North Dakota SB 2085, discussed in our previous legislative update, was signed into law on April 8, 2015. The final version of the law amends the state’s massage therapy statute by reducing the number of continuing education hours required for massage therapists in North Dakota from 32 to 24, every two years. The law also reduces the number of CE hours that can be earned remotely from 12 to nine, and requires three hours of ethics CE. No CE is required during a licensee’s initial two-year licensing period. The amendments also require that all license applicants must submit to a state and national criminal history record check, and gives the Board discretion to require that any current licensee undergo a criminal records check as well. Additionally, under the amended law the Board or its agents must periodically inspect all massage establishments. The law previously provided only that the Board “may” inspect establishments if it chose to do so.
