AICP Certification
  1. Welcome to the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association (CCAPA)
  2. AICP Certification

AICP Certification Maintenance

Continuing Professional Development Program

The Connecticut Chapter has a deep commitment to all its member planners, with or without AICP certification, to provide a broad range of continuing education opportunities. This has meant developing a collaborative relationship with a great variety of educational providers who offer programs that can benefit our membership. We will advise our membership of those programs in e-mail and website alerts. Please see Upcoming Events for an updated list of continuing education programs. Many of these programs will offer CM credits. 

Certification Maintenance

On April 13, 2007, the AICP Commission voted to approve a mandatory Certification Maintenance Program (CM) for AICP-certified planners. Under the CM Program, certified planners must earn a total of 32 credits of “eligible professional development activities” every two years.

No minimum numbers of credits must be earned annually. A total of 16 CM credits may be carried over to the next reporting cycle, excluding credits earned for both current planning and ethics requirements.

Planners have a 4-month grace period to achieve CM credit requirements.

Any planner who fails to achieve CM requirements within the grace period will loose certification, and will need to seek recertification to retain AICP credentials. Questions about AICP certification and CM maintenance may be directed to Jeremy DeCarli, AICP, CCAPA's Professional Development Officer.

How to Achieve CM Credit Requirements

Planners may earn the required 32 credits from

  • Voluntary, unpaid planning instruction may qualify, but the amount of credits equals the length of the presentation plus one hour of preparation.
  • Credits that satisfy the educational needs of another professional organization can be counted towards CM requirements.
  • Of the 32 credits, one credit each must be earned on the topics of Ethics, Law, Equity, and a rotating topic which is currently Sustainability and Resilience, for a total of four credits.

Activities that DO NOT count for CM Credit:

  • APA business meetings and other activities.
  • Mentoring.
  • Volunteer services.
  • Teaching for a salary, fee, or honorarium.

Exemptions and waivers:

  • Retired members are exempt from CM requirements.
  • APA may grant special exemptions. See the APA website for a list of special exemptions.


Information for Educational Providers

Educational providers, including CCAPA, must register with APA. For more detailed information, educational providers or potential educational providers, are encouraged to visit APA to learn more. 


Logging CM Credits

Planners wishing to log their CM credits for seminars and programs they attended to go to the CM Log and click on the appropriate tab and follow directions.