LicensingAtlas is built to be cited. A single wrong fee or requirement would poison that trust, so every page follows the same discipline.
1. Official sources first
Facts — fees, required hours, exam rules, renewal cycles, continuing-education hours, issuing boards — come from the state board or agency that publishes them, read directly from its website or official documents. We do not paraphrase requirements from memory, from other websites, or from AI summaries.
2. Source-or-silence
If a specific fact cannot be confirmed from an official source, the page omits it rather than guessing. Every data-backed page names the exact official pages its facts came from, in a “Sources & verification” block at the bottom.
3. Dated, not just written
Requirements change. Every page records the date it was last verified against its sources, and that date drives the page’s freshness signal. Pages are re-checked on a schedule, and the date moves forward only when the facts are re-confirmed.
This cycle is public, not just claimed: What Changed at the Boards is the live feed of board-side changes our source monitoring detects, and the Corrections Log records every factual defect we have found on our own pages — with severity and fix status. Both are published in full, including what our monitoring cannot see.
4. What the status labels mean
Every state hub — and the summary box at the top of each page — states a credential’s standing in one short phrase. These phrases are defined; they are not loose description.
- Required statewide — state law requires the individual to hold the credential. Narrow exemptions may still apply; the page lists them.
- Required in some localities — no state-level requirement, but at least one county or city makes it mandatory. The page names each jurisdiction we could confirm from its own ordinance.
- Voluntary — state law requires no individual to hold it, in any role. An employer can still require it, and many do where the credential gives the business a legal benefit.
- Voluntary — required for some roles — voluntary for most workers, but state law puts a personal duty on a defined group: an age band, a job role, or a class of permit. The page says exactly who, and under which statute.
- Voluntary — required by order or local rule — no statewide duty on any role, but the credential becomes mandatory when a regulator orders it, or where a city or county ordinance requires it.
- No state requirement — the state neither requires nor issues this credential. Local rules can still apply, and the page says what we found.
For occupations a state licenses rather than certifies, the label instead names who must hold the license, because in several states an employed worker needs none of their own while the company does: State license required (the worker personally), Contractor licensed by the state (the contracting business and its qualifying individual), Business registration only, Licensed locally (no state credential exists; cities or counties license), or No credential required.
A label is a summary. The page beneath it carries the sourced detail, and the detail governs.
5. A reference, not advice
We state what a state requires, categorically. We do not give personalized legal or career advice, and we do not run quizzes that tell you which credential to pursue — that would be advice, not reference.
6. Providers are steps, never rankings
Some requirements are met through a training or exam-prep provider. When we link one, it is disclosed as an affiliate link and presented as a compliance step — never as a “best course,” never ranked, never reviewed. Our revenue comes from display advertising and disclosed affiliate links, never from lead generation or selling your information. See our affiliate disclosure .