CPA licensure pathway by state
Whether a state now licenses CPAs on a 120-credit-hour pathway (bachelor's degree plus one or two years of experience, no fifth year of school required) or still requires the traditional 150 credit hours, and the date the newer pathway took effect. Every state adopted 150 hours between the 1980s and 2000s; since Ohio HB 238 in July 2025, roughly half the states have passed a competing pathway that substitutes work experience for the extra 30 credit hours, an explicit response to the accounting profession's hiring shortage. A candidate deciding how many more credits to take, and a firm deciding whether an out-of-state hire is licensable, both need to know which rule applies in a specific state on a specific date -- and the two pathways can coexist with different experience and exam-eligibility requirements, so a single 'hours required' number is not enough. No federal body regulates CPA licensure; each state board of accountancy sets and amends its own rule, and the national umbrella body (NASBA) publishes the state list only as an image map and an embedded spreadsheet, not as extractable text.
The data
| State or jurisdiction | Pathway status | Effective date of the new pathway | Statute or bill citation | Education required for licensure | Experience requirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idaho | there are now three pathways to licensure for candidates to choose from | July 1, 2026 | H0563 | ||
| Louisiana | Pathway 3 – Baccalaureate or higher degree | Baccalaureate or higher degree; total education must include an accounting concentration | two (2) years of qualifying experience | ||
| Mississippi | there will be a new pathway to licensure as a CPA | July 1, 2026 | a baccalaureate degree and 2 years’ experience | 2 years’ experience | |
| Montana | a baccalaureate degree with a concentration in accounting | ARM 24.201.503 | a baccalaureate degree with a concentration in accounting | two years of accounting experience | |
| Nebraska | Pathway 3: Bachelor’s Degree and Two Years of Experience | Earn a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university | Complete at least 4,000 hours of qualifying experience over a period of at least two years, but no more than six years. | ||
| Ohio | A bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration and two years of relevant experience | January 1, 2026 | House Bill 238 | A bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration | two years of relevant experience |
| Oregon | Bachelor’s only pathway – minimum of two (2) years; Master’s degree or 150 semester hour pathway - minimum of one year. | Senate Bill 797 (2025) | Bachelor’s only pathway – minimum of two (2) years | ||
| Rhode Island | PATHWAY 3 (NEW 2026) | June 23, 2026 | R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-3.1-5 | Bachelor’s Degree with an Accounting Major or Concentration as required by the Board’s Regulation | At least 2 years (3,640 hours) of experience verified by a CPA licensed in any US jurisdiction |
| West Virginia | The education requirement for a certificate shall be met through any of the following pathways | May 24, 2026 | A baccalaureate degree conferred by a college or university acceptable to the Board | at least two years of experience for an applicant applying for licensure with the education of a baccalaureate degree |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 9 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- dopl.idaho.govhttps://dopl.idaho.gov/pressrelease/new-licensure-pathways-effective-july-1-2026/
- cpaboard.state.la.ushttps://cpaboard.state.la.us/becoming-a-cpa/
- msbpa.ms.govhttps://www.msbpa.ms.gov/news/new-cpa-pathway-effective-712026
- boards.bsd.dli.mt.govhttps://boards.bsd.dli.mt.gov/public-accountants/license-information/education-requirements
- nbpa.nebraska.govhttps://nbpa.nebraska.gov/individuals/licensing-requirements
- acc.ohio.govhttps://acc.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/acb/home/news-and-events/all-news/upcoming-changes-to-certification
- oregon.govhttps://www.oregon.gov/BOA/Pages/License-Application-Requirements.aspx
- dbr.ri.govhttps://dbr.ri.gov/building-design-fire-professionals-board-accountancy/board-accountancy
- boa.wv.govhttps://www.boa.wv.gov/Licensing/EducationExaminationExperience.asp
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.
From your own code
Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.
pip install refsource
refsource lookup cpa-licensure-pathway-by-state state=Idaho
npx -y refsource lookup cpa-licensure-pathway-by-state state=Idaho