RESNA > Certification > Renew Your Certification
Certification

Get RESNA Updates

 

Renew Your Certification

In order to renew, reinstate, or inactivate your RESNA certification, please complete the online forms below.

DO NOT mail in your paperwork to our physical address.

First time renewing your ATP? Have questions about the process? RESNA's "Ins and Outs of ATP Renewal" webinar may help answer any questions that you have. 

View Webinar

If you are paying by check, please mail to:

RESNA
PO Box 776947
Chicago, IL 60677-6947

RENEWALS TAKE APPROXIMATELY 3 WEEKS TO PROCESS. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR RENEWAL ACCORDINGLY

  • Renew your Certification: Candidates are required to complete a renewal process to demonstrate professional development through AT-related education every two years to maintain their candidate status.

Renew Your Certification

  • Reinstate your Certification: If a Recertification Application is not submitted or approved within 30 days of the expiration date, it is considered lapsed, and the designation can no longer be used until the certification is reinstated by either retaking the certification exam or filing a reinstatement application, which involves a payment and penalty of 0.25 CEUs for each 3 month period following the expiration date.

Reinstate Your Certification

  • Inactivate Your Certification: A certification may be placed on inactive status while the certification is still current and in good standing. Inactive status may be desirable to allowing certification to lapse due to extended medical or family leave, change of employment status or type of work, advanced studies, and more

Inactivate Your Certification

Certification Renewal Basic Information

Initial certification, earned through the application and exam process, is valid for two years.

Recertification is required to ensure that a commitment is made to keep knowledge and skills current through relevant work experience and ongoing education. The two-year cycle, which follows general guidelines for licensure renewal for related professions, promotes current knowledge and skills in the rapidly evolving field of assistive technology.

To renew a current certification for another two-year period, certificants must submit the Recertification Application with payment of the recertification fee to RESNA prior to the certification expiration date. 

To access an in-depth break down of the Application Process click here.

Recertification requires documentation of two requirements:

  1. Demonstration of ongoing professional development through:
  2. Relevant work experience; and
    • earning continuing education units, or;
    • earning academic credit from an academic (higher education) institution.

Both the work experience and the professional development requirements must be satisfied in order to be re-certified.

Relevant Work Experience

To meet the requirements for relevant work experience since certification, the applicant for recertification must document work experience of 0.25 FTE* in assistive technology-related services during the just-ended certification period. (*Full time work is defined as 36-40 hours per week.) Acceptable work experience is outlined below:

Requirements for renewal
One or more of the following activities:

  1. Evaluations, assessments, and other direct-to-consumer/student services for AT (needs assessment, physical/functional/sensory assessments, educational assessments, site assessments, simulations and product trials)
  2. Fitting, adjustment and readjustment services for AT (fine tuning of equipment to meet the consumer/student’s needs and reflect changes in the consumer/student’s status)
  3. AT implementation and individualized training for consumers/students and their caregivers or students/support personnel (training in use of AT or strategies to maximize function and interface with the environment(s) of use, instruction in use and/or maintenance)
  4. Teaching and professional development in assistive technology (e.g., pre-professional or post-professional courses, seminars or workshops for consumers, families, clinicians, AT providers, support staff)
  5. Management, supervision, mentorship, consulting for direct-to-consumer service providers or within an organization (e.g., professional societies, state AT programs, private companies) that supports AT practice, principles, advocacy, provision and/or reimbursement.
  6. Product development, reimbursement strategies, management, consulting, government affairs for a manufacturer of AT products.
  7. Consulting/advising related to AT and policy development, government affairs, advocacy, claims review.
  8. Empirical or experiential research in the field of AT

Not applicable for renewal

* The following services related to assistive technology are not applicable for inclusion in the total work experience hours. This list is not all inclusive. The applicant may appeal an adverse decision on work verification to the Professional Standards Board.

  1. Customer service, scheduling, information gathering and/or paperwork processing of assistive technology orders
  2. Billing, collections and/or claims processing of assistive technology products/services

Continuing Education Requirements

DEMONSTRATION OF ONGOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MAY BE SATISFIED BY EITHER OF THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES:

OPTION 1.  Completion of 20.00 hours of AT-related training through in-person or online courses, seminars and workshops.  Those 20.00 hours of training must include:

  • A minimum of 1.00 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) from CEU Recognized Providers  (10 hour minimum)
  • Continuing Education Credits (CEC) or contact hours for remaining hours (10 hour maximum)

OPTION 2.  Completion of 2.00 AT-related, academic credit hours at a recognized academic institution of higher education
 

CONTINUING EDUCATION UNIT (CEU)

  1. To qualify for the 1.0 CEU from CEU Recognized Providers (10 hours minimum) or equivalent, the following applies:
  1. CEU Recognized Providers include those:
  • accredited by IACET (e.g., NRRTS, RESNA, ATIA, etc. if requested)
  • professional associations (e.g. AOTA, APTA, ASHA, etc.),
  • academic institutions (e.g. University of Pittsburgh), government agencies and state or federal licensing boards. 
  1. All CEUs must be awarded within the two-year renewal process. CEUs awarded outside of the current certification period will not be accepted.  
  2. The course certificate of attendance must include:
  • Attendee’s name
  • Name of Course
  • Dates of Attendance
  • The signature of speaker or sponsor
  • The number and type of CEUs awarded

CECs/CONTACT HOURS/Other CEUs

  1. Up to 10.00 contact hours (sometimes measured as CECs) are allowed for other AT-related training that is not approved by a CEU Recognized Provider. This includes, but is not limited to RESNA CEC providers, listed on the RESNA website.
  2. The course material must be related to one or more of the topics found on the ATP Exam Content Outline or Assistive Technology Knowledge Topics.
  3. The certificate of attendance for a training session must include:
  • the attendee's name,
  • the date(s)
  • length of the course (in hours)
  • the signature of the speaker or sponsor.  
  1. A maximum of 3.00 hours of in-service, product training per year will be accepted as contact hours. 
  2. The “In-Service Training Form” found in the Recertification Application must be used to document in-service sessions.

