45:7-49 Examination; qualifications of applicants; training and experience.

18. (a) Every person desiring to enter into the practice of mortuary science, before being licensed by the board:

(1) Shall have passed an examination to be conducted by the board or an entity other than the board to determine the qualifications and fitness of the applicant. Such examination, the scope, character and content of which shall be determined by the board, shall be the same for all applicants at each examination, and shall include: anatomy; physiology; pathology; chemistry; disinfection; hygiene; sanitary science; bacteriology; dissection; the care, preservation, embalming, transportation, and burial, cremation or other disposal of dead human bodies; the applicable laws and rules governing vital statistics, preparation and transportation for burial, cremation or other disposal of dead human bodies, including those dead as a result of contagious and infectious diseases; the provisions of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.) and of the rules and regulations adopted by the board; professional ethics; mortuary accounting; and such other subjects as the board may determine, by rule or regulation, to be necessary, proper or reasonably calculated to establish the qualifications and fitness of the applicant.

An examination conducted by an entity other than the board shall be preapproved by the board and conducted by a nationally recognized testing service that is under contract with the regulatory boards of at least three other states to provide testing and grading in the field of funeral service arts and funeral service science. This entity may conduct the law portion of the examination as enumerated above.

Such examinations shall be administered electronically or in writing and shall be held at least once in each year, and oftener if the board shall so determine by rule or regulation, at such times and places as may be fixed by the board. In addition to the examination herein provided for, the examination of each applicant shall include, wherever possible, an actual demonstration on a cadaver of the embalming proficiency and qualifications of the applicant.

(2) Shall have completed 2 years of practical training and experience as a registered trainee in regular, steady, bona fide full-time service of a grade and character satisfactory to the board, in the State of New Jersey, with a person duly licensed as a practitioner of mortuary science under P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.) or as both an embalmer and funeral director under any prior law of this State and whose annual case volume shall be equal to at least 25 cases, and shall have assisted in embalming at least 75 bodies; and shall have satisfactorily completed a minimum of 2 academic years of instruction in a college or university approved by the State Department of Education and 1 year of instruction in a school of mortuary science approved by the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey; except that a person who has satisfactorily completed 3 academic years of instruction in such a college or university and 1 year of instruction in such an approved school of mortuary science need only have completed 1 year of practical training and experience as a registered trainee. Not more than 1 trainee shall be registered at 1 time in 1 establishment, except that 2 trainees may be permitted if there are 2 or more licensees in the same establishment. The board is authorized and empowered to prescribe rules and regulations establishing minimum courses of college or university instruction; to insure that each trainee receives satisfactory and efficient training and experience which may provide for the periods that may be credited toward the required year of training and experience, the nature, character and extent of the services to be performed by the trainee, for such practical and actual experience in mortuary science and assisting in the same as it shall determine and for the making of such reports by the trainee and by the licensee with whom the trainee is registered as may be advisable and for such other qualifications in the applicant as may be reasonably calculated to insure and protect the public health, morals, safety and welfare;

(3) Shall have, upon commencing the period of training and experience as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection registered as a trainee with the board, upon a form to be provided by the board, and has paid to the board a registration fee of $50.00, and has received from the board a certificate as a registered trainee;

(4) Shall have been a resident of the State of New Jersey continuously during the period of training and experience; and

(5) Shall have passed his or her twenty-first birthday.

(b) An applicant who meets the requirements of section 19 of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-50) shall be admitted to the examinations prescribed in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of this section but a license to enter into the practice of mortuary science shall not be issued or granted to any such applicant by the board unless and until such applicant has completed the period of practical training and experience as a registered trainee required by paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of this section.

L.1952, c.340, s.18; amended 1960, c.184, s.7; 2019, c.130.