Pennsylvania Professional Engineer Renewal
Pennsylvania professional engineers complete 24 professional development hours during each biennial renewal period through education relevant to professional practice.
Complete 24 PDH every two years by September 30 of each odd-numbered year. Up to 12 excess hours may carry forward. Ethics and professional-law education qualify but are not separately required. Distance-learning credit must relate to professional practice and be verifiable and measurable by actual instructional time.
Core Requirement
| Requirement | Pennsylvania PE rule |
|---|---|
| Total education | Complete 24 PDH during each biennial renewal period. |
| Renewal date | Professional licenses expire September 30 of every odd-numbered year. |
| Relevant subjects | Education should maintain, improve, or expand previously obtained knowledge and skills—including applicable law and ethics—or develop new and relevant professional knowledge. |
| Ethics and law | Ethics and professional-law subjects qualify, but the PE law does not prescribe a separate minimum number of ethics or law hours. |
| Carryover | Up to 12 excess PDH may carry into the immediately subsequent renewal period. The same credit cannot satisfy more than one biennium. |
| Provider approval | The Board does not preapprove courses, activities, or providers and does not maintain an approved-course list. |
| Multiple licenses | A person holding more than one Board license must satisfy 24 PDH for each profession, but an activity applicable to multiple licenses may be credited to each applicable license. |
Acceptable Activities
Pennsylvania recognizes multiple methods of maintaining or developing professional competence. A licensee may not claim more than one presentation of the same course or specific activity during a renewal period.
Distance Learning
Effective August 27, 2024, Pennsylvania’s statute describes qualifying remote education as distance-learning courses that relate to professional practice and award PDH units that are verifiable and measurable by the actual hours of instruction.
The law does not impose a numerical limit on qualifying distance learning and does not literally require a live instructor or use the phrase “timed and monitored.” Nevertheless, a provider should be able to explain and document how the course’s awarded hours correspond to actual instruction—not merely an estimated page count or the learner’s successful completion of a short examination.
For recorded presentations, the program duration can supply direct instructional-time evidence. For text-based Moodle courses, a stronger approach is to establish a documented instructional-time methodology and retain learner activity, progress, assessment, and completion records. A server-side minimum-time control provides additional support when used appropriately.
Exemptions and Special Situations
A newly licensed individual is exempt during the licensure period immediately following initial licensure and registration.
A licensee serving more than 120 consecutive days of temporary active duty in a year may be exempt from the hours required during that year.
A licensee may request an exemption for physical disability, illness, or another Board-approved extenuating circumstance. Supporting documentation and a public-interest explanation are required.
A licensee who certifies that professional practice has ended may request retired status. Returning to active practice requires the hours applicable to exempted years, subject to the statutory two-year maximum.
Documentation and Audit
Each licensee must maintain records verifying completion for five years after the activity. During an audit, the Board may infer that an activity was not completed when required documentation was not maintained.
An audited licensee must fully respond to each Board information request within 30 days or within another period stated in the request. A cited education deficiency must generally be corrected and documented within six months, in addition to any assessed civil penalty.
Official Sources