Louisiana PE Continuing Education Requirements
Louisiana professional engineers are licensed by the Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying Board, commonly known as LAPELS. Louisiana’s continuing education system is called Continuing Professional Development, or CPD.
Louisiana PE licenses renew on a biennial renewal cycle. LAPELS rules state that licenses and certificates expire on the date shown on the applicable biennial renewal form and/or in the board’s records, and become invalid after that date unless renewed within 120 days. After the 120-day period, the licensee must apply to reactivate the expired license to active status and must complete the Louisiana laws and rules quiz and Louisiana ethics and professionalism quiz before reactivation.
Louisiana professional engineers must earn 15 professional development hours (PDH) per calendar year in engineering-related acceptable activities. Professional engineers may not earn more than 8 PDH in a single calendar day.
Annual PDH Requirements & Ethics Mandate
At least 1 PDH per calendar year must be earned in professional ethics. LAPELS defines professional ethics for this purpose as the standard of professional conduct and responsibility required of a professional engineer.
Louisiana also has a subject-specific requirement for certain building-related practice. For professional engineers who design buildings and/or building systems, or who review and/or approve plans for buildings and/or building systems in Louisiana, at least 4 PDH per calendar year must be earned in Life Safety Code, building codes, and/or Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines. For this rule, “designs buildings and/or building systems” includes the design of or specifications for any component of a building or building system, including architectural engineering design, site work, foundations, structural, electrical, mechanical, fire protection systems, communications, and associated appurtenances.
Complete online, self-paced courses engineered specifically to satisfy Louisiana criteria, including the mandatory Ethics requirement. Certificate automatically issued upon completion
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Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Practice
2 PDH
Technical Area of Practice Great AI starter
Try Our Audio Podcast Format for PE Ethics
Fulfill your mandatory Louisiana Ethics Course.
US-PE-ET-103 - Audio Podcast Ethics for Professional Engineers
Listen from the course web page or your favorite podcast platform.
Designed specifically for busy engineers, these courses delivers your required ethics training in a flexible, audio-first podcast format.
Certificate issued immediately upon completion
Qualifying CPC Activities
Qualifying CPD activities include successful completion of college courses, correspondence courses, continuing education courses, seminars, tutorials, and short courses. PDH may also be earned by teaching or instructing qualifying courses or programs, attending or presenting qualifying seminars, in-house courses, workshops, or professional/technical presentations, membership in engineering or land surveying professional associations or technical societies, authoring and publishing engineering or land surveying articles, papers, or books, obtaining patents, formal documented problem preparation for NCEES or state professional engineering or land surveying examinations, serving as thesis director for graduate engineering students, and serving on technical committees assisting governmental agencies in developing engineering or land surveying standards.
Louisiana does not treat informal, non-structured activities such as reading technical journals as PDH-credit activities. LAPELS has final authority over the acceptability of activities, PDH credit, PDH value, and other methods of earning PDH credit. Selection of activities is the responsibility of the licensee.
Louisiana’s rules recognize a broad range of acceptable activities, including correspondence courses, continuing education courses, seminars, tutorials, and short courses. For credit calculations, 50 contact minutes of verified attendance at qualifying activities equals 1 PDH. One college semester hour equals 45 PDH, one college quarter hour equals 30 PDH, and one continuing education unit equals 10 PDH.
LAPELS no longer accepts, reviews, or approves CPD Sponsor/Provider applications as of November 16, 2015. The board lists certain board-approved sponsor/provider categories, but for a course or activity offered by an unapproved sponsor/provider, the licensee is responsible for determining whether it is an acceptable activity.
Louisiana Ethics, AI, and Technical course options
Carry-Forward & Recordkeeping Rules
Louisiana allows carryover of excess PDH, but the carryover limit should be applied carefully by calendar year. A Louisiana PE may carry forward up to 7 excess PDH into the next calendar year. Excess PDH may include professional ethics, Life Safety Code, building code, and/or ADA Accessibility Guidelines hours when the requirements for the current calendar year have been met.
All Louisiana licensure renewals require completion and submission of a biennial licensure renewal form. By submitting the form, the licensee certifies that all renewal requirements have been met, including CPD requirements.
Louisiana licensees must obtain and maintain certificates, transcripts, or other proof of attendance or completion for PDH claimed. These records should include, at a minimum, the dates and titles or descriptions of the courses or activities, the names of the sponsors/providers, the licensee’s name, and the number of PDH earned. Licensees must also maintain a board-approved professional development activity log for all PDH claimed during a calendar year and be prepared to submit the log and corresponding documentation to LAPELS upon request.
Louisiana requires CPD records to be maintained for at least six consecutive calendar years, and copies may be requested by the board at any time.
Louisiana verifies CPD compliance at the end of each licensee’s biennial licensure renewal period. LAPELS may request supporting documentation, including the CPD log and proof of completion, to verify claimed PDH.
Renewal & Exemptions
Louisiana provides several exemptions from CPD requirements. New licensees are exempt during the calendar year in which they are licensed. Licensees serving on active duty in the United States military for more than 180 consecutive days in a calendar year are exempt for that calendar year. LAPELS may also grant exemptions for disability, serious illness, or serious injury that prevents compliance, and for licensees working for more than 180 days in a calendar year in a location where compliance is impractical due to location, work hours, mail restrictions, or similar circumstances. Licensees who certify inactive or retired status on the biennial renewal form are exempt from CPD requirements until their next renewal, but must meet reactivation requirements before returning to active status.
Meet Your General Technical PE Hour Requirements
Frequently Asked Questions
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Louisiana professional engineers must earn 15 PDH per calendar year in engineering-related acceptable activities. Professional engineers may not earn more than 8 PDH in a single calendar day.
