Montana Occupational Therapy Assistant license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

Montana occupational therapy assistants 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 Therapy Assistant 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. The assistant figure was read as its own value: subsection (1)(c) reads 'occupational therapists and assistants: 10 hours', so the assistant total is the same 10 hours as the therapist total, and no separate, smaller assistant figure appears anywhere in the rule. The same subsection adds that the board recognizes maintenance of current National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy certification as fulfilling the requirement, which for assistants means current COTA certification. That is a substitute for the hours, not an extra total, so NBCOT unit counts are not recorded here. 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. Supervision requirements for assistants sit in the practice rules and are not continuing education.

Required CE topics for Montana occupational therapy assistants

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 OTA need to renew?

Montana occupational therapy assistants 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. The assistant figure was read as its own value: subsection (1)(c) reads 'occupational therapists and assistants: 10 hours', so the assistant total is the same 10 hours as the therapist total, and no separate, smaller assistant figure appears anywhere in the rule. The same subsection adds that the board recognizes maintenance of current National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy certification as fulfilling the requirement, which for assistants means current COTA certification. That is a substitute for the hours, not an extra total, so NBCOT unit counts are not recorded here. 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. Supervision requirements for assistants sit in the practice rules and are not continuing education.

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

Occupational Therapy Assistant 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 therapy assistants?

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

Do Montana occupational therapy assistants 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 OTA renewal exempt from CE?

Yes. Montana does not require continuing education for a OTA'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 assistant total was confirmed separately in ARM 24.119.2101(1)(c), which names occupational therapists and assistants in the same line at 10 hours; the neighbouring line (1)(f) shows the drafters do set lower assistant figures when they intend to, giving speech language pathology or audiology assistants 5 hours, so the equal occupational therapy figure is deliberate. The board's own license information page still cites the repealed ARM 24.165.2101 and 24.165.2102 as the occupational therapy continuing education rules; 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, the same date the board lists for occupational therapists, 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, no retention period in years, and no fixed audit percentage.