HB 445

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to the Department of Business and
3	Professional Regulation; amending s. 20.165, F.S.;
4	establishing the Division of Service Operations within the
5	department; amending s. 455.217, F.S.; transferring
6	certain duties of the Division of Technology relating to
7	examinations to the Division of Service Operations;
8	deleting a requirement that the department use
9	professional testing services for examinations under
10	certain circumstances; providing an effective date.
11
12	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
13
14	Section 1.  Paragraph (k) is added to subsection (2) of
15	section 20.165, Florida Statutes, to read:
16	20.165  Department of Business and Professional
17	Regulation.--There is created a Department of Business and
18	Professional Regulation.
19	(2)  The following divisions of the Department of Business
20	and Professional Regulation are established:
21	(k)  Division of Service Operations.
22	Section 2.  Subsection (1) of section 455.217, Florida
23	Statutes, is amended to read:
24	455.217  Examinations.--This section shall be read in
25	conjunction with the appropriate practice act associated with
26	each regulated profession under this chapter.
27	(1)  The Division of Service Operations Technology of the
28	Department of Business and Professional Regulation shall
29	provide, contract, or approve services for the development,
30	preparation, administration, scoring, score reporting, and
31	evaluation of all examinations. The division shall seek the
32	advice of the appropriate board in providing such services.
33	(a)  The department, acting in conjunction with the
34	Division of Service Operations Technology and the Division of
35	Real Estate, as appropriate, shall ensure that examinations
36	adequately and reliably measure an applicant's ability to
37	practice the profession regulated by the department. After an
38	examination developed or approved by the department has been
39	administered, the board or department may reject any question
40	which does not reliably measure the general areas of competency
41	specified in the rules of the board or department, when there is
42	no board. The department shall use professional testing services
43	for the development, preparation, and evaluation of
44	examinations, when such services are available and approved by
45	the board.
46	(b)  For each examination developed by the department or
47	contracted vendor, to the extent not otherwise specified by
48	statute, the board or the department when there is no board,
49	shall by rule specify the general areas of competency to be
50	covered by the examination, the relative weight to be assigned
51	in grading each area tested, the score necessary to achieve a
52	passing grade, and the fees, where applicable, to cover the
53	actual cost for any purchase, development, and administration of
54	the required examination. However, statutory fee caps in each
55	practice act shall apply. This subsection does not apply to
56	national examinations approved and administered pursuant to
57	paragraph (d).
58	(c)  If a practical examination is deemed to be necessary,
59	rules shall specify the criteria by which examiners are to be
60	selected, the grading criteria to be used by the examiner, the
61	relative weight to be assigned in grading each criterion, and
62	the score necessary to achieve a passing grade. When a mandatory
63	standardization exercise for a practical examination is required
64	by law, the board may conduct such exercise. Therefore, board
65	members may serve as examiners at a practical examination with
66	the consent of the board.
67	(d)  A board, or the department when there is no board, may
68	approve by rule the use of any national examination which the
69	department has certified as meeting requirements of national
70	examinations and generally accepted testing standards pursuant
71	to department rules. Providers of examinations, which may be
72	either profit or nonprofit entities, seeking certification by
73	the department shall pay the actual costs incurred by the
74	department in making a determination regarding the
75	certification. The department shall use any national examination
76	which is available, certified by the department, and approved by
77	the board. The name and number of a candidate may be provided to
78	a national contractor for the limited purpose of preparing the
79	grade tape and information to be returned to the board or
80	department or, to the extent otherwise specified by rule, the
81	candidate may apply directly to the vendor of the national
82	examination. The department may delegate to the board the duty
83	to provide and administer the examination. Any national
84	examination approved by a board, or the department when there is
85	no board, prior to October 1, 1997, is deemed certified under
86	this paragraph. Any licensing or certification examination that
87	is not developed or administered by the department in-house or
88	provided as a national examination shall be competitively bid.
89	(e)  The department shall adopt rules regarding the
90	security and monitoring of examinations. In order to maintain
91	the security of examinations, the department may employ the
92	procedures set forth in s. 455.228 to seek fines and injunctive
93	relief against an examinee who violates the provisions of s.
94	455.2175 or the rules adopted pursuant to this paragraph. The
95	department, or any agent thereof, may, for the purposes of
96	investigation, confiscate any written, photographic, or
97	recording material or device in the possession of the examinee
98	at the examination site which the department deems necessary to
99	enforce such provisions or rules.
100	(f)  If the professional board with jurisdiction over an
101	examination concurs, the department may, for a fee, share with
102	any other state's licensing authority an examination developed
103	by or for the department unless prohibited by a contract entered
104	into by the department for development or purchase of the
105	examination. The department, with the concurrence of the
106	appropriate board, shall establish guidelines that ensure
107	security of a shared exam and shall require that any other
108	state's licensing authority comply with those guidelines. Those
109	guidelines shall be approved by the appropriate professional
110	board. All fees paid by the user shall be applied to the
111	department's examination and development program for professions
112	regulated by this chapter. All fees paid by the user for
113	professions not regulated by this chapter shall be applied to
114	offset the fees for the development and administration of that
115	profession's examination. If both a written and a practical
116	examination are given, an applicant shall be required to retake
117	only the portion of the examination for which he or she failed
118	to achieve a passing grade, if he or she successfully passes
119	that portion within a reasonable time of his or her passing the
120	other portion.
121	Section 3.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.