Requirements to Start a Massage Therapy School in Hawaii, the requirements for massage therapy practice and education are overseen by the Hawaii Massage Therapy Board.
Which is under the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Professional and Vocational Licensing division.
Massage therapists in Hawaii can obtain their training either through a school or an apprenticeship program.
The message board will accept programs of education provided by schools approved by AMTA, the Rolf Institute, or the Hawaii Department of Education.
However, to conduct business as a vocational school in Hawaii, a state license for the school require.
In addition to approval by the Department of Education, your school must meet the training requirements specified by Hawaii’s Administrative Rules.
Alternatively, if you want to teach massage therapy in Hawaii, you can obtain approval from the board for teaching workshops in the academic subjects and teach hands-on massage as a sponsoring massage therapist.
Hawaii’s Administrative Rule Requirements
The Hawaii board requires that your school have a 570-hour or more curriculum that divide up as follows:
- 50 hours anatomy, physiology and structural kinesiology;
- 100 hours theory and demonstration of massage, which includes procedure, record keeping, hygiene, techniques for specific conditions, contraindications, draping and assessment;
- 420 hours of practical massage training under the supervision of a teacher in a school setting, which must do over a period of no less than 6 months.
Students may also obtain their first 150 hours of classroom training in an approved school or at the approved workshop(s) and do their six month, 420 hours of practical massage training as an apprentice to an approved, licensed massage therapist.
The administrative rules state that the 420 apprentice hours should divide up as follows:
- 70 hours of Clinical Operations, which should include
- 30 hours – Sanitation
- 30 hours – Office Procedures
- 10 hours – Record Keeping
- 40 hours of Advanced Techniques
- 20 hours observing instructors
- 20 hours consulting
- 310 hours hands-on, supervised massage therapy with record keeping
Hawaii Department of Education, Vocational School License
Although the board rules state that they will accept education from a school approved by AMTA or the Rolf Institute.
if you are going to have a school in the state of Hawaii, rather than teach workshops and also, supervise apprentices, your school must license by the Hawaii Department of Education.
A school license application costs $100 to file and must renew every two years.
The license application for a vocational school in Hawaii requires you to provide the following information:
- School: name, location, administrator, and vocation(s) list.
- Request for licensure: listing owners and providing background information.
- Personnel: application for professional staff certificate for each instructor, listing personal information, education and experience,
- Principal: certification form stating principal has the knowledge and experience to administer the school.
- Curriculum: course log with instructor name, hours of the class and expected enrollment; course description for each course.
- Financial: Projected income and expense and also, net profits.
- Assets and debts of the school.
- Brochure/Catalog: curriculum, fees, student rights, refund policy, grading policy and sample certificate.
- Surety Bond: current affidavit stating surety bond in the amount of $50,000, (or a smaller amount, based on your advance tuition collections, if your advance tuition collections will not exceed $50,000) is and will be active for the term of the license.
- Facilities: floor plan, department of health approval, fire marshal approval, and also, county building department approval with maximum occupant load.
After you submit your application, the department has 90 days to either grant or deny your license.
MIST – Requirements to Start a Massage Therapy School in Hawaii
If you want to approve to teach all or part of the 150 academic hours required for a Hawaii Massage Therapy license, you can apply to the board to teach a workshop(s).
The application must do by the Massage Establishment (which must license) and include a letter of agreement from each workshop instructor.
The application fee is $50.
The workshop application must send to the board at least 60 days before the workshop is to be held.
Instructors must license massage therapists in Hawaii, and need to have been licensed for at least 3 years.
In addition, the instructor must employ by or affiliated with the Massage Establishment where the workshop will be held.
Workshops may not include any hands-on training.
Workshop approval is valid until June 30 of even-numbered years.
After that, you will have to apply for re-authorization.
Becoming a Sponsoring Massage Therapist for an Apprentice
So if you want to teach massage as a sponsoring massage therapist you must license massage therapist in Hawaii.
In addition, you must employ or register with a licensed massage establishment.
You must also register with the board as the person responsible for direct supervision of the apprentice.
The apprentice must apply to the board for a permit.
In the application, there must be a letter of agreement between the apprentice and the sponsoring massage therapist, indicating the starting date of the apprenticeship, the number of supervised hours per week, and the training program, which is then subject to board approval.
You are only allowed to supervise up to 10 massage therapists at a time.
Summary – Requirements to Start a Massage Therapy School in Hawaii
The state of Hawaii has two acceptable pathways to obtaining a massage therapy education through an apprenticeship program or through a massage therapy school approved by the Department of Education.
Either pathway requires 150 hours of academic study and 420 hours of practical education under supervised conditions.
To have a school approved by the department of education, you must submit information regarding your staff, curriculum and finances to the department as well as provide a surety bond to ensure that students can get their money refunded in case your school closes.
To teach the 150 hours of academic subjects in a workshop format or to train an apprentice, you must approve by the message board.
Links – Requirements to Start a Massage Therapy School in Hawaii
Hawaii Requirements for Massage Training
Requirements to Start a Massage Therapy School in Hawaii
Hawaii Department of Education, Vocational School Licensing:
http://boe.hawaii.gov/policies/AdminRules/Pages/AdminRule101.aspx
Neal Lyons is a founding member and volunteer contributor at the MTSI Institute, an information based portal dedicated to guiding and assisting aspiring massage therapists establish a successful career in massage. Neal is a published author and has collaborated on several mobile applications that serve the massage profession. You can view his published work on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Sony and Kobo. You can connect with him on Facebook, Twitter and on Google+
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