TBPELS eNewsletter

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October 16, 2025

In This Issue

Proposed Rules
32 Hour Education Requirement
Pocket Cards
Exam News
Outreach and Webinars

Proposed Rules

TBPELS Proposes Rules to Implement Recent Bills

With the conclusion of the 89^th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, several bills were passed that impact the professions of engineering and land surveying. At the August 2025 Board Meeting, rule proposals related to these changes were approved to be published for public comment. The rules will be available for viewing and comment on the TBPELS website and in the Texas Register starting on October 17.

Rules were proposed related to the following bills:

SB681 – related to moving PE and RPLS renewals to a two-year cycle

SB1259 – related to changes to the surveying practices act, including decoupling of the FS exam

SB1080 – related to licensure for certain applicants with criminal convictions

HB5629 – related to licensure for active duty military, military veterans, and military spouses

REMINDER: SURVEYOR APPLICANT EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS CHANGE JANUARY 1, 2026

The revised 32-hour education requirement will be in effect starting JANUARY 1, 2026, and will impact all new SIT and RPLS applicants that submit applications after that date. The board approved these changes in August 2024. For more information, see the article at PELS 2024 eNewsletter

Pocket Cards

DID YOU KNOW

If you need a copy of your pocket card, you can download a digital version or print a hard copy of your card at any time via your ECHO account! Go to https://pels.texas.gov/echo

Poll

TBPELS is reviewing how people use their pocket cards. Please complete a short poll to let us know: https://forms.microsoft.com/r/NGXrsgfUvq

Board and Committee Meetings

August 13-14, 2025, Board Meeting

Agendas and recordings are available at https://pels.texas.gov/boardmeetings.htm

Disciplinary Actions

All enforcement actions approved by the Board are posted on the TBPELS website. Enforcement actions are reported based on the date of the Board meeting at which the actions were taken.

http://pels.texas.gov/disciplinary.htm

Future Meetings

The next meetings will be held on November 19-20, 2025. Refer to our website for agendas and links to attend the meetings.

https://pels.texas.gov/boardmeetings.htm

Board Meeting Recordings

Viewing the live stream or recording of the Board meetings qualifies for continuing education credit under the category of self-directed study. Engineers may accrue a maximum of five self-directed study credit hours per renewal cycle. The maximum self-directed study credit for surveyors is four hours per renewal cycle.

https://pels.texas.gov/boardmeetings.htm

Exams

National Engineering and Surveying Exams

All NCEES exams (PE, PS, FE, FS) are now computer-based. Refer to NCEES for specific exam dates and deadlines-

Exam Schedule

2025 TBPELS Surveyor Exam schedule

The Texas Specific Surveying Exams (TSSE and LSLS) will be offered October 31, 2025 , March 27, 2026 and June 26,2026

Please see the TBPELS website for more exam application deadlines and information - Surveying Exam Schedule

Outreach and Webinars

Schedule an Outreach

TBPELS provides online outreach presentations at no charge to license holders, associations, societies, and companies. The following guidelines are used in reviewing outreach requests:

The default method of presentation is via webinar.
A minimum of 50 attendees is recommended for a face-to-face presentation request.
All requests are subject to review and approval.
Request processing can take up to 14 working days.
Please submit your request at least three (3) weeks prior to the proposed date of the event.
Rescheduling will require a new request.
Presentations are typically 1 hour in length.

Request an event by clicking on the link below:

https://pels.texas.gov/outreach.html

Engineer and Surveyor Ethics Webinars

The Board offers monthly one-hour, free ethics webinars to assist license and registration holders with meeting their continuing education requirements. Each webinar provides an up-to-date overview of agency activities, case studies, and a review of professional ethics topics.

The next ethics webinars will be on November 12th and December 10th -11th. Registration for future webinars will open a month prior. Please note that each registration is capped at 1,000 attendees per webinar and will close when this cap is reached.

To sign up for a webinar click the link below:

https://pels.texas.gov/webinars.html