Older NBCE Scores and Degrees: When Boards Ask for More

Your NBCE scores never expire on the NBCE's side, but several boards look harder at an old degree or old scores. Florida may require the SPEC exam if you graduated more than 10 years before applying. Nebraska requires SPEC from an applicant whose scores are more than three years old and who is not practicing elsewhere. And some prerequisites, such as a bachelor's degree, depend on the date you started chiropractic school. If you graduated a while ago, these rules decide your route more than your clinical record does.

Which states treat an old degree differently?

• Florida. Fla. Stat. § 460.406(1) lets the board require SPEC, or its equivalent, from an applicant who graduated from a CCE-accredited institution "more than 10 years before the date of application." It is discretionary. Florida's MOBILE Act endorsement (Fla. Stat. § 456.0145) is a separate route for actively practicing licensees, with its own conditions; see Florida licensing from another state.
• Nebraska. An applicant who passed the NBCE more than three years before applying and is not practicing in another jurisdiction must pass SPEC within the three years before applying (172 NAC 29-003).
• Alaska. The NBCE requirement depends on graduation date: those who graduated after September 1, 1998 need Parts I to IV and Physiotherapy (12 AAC 16.037). A DC with five continuous years of practice may substitute SPEC for Parts III and IV.
• Nevada. An applicant with 7 of the last 10 years in practice needs only the NBCE parts that existed when they graduated (NRS 634.090(2)). Nevada's endorsement route asks for Parts I to IV or the parts in effect at initial licensure.

What if I graduated before some NBCE parts existed or were required?

Then the question is whether the destination state accepts what was required at the time, or wants today's set. Nevada's rule above is the generous version. Texas is stricter: endorsement requires Parts I to IV and Physiotherapy, or SPEC at 375 (22 Tex. Admin. Code § 72.20). New York's endorsement route lets a doctor without Parts III and IV use a state-administered clinical exam taken elsewhere, or SPEC plus seven of the last ten years in practice.

The NBCE itself makes room for older licensees: a doctor licensed on or before December 31, 1997 can apply for Part IV without having passed Part I, according to the NBCE's Part IV page. If a board wants a practical exam from you, that may be an option alongside SPEC. But the NBCE also says that a candidate who has already passed Part IV cannot retake it unless a state board requires it. So "refreshing" an old Part IV score is not something you can do on your own.

What about undergraduate prerequisites?

Pre-chiropractic education rules changed over the decades, and boards usually apply them by date:

• Florida sets different college prerequisites depending on whether you matriculated in chiropractic college before July 2, 1990, or after July 1, 2000, with a bachelor's degree generally required before certification for later matriculants (Fla. Stat. § 460.406(1)(d)).
• Montana requires a bachelor's degree for exam-route applicants who started chiropractic college after October 1, 1995, but a license in another state exempts the applicant (Mont. Code Ann. § 37-12-302).
• Alabama requires a bachelor's degree for exam-route applicants who graduated after January 1, 2010.
• New York requires 90 semester hours of college study with a GPA of at least 2.75 and 24 hours of life and physical science, and the DC program must have been CCE-accredited at the time you graduated.

Older transcripts can be hard to get. Colleges merge and close, and records move. Start the undergraduate and DC transcript requests first. More in transcripts and CCE accreditation.

What about older licenses that were inactive?

Inactive time is treated separately from the age of your degree. Texas, for example, requires Part IV or SPEC at 375, plus the jurisprudence exam, to reactivate a license that has been inactive for six years or more, though the board may exempt a licensee who held an active, unrestricted license elsewhere (22 Tex. Admin. Code § 72.16). We cover this in reinstating a lapsed chiropractic license.

What about older NBCE certificates and titles?

The NBCE issues a Certificate of Attainment for Parts I to IV, and offers a separate option for those who tested before 1986 and need a certificate for Parts I and II. On titles, the NBCE says only those who completed Parts I and II through the March 1983 administration may use "Diplomate," and should write it as "holds NBCE Diplomate Certificate" with the year. Using the term otherwise on an application or in advertising is something boards can treat as a misstatement of credentials, the NBCE warns.

What should an older graduate check first?

1. Check your transcript in MyNBCE. Know exactly which parts are on record before a board tells you.
2. Read the target state's rule for your graduation year, not the rule for current graduates.
3. Count your recent practice years and identify who can attest to them. New York, Nevada and Texas all tie routes to recent practice.
4. Request old transcripts early.

Our Chiropractic Licensure Readiness Review ($149) does this comparison for you and tells you whether SPEC is likely before you pay any board fee. If SPEC is required, SPEC Exam Pathway Support ($299) handles the authorization and NBCE filing. Boards decide every file; we cannot waive SPEC or a years-of-practice rule. State requirements are in our state license index.