R156-1-310. Cheating on Examinations

(1) Policy.

The passing of an examination, when required as a condition of obtaining or maintaining a license issued by the Division, is considered to be a critical indicator that an applicant or licensee meets the minimum qualifications for licensure. Failure to pass an examination is considered to be evidence that an applicant or licensee does not meet the minimum qualifications for licensure. Accordingly, the accuracy of the examination result as a measure of an applicant's or licensee's competency must be assured. Cheating by an applicant or licensee on any examination required as a condition of obtaining a license or maintaining a license shall be considered unprofessional conduct and shall result in imposition of an appropriate penalty against the applicant or licensee.

(2) Cheating Defined.

Cheating is defined as the use of any means or instrumentality by or for the benefit of an examinee to alter the results of an examination in any way to cause the examination results to inaccurately represent the competency of an examinee with respect to the knowledge or skills about which they are examined. Cheating includes:

(a) communication between examinees inside of the examination room or facility during the course of the examination;

(b) communication about the examination with anyone outside of the examination room or facility during the course of the examination;

(c) copying another examinee's answers or looking at another examinee's answers while an examination is in progress;

(d) permitting anyone to copy answers to the examination;

(e) substitution by an applicant or licensee or by others for the benefit of an applicant or licensee of another person as the examinee in place of the applicant or licensee;

(f) use by an applicant or licensee of any written material, audio material, video material or any other mechanism not specifically authorized during the examination for the purpose of assisting an examinee in the examination;

(g) obtaining, using, buying, selling, possession of or having access to a copy of any portion of the examination prior to administration of the examination.

(3) Action Upon Detection of Cheating.

(a) The person responsible for administration of an examination, upon evidence that an examinee is or has been cheating on an examination shall notify the Division of the circumstances in detail and the identity of the examinees involved with an assessment of the degree of involvement of each examinee;

(b) If cheating is detected prior to commencement of the examination, the examinee may be denied the privilege of taking the examination; or if permitted to take the examination, the examinee shall be notified of the evidence of cheating and shall be informed that the Division may consider the examination to have been failed by the applicant or licensee because of the cheating; or

(c) If cheating is detected during the examination, the examinee may be requested to leave the examination facility and in that case the examination results shall be the same as failure of the examination; however, if the person responsible for administration of the examination determines the cheating detected has not yet compromised the integrity of the examination, such steps as are necessary to prevent further cheating shall be taken and the examinee may be permitted to continue with the examination.

(d) If cheating is detected after the examination, the Division shall make appropriate inquiry to determine the facts concerning the cheating and shall thereafter take appropriate action.

(e) Upon determination that an applicant has cheated on an examination, the applicant may be denied the privilege of retaking the examination for a reasonable period of time, and the Division may deny the applicant a license and may establish conditions the applicant must meet to qualify for a license including the earliest date on which the Division will again consider the applicant for licensure.