Minnesota Architect CE Requirements (2026): 24 Hours Every 2 Years

Requirements Overview

The Minnesota Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience and Interior Design (AELSLAGID) sets the continuing education rule for architects in Minn. Stat. § 326.107. Renewal is biennial, and you must complete 24 professional development hours (PDH) during the two-year period before renewal.

Every one of those hours has to qualify as HSW — the statute requires that continuing education activities directly benefit the health, safety, or welfare of the public, so there is no general-interest allotment. Within the 24, at least 2 hours must be professional ethics, and those ethics hours must be earned during the biennium you apply them to.

Minnesota allows carryover of up to 50 percent of the requirement — up to 12 hours — from the previous renewal period, but ethics hours are excluded from carryover. Architects in their first biennial renewal are exempt.

Mandatory Topics

Exemptions

• ✓
  New Licensee — First Biennial Renewal — A new licensee or certificate holder is exempt from the continuing education requirements for the individual's first biennial renewal.

How You Can Complete Your CE

Minnesota CE Rules & Limits

Details specific to Minnesota that generic CE guides tend to miss:

• Carry-over — A carryover from the previous renewal period is permitted but must not exceed 50 percent of the biennial requirement — up to 12 professional development hours. The 2 mandatory ethics hours must be earned during the biennium to which they are applied and cannot be counted toward carryover.
• Minnesota requires 24 professional development hours (PDH) per biennial renewal, all of which must consist of activities that directly benefit the public's health, safety, or welfare (Minn. Stat. § 326.107, subd. 1-2).
• At least 2 of the 24 hours must be in professional ethics; those ethics hours must be earned during the biennium to which they are applied and cannot be carried over.
• Up to 50 percent of the biennial requirement (up to 12 hours) may carry over from the previous renewal period, but carryover cannot include the ethics hours.
• New licensees are exempt from continuing education for their first biennial renewal.

Tips for Minnesota Architects

• Treat all 24 hours as HSW. Minnesota does not accept general business or marketing courses toward the requirement — the activity must directly benefit the public's health, safety, or welfare.
• Schedule your 2 ethics hours inside the current biennium. Ethics hours earned in the wrong cycle don't count, and they can never be applied as carryover.
• You can bank up to 12 excess hours for the next cycle, but plan ethics separately — carryover cannot include the ethics requirement.
• If this is your first biennial renewal as a new licensee, you're exempt — but confirm your first full compliance biennium with the board before skipping courses.
• Keep certificates of completion; AELSLAGID can audit, and you self-certify compliance at renewal. Verify course eligibility with the board if a provider isn't clearly HSW.

Sources

Architect Requirements in Nearby States

Other Professions in Minnesota

All Architect CE Requirements by State

Open any other state's Architect CE requirements, or see the full Architect CE hub to compare every state in one table.