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NBEO issues statement regarding Kentucky
On Dec. 12, 2025, the National Board of Examiners (NBEO) issued this statement reacting to reporting in Kentucky and national press that 21 optometry graduates have obtained a license through the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners without having passed all the sections of the NBEO-administered testing.
Here is the response. Background articles can be found below.
The Response
The mission of the National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO®) is to protect the public through competence assessment. NBEO reports results of its standardized licensure examinations to state optometry boards as authorized by the candidates. Therefore, NBEO is ethically required to alert state licensing boards if it identifies any individuals granted licenses who have not passed NBEO examinations.
As has been recently reported, based on information gathered through Open Records Act requests, NBEO sent a confidential letter on May 23, 2025, to the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners (KBOE). The letter requested information about the basis for its apparent decision to grant licenses to 21 optometry graduates in the 2020 – 2023 timeframe who had at that point not passed one or more parts of the three-part NBEO licensure exam that, under Kentucky law, were required for licensure as an optometrist. The KBOE never responded to NBEO’s May 23rd letter. NBEO continues to be very concerned about the serious weakening of public protection in Kentucky and irregularities in the KBOE’s regulation and licensing of Kentucky optometrists.
The three-part NBEO examination is designed to ensure that new practitioners have demonstrated minimum competence for safe and independent care and treatment of patients. The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office issued a formal opinion on October 1, 2025, that the Kentucky Board lacked legal authority to waive the NBEO examination licensing requirements for these individuals. However, at its public meeting today, the Kentucky Board failed to identify any corrective actions that it plans to take or even to include this issue in the public portions of its meeting.
Because of NBEO’s privacy policy on the confidentiality of candidate exam performance, NBEO would not share with the public or Kentucky lawmakers the identity of licensed Kentucky optometrists who have not passed NBEO’s examinations.
NBEO Objects to KBOE’s Effort
NBEO did speak out in opposition to the KBOE’s next effort to weaken public protections through its regulation eliminating the requirement that all Kentucky optometrists pass Part I of the NBEO licensing exam on fundamental science and biomedical knowledge. Passage of NBEO Part I has been a requirement for licensure as an optometrist in all 50 states and other U.S. jurisdictions.
Then at a hearing of a Kentucky legislative committee in July, a majority of the Committee members present voted to delay the regulation for further study. However, the procedural rules on tallying votes allowed the regulation to go into effect without the Committee’s support. As a result, today Kentucky may license doctors of optometry who have never taken or even have repeatedly failed the NBEO Part I Applied Basic Science Examination, if those candidates have passed Canada’s non-equivalent online exam. Kentucky is the only U.S. state to accept Canada’s online exam for licensure.
Independent, standardized testing plays a critical role in public protection. Therefore, it separates interests in career advancement from regulatory decision-making. It also proves an objective measure of competence before a practitioner is allowed to treat patients. When candidates pass the NBEO three-part licensure examination series, that demonstrates to state licensing boards, employers and patients that the candidate has met nationally recognized standards. Thus, these standards should not be weakened, avoided or bypassed. For nearly 75 years, NBEO has worked hand in hand with state licensing boards to support licensure standards that protect the public and thereby to ensure public confidence in the optometry profession.
Read More
Find the background in this story from The Kentucky Lantern.
Learn more about the amendment in Kentucky to allow a substituion for Part I scores with Canadian OBEC written exam.
Read more recent news on ROB here.
