If you obtained your occupational therapy license in the state of Illinois, you will need to earn continuing education units at required intervals in order to maintain your license. To help, I’m going to walk you through the steps I take to maintain my own occupational therapy license (and easily earn CEUs).💜
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Step 1: Look up your OT/OTA license.
To begin the process, I always double-check that my license is displaying correctly. You can look up your Illinois occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant license here.
Step 2: Confirm the Illinois OT continuing education requirements.
It’s always good to double check for any updates to your 2025 licensing cycle. (One year, I completed ALL of my state of Nebraska requirements only to find out that they were waived due to COVID. 😭)
But, to get you going here is the information I found, with links to where I found it.
Here are the basic OT/OTA CEU requirements in Illinois:
Due on December 31st of odd years
How many hours are required?
- OTs/OTAs need 24 hours
Required topics
- 1 hour in sexual harassment prevention training
- 1 hour in OT ethics every renewal cycle. See our OT ethics courses to help meet this requirement.
- 1 hour in implicit bias awareness training
- 1 hour shall include a course on dementia recognition training, which shall only apply to licensees who provide health care services to, and have direct patient interactions with, adult populations age 26 or older in the practice of the licensee’s profession.
Verify here: Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation
Discounts
Get a 15% discount on OT Potential by using the promo code: Illinois
(We’ll also give 15% of that sale to the Illinois OT Association.)
Here are the specific occupational therapy continuing education requirements for coursework in Illinois:
These were copied from the ILLINOIS ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, which was updated Sept. 11, 2020.
TITLE 68: PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS
CHAPTER VII: DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL REGULATION
SUBCHAPTER b: PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS
PART 1315 ILLINOIS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY PRACTICE ACT
SECTION 1315.145 CONTINUING EDUCATION
a) Continuing Education (CE) Hour Requirements
Continuing education requirements under this Section are intended to help safeguard public health, safety, welfare, and quality outcomes. CE must be related to a licensee’s current or anticipated roles and responsibilities in occupational therapy and must directly or indirectly serve to protect the public by enhancing the licensee’s continuing competence.
1) Every occupational therapist and occupational therapy assistant shall complete 24 contact hours of CE relevant to the practice of occupational therapy during each prerenewal period as a condition of renewal. A prerenewal period is the 24 months preceding December 31 in the year of the renewal. 24 contact hours of CE is equivalent to 12 units of Continued Competency Activities (CCA) (2 contact hours = 1 unit).
2) In each renewal period, one contact hour shall include a course in ethics.
3) In each renewal period, one contact hour shall include a course in sexual harassment prevention training (see 20 ILCS 2105/2105-15.5 and 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1130.400).
4) In each renewal period, one contact hour shall include a course on implicit bias awareness training (see 20 ILCS 2105/2105-15.7 and 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1130.500).
5) In each renewal period, one contact hour shall include a course on dementia recognition training, which shall only apply to licensees who provide health care services to, and have direct patient interactions with, adult populations age 26 or older in the practice of the licensee’s profession. [20 ILCS 2105/2105-365]
6) A CE contact hour equals 50 minutes. After completion of the initial CE hour, credit may be given in one-half hour increments.
7) Courses that are part of the curriculum of an accredited university, college or other educational institution shall be allotted CE credit at the rate of 15 CE hours for each semester hour or 10 CE hours for each quarter hour of school credit awarded. There is no restriction on the amount of CE hours that can be earned in this manner per renewal period.
8) A renewal applicant is not required to comply with CE requirements for the first renewal following the original issuance of the license.
9) Individuals licensed in Illinois but residing and practicing in other states must comply with the CE requirements set forth in this Section.
10) CE credit hours used to satisfy the CE requirements of another state may be submitted for approval for fulfillment of the CE requirements of the State of Illinois if they meet the requirements for CE in Illinois.
11) Credit shall not be given for courses taken in Illinois from unapproved sponsors.
Step 3: Earn your CEU hours (discounts below)!
Ok, now that you know your requirements, it is time to start earning those CEUs! There are of course a lot of options out there, but we hope you consider checking out the courses offered by OT Potential.
Do OT Potential courses count toward the continuing education required to renew my license?
Yes! You can earn your continuing education hours through OT Potential, as outlined above!
Where can Illinois OT professionals get the best deals on CEUs?
At OT Potential, our courses are all built around helping you get new evidence into practice.
But, what good is evidence-based practice, if you are not reimbursed appropriately for it? Our local associations do SUCH important advocacy work, when it comes to reimbursement and scope of practice. That’s why we’ve made it part of our mission to support these associations.
So, we have this win-win proposition for you. Join OT Potential using the promo code “Illinois” to receive a 15% discount—and we’ll donate 15% of your order to ILOTA.
👍 Price of OT Potential with your Illinois discount = $84.15 (Reg $99)
🎉 Donation amount to ILOTA = $12.62
And, the best part is if you decide to renew, it will be at your discounted price. AND, we’ll make another donation to ILOTA.
This is one of the cheapest ways to earn all of your required Illinois OT CEUs, and you can feel good doing it because you are giving back to your state association ❤️.
(If OT Potential is not right for you, I am also a long-time fan of MedBridge, and through OT Potential, you can snag a MedBridge Promo Code for 40% off.)
Step 4: Renew your license. 🎉
Ok, now it’s time for the big moment.
You can renew your license online.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you found this post helpful!
As you can tell, I am a continuing education nerd 🤓, so if you have any other questions about continuing education and your Illinois OT license renewal, just ask me the comments!
Ok! Ready to try OT Potential?
Get 15% off + 15% goes to support ILOTA.
Learn more, then use promo code: Illinois