Administrator Qualifications

Letter from COPE Chair

Dear Continuing Education Administrator:

One-stop CE approval for a large number of states, with no headaches!  That’s one reason why the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) developed the Council on Optometric Practitioner Education® (COPE®).  While COPE’s main purpose is to assist state licensing boards of optometry in the review and approval process for optometric continuing education (CE) necessary for license renewal, this centralized approval process benefits CE Administrators as well.
COPE reduces the amount of work and effort you expend in obtaining approval for your programs from individual state boards.  Standardized forms and processes shared by ARBO Member Boards eliminate needless redundancy for everyone.  Using the COPE symbol for approved courses in your promotional materials will tell practitioners seeking CE that your courses are already accepted for license renewal in all COPE states.  As a COPE administrator, you can also search our entire database of CE courses to help you when planning your next CE program. 
Obtaining COPE approval for your program is easy.  All you need to do is click on COPE and then click on Administrators Submit Events.  Courses appearing on your program that have already been submitted to COPE (many usually are) are designated as “COPE Qualified” and can be promoted as such in your marketing efforts.  These courses are now suitable for CE credit and are accepted by state optometry licensing boards participating in COPE.  If there are courses you want to offer in your program that are not yet COPE qualified, please contact the course instructors and ask them to submit their courses for COPE qualification. We recommend that you submit your event as early as possible when planning your program.
Should you need further information about COPE, or if you need help entering your event, please call the ARBO office at (704) 970-2710, or email to arbo@arbo.org.  If you need more information on submitting courses for COPE qualification, contact ARBO or see the Criteria for COPE Qualification of Continuing Education handbook.

Sincerely,

Jill R. Martinson, O.D., Chair
Council on Optometric Practitioner Education