Acupuncturists licensed by the Texas Medical Board must complete 34 hours of continuing education (CE) every renewal cycle. The renewal cycle is biennial, running December 1 to November 30, and your CE reporting cycle lines up with your renewal cycle.
First Renewal requirements
New or reactivated licenses get a registration period of up to 365 days before CE is required at all. During this time your license shows a registration status like Texas Issued, Texas License Issued, or Texas Issued - Reactivation, and you won’t see a CE requirement in CE Broker yet. Once the board updates your license with its full renewal cycle, you’ll complete the standard requirement described below like any other renewal — there’s no reduced first-time requirement once your full cycle begins.
Mandatory Subject Areas
| Requirement | Minimum Hours | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ethics | 2 hours | Human Trafficking Training hours (below) also count toward this requirement. |
| Herbology | 6 hours | |
| Biomedicine | 4 hours | |
| General Acupuncture | 8 hours | |
| Remaining CAE Required | 14 hours | General continuing acupuncture education needed to reach your 34-hour total. Up to 4 of these hours can come from Practice Management/Business Administration coursework — that’s the most this subject can contribute per cycle. |
| Human Trafficking Training | Yes/No requirement (no fixed hour minimum) | Required every renewal. The course must specifically be approved by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). Hours count toward your 34-hour total and simultaneously satisfy the Ethics requirement. |
Courses approved by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), or taken outside the United States, can count toward any of the subject areas above without a separate hour cap.
A few general rules apply across all your hours: the minimum reportable CE activity is just 0.01 hours, hours can be reported in increments as small as 0.01, and you’re allowed to repeat the same course for credit within the same biennium. There are no delivery-method restrictions.
Simultaneously Applying Hours
Human Trafficking Training hours count toward your Ethics requirement at the same time — one course, counted once, satisfies both.
Banking Excess Hours
You can carry up to 34 excess hours forward into your next renewal cycle. Banked Human Trafficking Training hours can’t be used to satisfy that requirement again in your new cycle — you’ll need a new Human Trafficking course each cycle regardless of banked hours.