CONTACT HOURS for AT- Industry Support aCTIVITIES

  1. Up to 10.00 contact hours (sometimes measured as CECs) are allowed for volunteer activities that directly give back to the AT-Community per renewal cycle.
  2. Industry support activity CECs may only be granted by the RESNA Professional Standards Board on a case-by-case basis.
  3. Industry support activities may include, but are not limited to:
    1. Serving as an Exam Development Subject Matter Expert
    2. Publishing (such as position papers or in the AT Journal) as part of a volunteer role on a RESNA Committee
    3. Participating in Standards research and review; attending Standards meetings alone is not eligible for CECs.
  4. Service on a RESNA Committee alone does not count towards industry support activities.

INSTRUCTING A COURSE

  1. Certificants may claim CECs/contact hours for presenting an AT-related course for the first time. 
  2. To receive contact-hour credit for presenting a course, the recertification candidate must submit either (a) a brochure or currently active web page that lists the course name, the presenter’s name, the course date(s) and the course length or b) ka letter from the course/event organizer (other than from the ATP or his/her employer) on a corporate letterhead confirming the course name, presenter’s name, the course date and the course length.

ACADEMIC CREDIT

  1. Documentation of two academic credit hours earned over the two-year recertification period will satisfy 100% of the professional development requirement. 
  2. Such academic credit must be relevant to AT, must be related to one or more of the topics found on the ATP Exam Content Outline or Assistive Technology Knowledge Topics, and be acquired from a recognized academic institution of higher education.
  3. CEU and academic credits may also be combined to satisfy the professional development requirement.
  4. Course work for professional development plans for educators will be accepted from authorized institutions.

EXAMPLES OF ACcepted CONTINUING EDUCATION ACTIVITIES

EXAMPLES OF ACTIVITIES THAT DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS RECERTIFICATION

  • Coursework or credits that are not AT-related
  • Undocumented product in-services (without signatures, date or time spent)
  • Volunteer or paid services on AT-related boards, committees, special interest groups, etc.
  • Editorials, publications from lay newsletters, professional/consumer magazines, and other non-peer-reviewed materials
  • Time spent on peer review of AT-related grants, manuscripts, conference submissions
  • Product training or demonstration without full documentation of date, time, topic, presenter

Renewal Documentation, Inactive Status, and Certification Reinstatement

Documentation and Application Submittal

The Recertification Application should be used to document recertification activities. The application should be postmarked by or received at the RESNA office via fax or email by the certification expiration date (but no more than 60 days prior). A grace period of 30 days following the expiration date will be extended to complete missing documentation and allow review and approval by RESNA. Applications not approved within the grace period must follow the Reinstatement policy (see below).

Certificants will be given notice three months prior to the expiration date (and again two months prior and one month prior) to apply for recertification. If documentation is not received, or activities do not fulfill the requirements, certification will be terminated. It is the certificant’s responsibility to submit the application and supporting continuing education documentation on time. Lack of receipt of notification via e-mail or regular mail is not sufficient excuse for late or no submission of complete Recertification Application, as the certificate and the public directory both list the effective dates for certification.

Fee for Recertification

A recertification fee of one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175 USD) is payable for two-year recertification and is due at the time of application.

Inactive Status

Certification may be placed on inactive status while the certification is still current and in good standing. Inactive status may be desirable to allowing certification to lapse due to extended medical or family leave, change of employment status or type of work, advanced studies, and more.  Note: Individuals who hold more than one certification must submit payment of $25 for each certification that they inactivate. For example, the total cost of Inactive Status for both the ATP and SMS certifications would be $50.

An Inactive Status certification may be returned to Active Status by submitting the recertification application by the expiration of the two-year inactive period.  If the certification is not reactivated by the end of the two-year inactive period, then the certification will automatically be placed into Expired Status.

Reinstatement of Expired Certification

An expired certification may be reinstated up to two years following the certification expiration date.  Certification reinstatement candidates must submit the reinstatement application along with payment of the Reinstatement fee of $250.  In addition to satisfying the ongoing professional development requirement for recertification, certification reinstatement candidates must also satisfy a CEU penalty of 0.25 CEUs for each 3-month period following the certification expiration date (up to 2.0 CEUs).  The first three-month period begins immediately after the expiration date, so a 0.25 CEU penalty is assessed from the first day certification has lapsed. The certification designation may not be used in any communication until the applicant has received official notification that the certification is satisfactorily reinstated.

After the deadline for reinstatement has passed, certification can be reattained only by applying for initial certification as a new applicant and satisfying the current certification requirements at the time of application.  Note: eligibility requirements and exam content are subject to change over time at the discretion of RESNA’s Professional Standards Board.

For more information, email certification@resna.org.

Search