Help with Online Verifications

Overview

This online search, a service of the State Education Department, permits the public to obtain vital information on the records of more than 1,000,000 licensees in the 47 professions regulated by the Department, including the more than 700,000 who are currently registered to practice within the State. The most important function of professional regulation is to protect the public; this information will help inform people about the licensed professionals who offer services in New York.

Information includes the licensee's name, profession, license number, location, date of original license, and registration status. You may also search summaries of Regents actions on professional discipline, beginning with cases from January 1994, to see if the licensee has been the subject of disciplinary proceedings.

Searching by Name

• Select a profession from the list. You may only choose one profession at a time. Use the arrows to the right of the box to scroll through the list of professions, then click on the desired profession to highlight/select it.
• Enter at least one letter of a last name; you do not need to enter the complete name, although your search will be more precise the more complete the name. You may only search for one name at a time. Enter last name and a space, not a comma, then first name. The name may be entered in either upper or lower case.
• Click on the "Search" button to begin your search.
• The screen will display a list starting with a name which best matches the sequence of letters you entered. Scroll through the list to locate the licensee whose record you seek, then click on the license number to view that record.

Searching by License Number

• Select a profession from the list. You may only choose one profession at a time. Use the arrows to the right of the box to scroll through the list of professions, then click on desired profession to highlight/select it.
• When searching by license number, you must enter a full six-digit license number. [Note: some RN licenses issued in the 1950s begin with the letters 'B' or 'I' followed by five digits; all other license numbers have six digits.] If a license number has fewer than six digits, insert enough zeros in front of the number to total six digits. If the number includes a dash followed by a single digit (e.g., 000456-1), disregard the dash and the number which follows it. A licensee should be able to provide you with his or her license number upon request.
• Click on the "Search" button to begin your search.
• The screen will display the record of the individual who has been issued the license number you have entered for the profession you selected.

Frequent Problems

• Be sure you select the correct profession. Please note the clarifications below:
  • Medicine and Osteopathy - Physicians, including MDs, DOs, and those who may have an equivalent degree from another country.
  • Three-year limited license - Licensees who do not meet the citizenship requirement and whose practice is limited to 3 years, sometimes in a specific underserved area.
  • Nurse Practitioner - A registered nurse with advanced education in a specialty. All nurse practioners must also be licensed and registered to practice as registered professional nurses.
  • Public Accountant - Authorized to practice public accountancy as are Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). Licensees in this profession qualified solely on the basis of experience for a limited period in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• Be sure to enter and spell the name correctly: last name followed by a space and first name (do not use a comma to separate names). If you are uncertain of the full spelling, try entering only the first few letters of the last name to display all names within the selected profession that begin with the letters entered. Then scroll through the list to find the individual you seek.
• Names beginning with Mc, O' and similarly-structured names may appear on the list with or without the apostrophe or the space. Therefore, if you are looking for someone named O'Neil, you should also check O Neil and ONeil.
• Printing: Although Netscape 4.x should render pages correctly onscreen, the combination of that browser, the stylesheet used for this site, and certain older model Hewlett-Packard printers will effectively prevent the content of pages from printing. The simplest solution is to change settings in Netscape: on the menu bar, choose Edit/Preferences; select Advanced in the left column, then uncheck the box labeled "Enable style sheets" in the righthand section of the page.

Glossary of Terms

• Name: Last name is always displayed first.
• Address: City and state of the professional's address are provided as an aid in identifying the individual. A licensee need not have a New York address to be authorized to practice in the State.
• Profession: The name of the profession.
• License/Registration No: The unique number of this licensee or entity within a particular profession. The same sequence of numbers may be held by others, but only in other professions.
• Date of Licensure: The date the individual was licensed in New York. This date may be missing for licenses issued prior to the mid-1980s (see note below).
• Additional Qualification: Some professions provide for an additional qualification, or privilege, which is voluntary and may be obtained either at the time of licensure or subsequently. For example, midwives and nurse practitioners may qualify to write prescriptions after presenting evidence of specified education in pharmacology; social workers may earn insurance reimbursement privileges after either three or six years of qualifying experience. These additional qualifications do not include practice specialties, such as surgery or ophthalmology for physicians. In professions where there are no additional qualifications, the phrase Not applicable in this profession appears. In professions where there is an additional qualification but the individual has not met the requirements, this line is left blank, but this should not be viewed as limiting the licensee's regular practice.
• Status:
  • Individuals: To practice within New York State, a professional must be licensed and REGISTERED. When a professional informs the Department at the time of reregistration that he or she will not be practicing in New York, the record is marked INACTIVE as of the start of the next registration period. If a registration has lapsed without explanation, the record is marked NOT REGISTERED. If the Department has received reliable notice of the death of a licensee, that record is marked DECEASED. If the license is currently suspended, revoked, or has been surrendered pursuant to disciplinary action, the record is marked LICENSE SUSPENDED, LICENSE REVOKED, or LICENSE SURRENDERED.
  • Pharmacy Establishments: Active establishments are currently doing business in New York State. Inactive establishments include those where there has been a transfer of ownership or those that have discontinued doing business in the State.
• Registered through:
  • Individuals: Registration periods expire on the last day of the month indicated. Physicians are registered for two-year periods, all other professions for three-year periods. Each licensee's registration period is based on his or her month of birth.
  • Pharmacy Establishments: All pharmacies, manufacturers and wholesalers are registered for three-year periods.
• Pharmacy Establishment Types:
  • Pharmacy means any registered place where drugs are dispensed and pharmaceutical care is provided.
  • Manufacturer means a person or company engaged in the manufacture of drugs or pharmaceutical devices.
  • Wholesaler or Distributor means a person or company engaged in wholesale distribution of drugs, including but not limited to manufacturers; repackagers; own-label distributors; private-label distributors; jobbers; brokers; warehouses, including manufacturers' and distributors' warehouses, chain drug warehouses, and wholesale drug warehouses; independent wholesale drug traders; and retail pharmacies that conduct wholesale distribution.