Colorado OT Practice FAQ

HISTORY OF LICENSURE IN COLORADO

After more than 30 years of OTAC regulatory efforts in Colorado, all occupational therapy practitioners in Colorado became licensed! Governor John Hickenlooper signed the OT Practice Act SB 13-180, into law on June 5, 2013 at approximately 12:38pm. The law went into effect on July 1, 2013 but there was not a process to become licensed until January 1, 2014. This finally follows suit with all other states in the country that previously had licensing for occupational therapists and the vast majority of states who have licensing for occupational therapy assistants.

Generally, for an individual to become licensed, they must have passed the national certification exam initially, successfully completed an internship under an occupational therapist, and have a degree in occupational therapy from an accredited school by the American Occupational Therapy Association or the World Federation of Occupational Therapists.

We would like to acknowledge the many licensure committees or task forces throughout the years and the support of the OTAC membership for our lobbyists’ efforts. Additionally, we would like to thank our Senate Sponsor for the bill, Dr. Irene Aquilar- Democrat from Denver and our House Sponsor, John Singer- Democrat from Longmont for their support of the bill.

Licensure has a historical basis, as Colorado has been a national leader, as a deregulated state, through our former Governor Dick Lamm. The Governor and this state have set up a Sunrise and Sunset Review Process, which is to promote less regulation and thereby regulatory agencies by the state. The Sunrise Review Process includes an extensive application to the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) for consideration of all regulatory agencies, such as Occupational Therapy Licensure. The application for licensure was unsuccessful in four attempts in 1987, 1992, 1995, and more recently in 2006. A Trade Deception Act passed in 1996, with an updated language bill passing in 2002. In our last effort, 2008, a registration bill was passed as The Occupational Therapy Practice Act 2008, in which all occupational therapists (not occupational therapy assistants) in Colorado must be registered by the DORA. The law indicated registration requirements, the maintenance of a current list of registered occupational therapists, and a process for handling consumer complaints completed by a Director at DORA. The details of this law are described on previous web pages.  As of June 2014 all OTs and OTAs in Colorado are licensed.

Additionally, the state of Colorado has a Sunset Review Process. This includes a periodic resubmission process to DORA to demonstrate a continued need for a regulatory agency. For this bill, it was reviewed in the year 2013.

Many of the current and previous OTAC Board Members were involved in this process. AOTA was supportive and highly involved in this effort as well. There were extensive resources including financial and personal involvement on the part of the memberships involved in this attempt. It was the recommendation of DORA, since there was no public harm reported or proven by the Occupational Therapy Practitioners in this state to warrant Occupational Therapists and/or Occupational Therapy Assistants to be licensed., that we pursue Registration. Registration is similar to Licensure in that it is a law, and there is a state Practice Act; it is different in that there is not a regulatory board, but a Director, and the level of sanctions for unscrupulous practice are not as many. Practicing without active Licensure is a Class 2 Misdemeanor for the first offense, a Class 1 Misdemeanor for subsequent offenses. The State of CO is committed to the licensure process in Colorado.