Courses shall meet one of the following requirements:

(1) Be offered by a private entity; or

(2) Be offered by a tax-supported, public technical or community college or other institution of higher learning that offers college credits; or

(3) Be offered by the Washington home inspector board; and

(4) Have a minimum of one hundred twenty hours of coursework or instruction for the student for prelicense; or

(5) Have a minimum of two hours of coursework or instruction for the student for continuing education. A clock-hour is a period of fifty minutes of actual instruction; and

(6) Provide practical information related to the practice of home inspection in any of the following home inspection topic areas:

(a) Department prescribed curricula for prelicense:

Fundamentals of home inspection.

(b) Continuing education:

(i) Communications;

(ii) Structures;

(iii) Plumbing;

(iv) Electrical;

(v) Heating;

(vi) Ventilation;

(vii) Air conditioning;

(viii) Law and business administration;

(ix) Current trends and issues;

(x) Exteriors;

(xi) Interiors;

(xii) Consumer protection;

(xiii) Report writing; and

(xiv) Environmental conditions or hazardous materials.

(7) Be under the supervision of an instructor, who shall, at a minimum, be available to respond to specific questions from students;

(8) The following types of courses will not be approved for clock hours:

(a) Mechanical office and business skills, such as, keyboarding, speed-reading, memory improvement, and grammar;

(b) Standardized software programs such as word processing, email, spreadsheets or databases; an example: A course specific to the reporting system necessary to deliver a home inspection would be acceptable, but a course teaching how to use a computer would not be acceptable;

(c) Orientation courses for licensees, such as those offered by trade associations;

(d) Personal and sales motivation courses or sales meetings held in conjunction with a licensee's general business;

(e) Courses that are designed or developed to serve other professions, unless each component of the curriculum and content specifically shows how a home inspector licensee can utilize the information in the practice of home inspection;

(f) Personal finance, etiquette, or motivational type courses;

(g) Courses that are designed to promote or offer to sell specific products or services to home inspector licensees such as warranty programs, client/customer database systems, software programs or other devices. Services or products can be offered during nonclock hour time, such as breaks or lunch time. Letterhead, logos, company names or other similar markings by itself, on course material are not considered promotional;

(h) Clock hours will not be awarded for any course time devoted to meals or transportation.

(9) Prelicense courses which are submitted for approval shall include a comprehensive examination(s) and answer key(s) of no fewer than two hundred questions, and a requirement of passing course grade of at least seventy percent; essay question examination keys shall identify the material to be tested and the points assigned for each question; an examination is not required for continuing education courses;

(10) Include textbook or instructional materials approved by the director, which shall be kept accurate and current;

(11) Not have a title which misleads the public as to the subject matter of the course;

(12) The provider's course application shall identify learning objectives and demonstrate how these are related to the practice of home inspection.