The Florida Senate

456.017  Department of Health; examinations.--

(1)(a)  The department shall provide, contract, or approve services for the development, preparation, administration, scoring, score reporting, and evaluation of all examinations, in consultation with the appropriate board. The department shall certify that examinations developed and approved by the department adequately and reliably measure an applicant's ability to practice the profession regulated by the department. After an examination developed or approved by the department has been administered, the board, or the department when there is no board, may reject any question which does not reliably measure the general areas of competency specified in the rules of the board. The department may contract for the preparation, administration, scoring, score reporting, and evaluation of examinations, when such services are available and approved by the board.

(b)  For each examination developed by the department or contracted vendor, to the extent not otherwise specified by statute, the board, or the department when there is no board, shall by rule specify the general areas of competency to be covered by each examination, the relative weight to be assigned in grading each area tested, and the score necessary to achieve a passing grade, and fees, where applicable, to cover the actual cost for any purchase, development, and administration of required examinations. This subsection does not apply to national examinations approved and administered pursuant to paragraph (c). If a practical examination is deemed to be necessary, the rules shall specify the criteria by which examiners are to be selected, the grading criteria to be used by the examiner, the relative weight to be assigned in grading each criterion, and the score necessary to achieve a passing grade. When a mandatory standardization exercise for a practical examination is required by law, the board, or the department when there is no board, may conduct such exercise. Therefore, board members, or employees of the department when there is no board, may serve as examiners at a practical examination with the consent of the board or department, as appropriate.

(c)  The board, or the department when there is no board, may approve by rule the use of any national examination which the department has certified as meeting requirements of national examinations and generally accepted testing standards pursuant to department rules. Providers of examinations seeking certification by the department shall pay the actual costs incurred by the department in making a determination regarding the certification. The name and number of a candidate may be provided to a national contractor for the limited purpose of preparing the grade tape and information to be returned to the board or department; or, to the extent otherwise specified by rule, the candidate may apply directly to the vendor of the national examination and supply test score information to the department. The department may delegate to the board the duty to provide and administer the examination. Any national examination approved by a board, or the department when there is no board, prior to October 1, 1997, is deemed certified under this paragraph.

(d)  Each board, or the department when there is no board, shall adopt rules regarding the security and monitoring of examinations. The department shall implement those rules adopted by the respective boards. In order to maintain the security of examinations, the department may employ the procedures set forth in s. 456.065 to seek fines and injunctive relief against an examinee who violates the provisions of s. 456.018 or the rules adopted pursuant to this paragraph. The department, or any agent thereof, may, for the purposes of investigation, confiscate any written, photographic, or recording material or device in the possession of the examinee at the examination site which the department deems necessary to enforce such provisions or rules.

(e)  If the professional board with jurisdiction over an examination concurs, the department may, for a fee, share with any other state's licensing authority an examination developed by or for the department unless prohibited by a contract entered into by the department for development or purchase of the examination. The department, with the concurrence of the appropriate board, shall establish guidelines that ensure security of a shared exam and shall require that any other state's licensing authority comply with those guidelines. Those guidelines shall be approved by the appropriate professional board. All fees paid by the user shall be applied to the department's examination and development program for professions regulated by this chapter.

(f)  The department may adopt rules necessary to administer this subsection.

(2)  For each examination developed by the department or a contracted vendor, the board, or the department when there is no board, shall adopt rules providing for reexamination of any applicants who failed an examination developed by the department or a contracted vendor. If both a written and a practical examination are given, an applicant shall be required to retake only the portion of the examination on which the applicant failed to achieve a passing grade, if the applicant successfully passes that portion within a reasonable time, as determined by rule of the board, or the department when there is no board, of passing the other portion. Except for national examinations approved and administered pursuant to this section, the department shall provide procedures for applicants who fail an examination developed by the department or a contracted vendor to review their examination questions, answers, papers, grades, and grading key for the questions the candidate answered incorrectly or, if not feasible, the parts of the examination failed. Applicants shall bear the actual cost for the department to provide examination review pursuant to this subsection. An applicant may waive in writing the confidentiality of the applicant's examination grades.

(3)  For each examination developed or administered by the department or a contracted vendor, an accurate record of each applicant's examination questions, answers, papers, grades, and grading key shall be kept for a period of not less than 2 years immediately following the examination, and such record shall thereafter be maintained or destroyed as provided in chapters 119 and 257. This subsection does not apply to national examinations approved and administered pursuant to this section.

(4)  Meetings of any member of the department or of any board within the department held for the exclusive purpose of creating or reviewing licensure examination questions or proposed examination questions are exempt from the provisions of s. 286.011 and s. 24(b), Art. I of the State Constitution. Any public records, such as tape recordings, minutes, or notes, generated during or as a result of such meetings are confidential and exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution. However, these exemptions shall not affect the right of any person to review an examination as provided in subsection (2).

(5)  For examinations developed by the department or a contracted vendor, each board, or the department when there is no board, may provide licensure examinations in an applicant's native language. Applicants for examination or reexamination pursuant to this subsection shall bear the full cost for the department's development, preparation, administration, grading, and evaluation of any examination in a language other than English. Requests for translated examinations must be on file in the board office at least 6 months prior to the scheduled examination. When determining whether it is in the public interest to allow the examination to be translated into a language other than English, the board shall consider the percentage of the population who speak the applicant's native language. Applicants must apply for translation to the applicable board at least 6 months prior to the scheduled examination.

(6)  In addition to meeting any other requirements for licensure by examination or by endorsement, an applicant may be required by a board, or the department when there is no board, to certify competency in state laws and rules relating to the applicable practice act.

History.--s. 46, ch. 92-33; s. 23, ch. 93-129; s. 1, ch. 95-367; s. 304, ch. 96-406; s. 1081, ch. 97-103; s. 54, ch. 97-261; s. 238, ch. 98-166; s. 79, ch. 99-397; s. 49, ch. 2000-160; s. 46, ch. 2000-318.

Note.--Former s. 455.2173; s. 455.574.