Montana Occupational Therapist license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

Montana occupational therapists must complete 10 contact hours of continuing education every year to renew their license with the Montana Board of Physical, Rehabilitative, and Developmental Health Care Professionals (Department of Labor and Industry). Renewal is annual. The board's license information page lists June 15 as the renewal date for both occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants. The renewal period opens 60 days before that date. A license not renewed on time is lapsed for 45 days, during which practice may continue, then expires. A lapsed or expired license can be renewed up to two years past the renewal date, after which it terminates. The first renewal is exempt.

Montana Occupational Therapist renewal and continuing education rules

"Not stated" means the board's pages and rules we read do not address it. We do not fill in typical values.

Montana replaced its per profession continuing education rules on July 25, 2026 with one rule for the whole board, ARM 24.119.2101. Subsection (1)(c) covers occupational therapists and assistants together at 10 hours a year, and adds that the board recognizes maintenance of current National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy certification as fulfilling the requirement. That is a substitute for the hours, not an extra total, so NBCOT unit counts are not recorded here. The rule uses the word hours without defining a contact hour. Continuing education requirements do not apply until after the licensee's first renewal, and the department can grant an exemption for undue hardship. The rule sets no category minimums, no self-study cap and no carryover provision. The same rule gives physical therapists and assistants 8 hours, so the occupational therapy figure is not shared with the physical therapy professions on this board.

Required CE topics for Montana occupational therapists

The Montana Board of Physical, Rehabilitative, and Developmental Health Care Professionals (Department of Labor and Industry) pages and rules we read do not mandate specific subject areas for this license type. Hours may be in any approved subject.

Documentation and audit

Common questions

How many CE hours does a Montana OT need to renew?

Montana occupational therapists must complete 10 contact hours of continuing education every year to renew their license with the Montana Board of Physical, Rehabilitative, and Developmental Health Care Professionals (Department of Labor and Industry). Montana replaced its per profession continuing education rules on July 25, 2026 with one rule for the whole board, ARM 24.119.2101. Subsection (1)(c) covers occupational therapists and assistants together at 10 hours a year, and adds that the board recognizes maintenance of current National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy certification as fulfilling the requirement. That is a substitute for the hours, not an extra total, so NBCOT unit counts are not recorded here. The rule uses the word hours without defining a contact hour. Continuing education requirements do not apply until after the licensee's first renewal, and the department can grant an exemption for undue hardship. The rule sets no category minimums, no self-study cap and no carryover provision. The same rule gives physical therapists and assistants 8 hours, so the occupational therapy figure is not shared with the physical therapy professions on this board.

How often does a Montana OT license need to be renewed?

Occupational Therapist licenses in Montana renew every year. Renewal is annual. The board's license information page lists June 15 as the renewal date for both occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants. The renewal period opens 60 days before that date. A license not renewed on time is lapsed for 45 days, during which practice may continue, then expires. A lapsed or expired license can be renewed up to two years past the renewal date, after which it terminates.

Does Montana require specific CE topics for occupational therapists?

The Montana Board of Physical, Rehabilitative, and Developmental Health Care Professionals (Department of Labor and Industry) does not list mandated subject areas for OT renewal on the pages we verified; the 10 contact hours may be in any approved subject.

Do Montana occupational therapists have to submit CE certificates at renewal?

Licensees attest to completion at renewal rather than submitting certificates and the board audits a sample of renewals and asks for documentation. ARM 24.119.2101(2) does not name approved providers. Licensees select their own programs, which must relate directly to the licensee's scope of practice and either review existing concepts and techniques, convey information beyond basic professional education, update knowledge of advances in the profession, or reinforce professional conduct and ethical obligations. Documentation is kept and produced on request, not filed with the renewal. The department sets the audit percentage from a statistically relevant sample of licensees and the compliance rate of past audits.

Is the first Montana OT renewal exempt from CE?

Yes. Montana does not require continuing education for a OT's first renewal.

Sources

Last verified September 9, 2026. Every value above was read from one of these.

• Administrative Rules of Montana 24.119.2101, Continuing Education, effective July 25, 2026 (accessible HTML text served by rules.mt.gov)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 9, 2026
• Administrative Rules of Montana 24.165.2101, Continuing Education (repealed effective July 25, 2026)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 9, 2026
• License Information, Montana Board of Physical, Rehabilitative, and Developmental Health Care ProfessionalsState board page, accessed September 9, 2026
• Montana Board of Physical, Rehabilitative, and Developmental Health Care ProfessionalsState board page, accessed September 9, 2026

Montana follows the combined board pattern in its broadest form: since the 2026 consolidation, one Board of Physical, Rehabilitative, and Developmental Health Care Professionals regulates occupational therapy, physical therapy, athletic training, and speech language pathology and audiology. The 10 hour figure was read in ARM 24.119.2101(1)(c), the new consolidated continuing education rule effective July 25, 2026. The board's own license information page still cites ARM 24.165.2101 and 24.165.2102 as the occupational therapy continuing education rules; 24.165.2101 was confirmed repealed by the same 2026 rulemaking (Notice No. 2026-148), and the repealed rule carried the same 10 hour annual figure, so the stale citation does not change the number. The June 15 annual renewal date comes from the board's license information page; the department wide renewal date rule ARM 24.101.413 could not be read because rules.mt.gov serves it only through a JavaScript viewer. The rule states no mandated subjects for occupational therapy, no retention period in years, and no fixed audit percentage.