Image text reads: The Dirty Secret About ASHA CEU's. There is a photo of a women leaning in close to a man and whispering to him. He has a look of surprise.

The Dirty Secret About ASHA CEUs

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Spoiler alert: You don’t actually need them. 

I know! I was shocked too.

And also maybe a little pissed off considering how hard ASHA advertises CEUs.

Let me walk you through this:

Don’t I need CEU’s to maintain my CCC?

Nope. 

Not 👏🏻 At 👏🏻 All 👏🏻

Maintaining your certification (i.e., your CCC) requires professional development hours, not CEUs. 

Still having doubts? Let’s go directly to ASHA on this one: 

ASHA Certification Maintenance Standards require that all certificate holders (CCC-A and CCC-SLP) must accumulate 30 professional development hours (PDHs) [formerly certification maintenance hours (CMHs)] during each 3-year certification maintenance interval in order to maintain their ASHA Certificates of Clinical Competence (CCC).

https://www.asha.org/certification/maintain-ccc/

So there it is.

You need 30 professional development hours, NOT CEUs.

So, what exactly counts as a PDH? 

Of course ASHA’s definition is needlessly wordy, a little bit vague, and mostly useless.

Don’t worry, we’ll break it down together.

ASHA’s official definition of professional development is here (as of Feb 2022) and I kind of summarized it here:

Main components of “Professional Development” as defined by ASHA

You need:

  • Some kind of certificate / verification of your attendance and/or participation in your name
  • You need to acquire some new knowledge or skills (or enhance existing ones).
  • The activity must be related to the “practice” or “science” of our field.
  • Finally, YOU are responsible for determining if the activity is appropriate, meaningful, and relevant.

So… what the heck is a CEU then?

You’re probably asking yourself what the heck is a CEU and why you’ve been hoarding them like Scrooge McDuck and his gold:

All CEU’s are PDH, but not all PDH are CEUs. 

Confused?

Here’s a visual:

The image has a title at the top that reads, "PDH vs CEU" below are two circles. One circle is large and labeled "These are PDH." A smaller circle is inside of the first circle and it says "These are CEUs."

I like to think of an “ASHA CEU” as kind of like a “brand name” for a PDH. 

Like, maybe you buy name brand ketchup because you think it tastes better. That’s cool. 

Me? I buy the generic brand… because it’s ketchup, and I like to save money.  

CEU’s are ‘ASHA’s brand’ of CEU’s. They have two advantages (sort of): 

  1. CEU providers are registered with ASHA: They go through a fairly extensive process to become CEU providers; this is intended to guarantee some level of quality. 
  2. CEU’s are reported to the “ASHA CE Registry” which means you don’t have to keep track of any paperwork, certificates, or hours on your own. BUT you do have to PAY for the CE registry separately each year…

So, how do you track your hours without the CE registry?

You don’t need anything fancy. ASHA tells you you need to track these four things:

Title: 4 Things to Document Your Professional Development Hours 1) Title of the course or activity 2) dates of attendance or completion 3) number of professional development hours and 4) name of the sponsoring organization / institution

I use a pretty simple system to track my CEU’s. 

1. My system: Dropbox + Excel 

I love Dropbox because it easily syncs across all of my devices without hassle, and it provides a safe backup in case of emergencies. If you’ve never tried it, it is free to sign up.

In my Dropbox, I already have a folder for my professional development. I make a folder for each year, and make it my goal to complete 10 hours per year. Each time I complete an hour or course, I save the certificate in that folder, and I update the excel sheet where I track my hours. 

Easy peasy and $28 saved! 

2. Google Users

If you’re an avid Google user, you can also use this easy Google form to track your PD.

When you click the link, it’ll open and allow you to make a copy in YOUR Google drive. There’s a place to upload the certificates and everything.

You can also access a secure copy through TeachersPayTeachers.

3. On Paper

ASHA also has a record keeping form available. You can print it and store your certificates in a binder, OR simply use a PDF editor to update the document as you earn hours. 

This also happens to be the form they’ll use if you’re audited.

Now You Know

Now the dirty secret about CEU’s is out in the open!

Get them if you want them, but don’t be afraid to document and record your own professional development hours.

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