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Yes. Louisiana requires at least 1 PDH per calendar year in professional ethics. Professional ethics concerns the standard of professional conduct and responsibility required of a professional engineer.
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Yes. A Louisiana PE who designs buildings or building systems, or reviews or approves plans for buildings or building systems in Louisiana, must earn at least 4 PDH per calendar year in Life Safety Code, building codes, and/or ADA Accessibility Guidelines.
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Louisiana licensees must maintain records supporting claimed PDH for at least six consecutive calendar years. Required records include certificates, transcripts, or other proof of attendance or completion, plus a board-approved professional development activity log.
Course Syllabus
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Combines six courses covering AI fundamentals, engineering ethics, prompting and documentation, cybersecurity and confidentiality, automation and licensure, and practical AI implementation. Learners examine engineering applications, hallucinations, verification, responsible charge, data protection, recordkeeping, tool selection, workflow design, professional accountability, and the use of platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. Includes applied scenarios, exercises, companion videos, and a final assessment for each course.
Bundle includes the following courses:
US-PE-AI-101 Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Practice
US-PE-AI-102 Engineering Ethics in the Age of AI
US-PE-AI-103 Prompting, Documentation, and Recordkeeping for AI-Assisted Engineering Work
US-PE-AI-104 Cybersecurity and Confidentiality Risks of AI Tools in Engineering
US-PE-AI-105 AI, Automation, and the Future of Engineering Licensure
US-PE-AI-106 Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Professional Engineering Practice
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US-PE-ET-101 Engineering Ethics Fundamentals for Professional Engineers
Covers public protection, competence, responsible charge, truthful communication, and conflicts of interest. Includes four practical video scenarios: The Compressed Review, The Familiar Client, Unfamiliar Scope, The Completed Drawing Set, and The Report Before Closing. Followed by a final quiz.
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US-PE-ET-103 - Audio Podcast Ethics for Professional Engineers
Description
Designed specifically for busy engineers, this course delivers your required ethics training in a flexible, audio-first podcast format. Ideal for listening during your daily commute, a walk, or while traveling, this course breaks down the core ethical obligations every Professional Engineer owes to the public, clients, employers, and the engineering profession. Through realistic, cross-disciplinary scenarios, you will examine real-world trade-offs between public safety, project constraints, and professional duty.
What You'll Learn
Core obligations under the PE Code of Ethics across multiple disciplines.
How to navigate competing duties to public safety, clients, and employers.
Practical strategies for identifying and managing ethical risk on active projects.
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This course helps professional engineers understand how generative AI is changing engineering work and how they can adapt without surrendering professional judgment, technical accountability, or responsibility for public safety. Learners review practical workflows using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot for research, document analysis, technical communication, calculation support, project administration, quality control, and professional development.
The course is designed as a practical guide for evaluating, selecting, and applying AI tools in professional engineering workflows. It emphasizes appropriate use cases, productivity gains, effective prompting, verification of AI-assisted outputs, confidentiality protection, and continued professional accountability.
Will AI Replace Engineers? Understanding the Real Career Risk
Examine the realistic career implications of AI for professional engineers. It distinguishes between tasks, roles, and professions, emphasizing that AI is more likely to change routine production tasks than eliminate professional accountability. Learners assess where AI can accelerate work and where human judgment, field awareness, stakeholder communication, and responsible decision-making remain essential.
Choosing the Right AI Tool for the Engineering Task
Review tool selection as an engineering decision. Learners compare platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot based on task fit, source grounding, confidentiality controls, workflow integration, traceability, and cost. The module emphasizes matching the tool to the task, data classification, source requirements, and organizational controls rather than selecting a platform by brand preference.
Prompting and Workflow Design for Professional Engineers
Treat prompting as a form of lightweight technical specification writing. Learners review how to define objectives, context, constraints, sources, output format, uncertainty, and verification requirements. The module emphasizes source-bounded prompting, staged workflows, verification architecture, context management, revision control, and reusable prompt design for engineering tasks.
High-Value AI Applications Across Engineering Disciplines
Identify practical AI use cases across engineering disciplines, including research and requirements analysis, drafting and technical communication, calculation support, code review, technical automation, design-option development, trade studies, reports, specifications, quality control, and project administration. The module emphasizes that AI may improve speed and organization, but engineering conclusions still require discipline-specific competence, verification, and accountability.
Using AI Without Jeopardizing Your License, Employer, or Client
Focus on professional risk management when using AI. Topics include competence, responsible charge, confidentiality, privacy, security, intellectual property, source integrity, documentation, defensibility, organizational governance, incident response, correction, and adoption planning. The module reinforces that AI does not hold a license, owe a duty to the public, or accept disciplinary consequences; professional duties remain with the engineer.
Ten Key Points and Practical AI Use Checklist
The course closes with a practical review emphasizing that AI changes workflows but not professional accountability. Key points include choosing tools based on task and controls, using prompts as technical specifications, verifying AI-generated technical output, protecting confidential information, documenting material AI use, and retaining responsibility for competence, public protection, responsible charge, truthful communication, and final approval.
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This course introduces professional engineers to practical uses of AI in engineering workflows while emphasizing professional judgment, verification, confidentiality, and accountability. Learners review how AI can support research, drafting, calculations, code review, design-option development, reports, specifications, quality control, and workflow efficiency.
The course also addresses AI limitations, including inaccurate outputs, hallucinated references, hidden assumptions, context errors, and overreliance. Engineers learn a practical framework for responsible AI use: define the task, control inputs, review outputs, verify technical content, document when appropriate, and retain responsibility for final engineering decisions.
Training multiple engineers? Ask about group enrollment.