March/April 2019

PE Report
Florida Considers Early Access to PE Exam

The Florida Engineering Society is backing a change to state law that would allow engineering licensure candidates to take the PE exam prior to gaining four years of qualified experience.

The legislation (S.B. 616), introduced in January, seeks to allow the Florida Board of Professional Engineers to revise prerequisites for an individual to take the PE exam and establish other standards of practice and responsibility rules.

The legislation also modifies the pathway to licensure for individuals who graduated from approved engineering technology programs prior to July 1979. The individual must take the standard examinations and have at least six years of engineering experience that indicates competence to be in responsible charge of engineering.

Currently, 15 states allow the early taking of the PE exam: Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

NSPE is in favor of state licensing boards allowing candidates to take the PE exam early, if they have met the educational requirements for licensure and passed the FE exam. The Society also believes that the four years of progressive engineering experience indicated in the NCEES Model Law should remain unchanged, and licensure candidates who pass the PE exam early need to obtain the requisite number of years of engineering experience before becoming licensed.

The legislation also addresses the responsibilities of a PE who serves as a “successor engineer” on a project. The legislation defines “successor engineer” as a licensed engineer who is using or relying upon the work, findings, or recommendations of the engineer who previously sealed pertinent documents. If this individual wants to reuse documents previously sealed by another licensed engineer, he or she will assume full professional and legal responsibility for the work by signing and sealing the documents. The documents will be treated as if they were the successor’s original work, and the predecessor will be released from any professional responsibility or civil liability.

To provide guidance to engineering professionals on the path to licensure, NSPE has published When Can I Take the PE Exam? States Allowing Examination Before Experience, which covers the state-by-state details.