4717-1-14 Apprenticeship.

(A) The objective of an apprenticeship is to provide the practical educational opportunity to teach the apprentice all aspects of the embalmer and/or funeral director profession in a supervised setting. The master embalmer or funeral director shall ensure that apprentice training encompasses all facets of embalming and/or funeral directing services, including but not limited to:

(1) Conducting funeral services;

(2) Making removals;

(3) Meeting with families to make at-need and pre-need arrangements;

(4) Embalming and restorative art;

(5) Familiarity and compliance with all necessary government documents and/or forms;

(6) Business administration;

(7) Sanitation;

(8) Facility maintenance; and

(9) Familiarity with local religious organizations and customs.

(B) Embalmer and funeral director apprenticeship may be served concurrently provided such apprenticeship is properly registered and certified to the board.

(D) Beginning January 1, 2007, a master embalmer and a master funeral director with five years of experience in the state of Ohio must successfully complete training approved by the board. The master training must be a one-day six-hour class, not to be offered in segments on separate dates. The training must be classroom and/or teleconference setting with interaction between instructors and participants, not correspondence. The board will not approve training that is restricted by company or association. The board will not approve training that is correspondence. The training must consist of the following topics and time periods:

(1) one hour – federal trade commission;

(2) one-half hour – liturgical and nonliturgical and veterans administration;

(3) one hour – OSHA;

(4) one hour – preneed laws and rules, not sales;

(5) one-half hour – vital statistics laws and rules;

(6) one hour – cremation law and rule;

(7) one hour – Ohio law Chapter 4717. of the Revised Code.

(E) A master embalmer or funeral director shall certify to the board only one apprenticeship at one time for each license, except under extenuating circumstance and with prior written permission from the board.

(F) A master embalmer or funeral director may certify an apprentice only if he or she is employed or self-employed at the licensed funeral home where the apprentice certified the apprenticeship full time as defined in board rules, and which funeral home and/or embalming facility has filed not less than thirty deaths in the previous year, except if granted prior written permission by the board.

(G) The apprentice shall serve full time and shall not be permitted to engage in any part-time employment or attend school during the period of apprentices credit time, except with prior written permission of the board. The board will not permit the apprentice to engage in part-time employment selling preneed funding or funeral services.

(H) The apprentice and the master embalmer or master funeral director shall make the required certification to the board of the termination of any apprenticeship within ten days after any period of apprenticeship is completed. Any master embalmer and master funeral director who refuses to certify the termination of any apprenticeship without showing just cause to the board shall not be permitted to certify another apprentice to the board.

(I) In case of the death of the master embalmer or master funeral director, the board may accept in lieu of the master’s certification of apprenticeship one affidavit from s reputable citizen having knowledge of the apprenticeship. Such affidavit shall include the dates of the apprenticeship.

(J) Any apprentice who cannot serve any portion of time during an apprenticeship due to disability leave, maternity leave or any other approved leave, shall terminate their apprenticeship during such leave within ten days after the termination, and shall recertify the apprenticeship upon completion of the leave period by submitting the appropriate forms to the board.

If the board determines that an apprentice has violated this provision, the board may terminate the apprenticeship and deny credit for the time period served by the apprentice.

(K) The master’s sound professional judgment should determined the progression of the apprentice’s responsibility and degree of autonomy afforded to the apprentice based on the master of each skill during the term of the apprenticeship.

Direct supervision, as defined in division (I) of section 4717.01 of the Revised Code, is required for at least the first ten arterial adult embalming cases performed and reported over the course of a minimum of two calendar quarters in which the apprentice embalmer assists and the first twenty-five funeral services in which the apprentice funeral director assists and reports over the course of two calendar quarters of a one year apprenticeship and six calendar quarters of a two year apprenticeship.

Supervision, as defined in division (H) of section 4717.01 of the Revised Code is required for all acts of the apprentice.

(L) A funeral director apprentice who has, in the sound professional judgment of the master funeral director, attained sufficient skill and experience during the apprenticeship, including but not limited to, assisting under the direct supervision of a licensed funeral director with twenty-five funerals as referenced in paragraph (K) of this rule, and who has successfully completed nine months of a one year apprenticeship or eighteen months of a two year apprenticeship, may meet independently with families that have been advised prior to the meeting of the apprentice’s status, to prepare at-need and preneed funeral arrangements using a worksheet to determine and define the family’s desires. The worksheet shall be given to the master or other licensed funeral director associated with the same funeral home as the master who will use it to prepare a funeral purchase contract conforming to the federal trade commission part 453 — funeral industry practices revised rule. The apprentice is not permitted to sign a funeral purchase record or contract. The apprentice is not permitted to sign an insurance contract unless the apprentice is a licensed insurance agent.

An apprentice who is a licensed insurance agent must advise the board of this fact and provide their insurance license number at registration.

(M) In no case shall an apprentice spend more than twenty per cent (eight hours) of any week assisting in preneed solicitation or arrangements.

(N) Upon successful completion of the apprenticeship, an apprentice may continue to serve under the direct supervision of a licensed funeral director or embalmer only until the date of the release of grades of the first examination for which the apprentice is eligible to sit.

Effective: 01/09/2007

R.C. 119.032 review dates: 10/20/2006 and 01/09/2012

Promulgated Under: 119.03

Statutory Authority: 4717.04

Rule Amplifies: 4717.05

Prior Effective Dates: 6/19/74, 4/9/79, 1/1/84, 7/1/87, 1/1/01, 11/10/2005