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 Oklahoma Statutes (Last Updated: September 18, 2014)
 Title 59. PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS

  § 59-396.3. Qualifications and examination of funeral directors and embalmers - Approved schools – Licenses.  

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  • A.  The Oklahoma Funeral Board shall determine the qualifications necessary to enable any person to practice as a funeral director or embalmer, and prescribe the requirements for a funeral establishment or commercial embalming establishment.  The Board shall examine all applicants for licenses to practice as a funeral director or embalmer.  The Board shall issue the proper licenses to applicants who successfully pass such examination and qualify pursuant to any additional requirements the Board may prescribe.

    B.  The minimum requirements for a license to practice funeral directing or embalming, or both, are as follows:

    An applicant for a license to practice embalming shall be at least twenty (20) years of age, a legal resident of this state, a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, and of good moral character.  In addition, an applicant shall have at least sixty (60) semester hours of study earned, measured in quarter or clock hours, from a regionally accredited college or university, shall be a graduate of a program of mortuary science accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education, and have served one (1) year as a registered apprentice.  The applicant may serve as a registered apprentice prior to enrollment in an approved school of mortuary science, or subsequent to graduation from said school.

    Curriculum of study for an embalmer and/or funeral director is a program of mortuary science which shall be that prescribed by the American Board of Funeral Service Education.

    C.  The Board shall issue the appropriate license to any qualified applicant whose application has been approved by the Board, and who has paid the fees required by Section 396.4 of this title, has passed the required examination with a general average of not less than seventy-five percent (75%) and has demonstrated to the Board proficiency as an embalmer or funeral director.

    D.  The Board shall maintain for public inspection a list of all accredited schools of embalming and mortuary science.

    E.  Each funeral director in charge as defined in Section 396.2 of this title shall have a current dual funeral director and embalmer license.  A funeral director in charge of a funeral service establishment or crematory that does not have a current dual funeral director and embalmer license on the effective date of this act shall be considered to be grandfathered and may serve as funeral director in charge of any funeral service establishment or crematory in accordance with rules prescribed by the Board, but shall not serve as funeral director in charge of a commercial embalming establishment which shall require a current dual funeral director and embalmer license.

Added by Laws 1941, p. 236, § 4, emerg. eff. May 20, 1941.  Amended by Laws 1945, p. 192, § 1, emerg. eff. April 28, 1945; Laws 1961, p. 453, § 1, emerg. eff. July 11, 1961; Laws 1963, c. 117, § 3, emerg. eff. May 31, 1963; Laws 1970, c. 311, § 1, emerg. eff. April 27, 1970; Laws 1983, c. 163, § 1; Laws 1989, c. 297, § 4, eff. Nov. 1, 1989; Laws 1999, c. 64, § 4, eff. July 1, 1999; Laws 2003, c. 57, § 5, emerg. eff. April 10, 2003; Laws 2013, c. 97, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2013.