CEUs do not guarantee approval by ABESPA, the Alabama licensing entity for speech-language pathologists and audiologists. ABESPA pre-approval can be requested by using a form from the ABESPA web site at:  http://abespa.alabama.gov/forms1.aspx. 

ASHA Certification Maintenance Standards require that all certificate holders (CCC-A and CCC-SLP) must accumulate 30 Certification Maintenance Hours (CMHs) of professional development during each 3-year certification maintenance interval in order to maintain their ASHA Certificates of Clinical Competence (CCC).The ASHA Clinical Certification Standards define professional development as an instructional activity:

• where the certificate holder is the learner.
• that is related to the science or contemporary practice of speech-language pathology, audiology, or the speech/language/hearing sciences.
• that results in the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, or the enhancement of current knowledge and skills necessary for independent practice in any practice setting and area of practice.
• where the certificate holder is responsible for determining that the professional development activity is appropriate, relevant, and meaningful to any practice setting and area of practice.
• in which the certificate holder's attendance can be documented by a third party such as an employer, educational institution, or sponsoring organization.

Your professional development should reflect your selection of acceptable activities and be documented using reporting units called professional development hours (PDHs), formerly certification maintenance hours (CMHs).

ASHA promotes Evidence-Based Practice and using evidence-based information in the planning and development of continuing education offerings. Please reference the Resources for CE Presenters and Planners here and provide this information to your presenters. https://www.asha.org/ce/for-providers/resourcesforpresenters/

Course participants may always track their own time, even if attending an event offered for ASHA CEUs. Participants tracking their own hours should submit their hours at any time during their 3-year window when they accrue the needed hours. More information on Record-Keeping Requirements can be found here: https://www.asha.org/certification/fact_records/

The ASHA CE Registry is the only service that tracks the ASHA CEUs you earn. If ASHA CEUs are requested at the time of course completion, the ASHA Approved CE Provider will report participation records to the ASHA CE Registry. The CE Registry awards ASHA CEUs and lists all the continuing education courses you have taken through ASHA's network of Approved Continuing Education Providers for the years where the applicable fee has been paid. More information on the ASHA CE Registry can be found here: https://www.asha.org/ce/ceus/

If a participant missed the reporting deadline set by SHAA and needs to submit an appeal so that the CEU’s appear on their ASHA CE Registry, the participant should:

• Submit an appeal to ASHA using this link: ASHA Participant Appeal Form (https://www.asha.org/Form/Participant-Appeal/)
• If you have questions about this process you should contact ASHA directly at ashaprofdev@asha.org or call 301-296-8591.
• The ASHA CE Frequently Asked Questions may also help to answer any questions you may have about reporting your CEU’s. https://www.asha.org/CE/faqs/Continuing-Education-Frequently-Asked-Questions/

DEFINITIONS

ASHA CEU Sentence—a stand-alone sentence that must include the number of CEUs offered, the instructional level, and the content area.

ASHA Approved CE Provider Brand Block—the clearly identifiable trademark of ASHA Continuing Education's Approved Providers. The Brand Block is customized with the Approved Provider's name and includes a specific, unique graphic image and course information.

ASHA Approved CE Provider—an organization that has demonstrated (through application) that its policies, procedures, and process for the design, delivery, and evaluation of continuing education programs/courses meet ASHA CEB Requirements and offer continuing education that meets quality standards.

ASHA CEB Requirements—specifications that define a proven model for developing effective and valuable continuing education and training (CE/T) programs. The Requirements focus on how learning programs are developed, not what they cover; Requirements provide a framework of best practices.

ASHA CEUs—the unit of measure for professional development credit hours earned (1 CEU=10 hours; 0.1 CEUs=1 hour) through courses offered by ASHA Approved CE Providers and awarded by the ASHA CEB.

Cooperative CE course—a continuing education course offered jointly by an ASHA Approved CE Provider and a non-ASHA Approved CE Provider. Conducting a cooperative course with an ASHA Approved CE Provider is the only way a non-ASHA Approved CE Providers can offer a CE course for ASHA CEUs.

Cooperative organization—an entity that is not an ASHA Approved CE Provider.