Start here: getting licensed in the states you want to travel to
Travel Therapy Licensure is for travel PTs, PTAs, OTs, COTAs and SLPs working out how to get licensed in their next state, and the place to begin is your target state’s page, then the compact guide for your discipline. The guides are written, while each state page’s board details, compact status and privilege fees are rendered from data files built from the boards’ and the compact commissions’ own pages, with the date they were checked.
Who is this site for?
The site is for therapists and assistants who need to practice in a state where they are not yet licensed: travelers adding a state for a contract, new grads working out where to license first, and anyone whose home state is changing. It covers the boards for the District and every state, the PT, OT and SLP compacts, and the rules that catch travelers out, such as home state and supervision.
If you hold one license and plan to stay in your home state, the board’s own site is enough. This site starts where a second state comes in.
Where should you start?
- Licensing by state: each state’s board, fees, processing times, compact status and traveler notes, one page per state.
- The three therapy compacts: how the PT Compact, the OT Compact and the ASLP-IC work, what a compact privilege costs, and how to confirm the current count before you plan around it.
- Changing your home state: what the PT Compact Commission requires when you move, and what happens to your old license, quoted from its source.
- An OT or COTA license where the compact can’t help: a recent guide to licensure by endorsement, NBCOT score transfer, and what Florida and New York ask for.
- Supervision rules for traveling PTAs and COTAs: a recent guide to whose rules apply on assignment and how on-site and ratio rules differ between states.
New grads should read working before your PT license is issued first, because a compact privilege needs a current home-state license. The licensing FAQ collects shorter answers on documents, processing and planning across several states.
What on this site comes from data, and what is written?
Much of each state page is rendered rather than typed, because licensing facts change:
- PT Compact status and the privilege fee for each state come from the PT Compact Commission’s own pages.
- OT Compact status comes from CompactConnect’s live list, the system that issues privileges, checked against the OT Compact Commission, and ASLP-IC status comes from CompactConnect and the ASLP-IC Commission.
- The board box names each state’s licensing board from FSBPT’s directory of licensing authorities, and the continuing competence and endorsement lines for PTs quote FSBPT’s Licensure Reference Guide.
- Application fees and processing times are not typed at all: each state page sends you to the board’s current fee schedule and processing times, because boards change them.
- The open contracts listed on a state page come from the job feed of the agency that publishes the site.
The sourced lines carry the date they were checked. The guides around them are written, and where a guide states a rule it quotes the commission or the board and links it. The discipline pages explain the national exam or certification behind each license: the NPTE for PTs and PTAs, NBCOT for OTs and COTAs, and ASHA’s CCC for SLPs.
How do you reach a recruiter?
Each state page carries a short licensing-help form asking for your name, your email and your discipline, sent with the Get Licensing Help button. The form is for licensing questions as well as contracts, so you can ask about the states you are weighing before you have an offer.
ProTherapy Staffing, which publishes this site, is owned and run by licensed physical therapists.
If you want to know which contracts your current licenses can reach, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.
What order should you do things in?
Start with your home state, the state of your primary residence, because a compact privilege builds on that license. Then check whether your target state issues privileges for your discipline: if it does, and your home state does too, a privilege is usually the quicker route. For PTs and PTAs, some states also require a jurisprudence exam before you can buy the privilege, and the state page notes it where that applies.
If not, apply by endorsement to the target state’s board, and start that application first, since each board sets its own processing time. Keep the home-state license active throughout, because every privilege tied to it lapses if it does.
Frequently asked questions
Does a compact privilege replace a state license?
No. A privilege is an authorization to practice in another member state, and it depends on an active, unencumbered license in your home state. If the home-state license lapses, the privileges tied to it lapse too.
Can a new graduate use the PT Compact?
Not until a home-state license is issued, because a privilege requires a current home-state license. Some boards allow supervised practice before the license is issued, and the temporary license page quotes the boards it read.
Why doesn’t the site list application fees?
Because boards set and change their own fees and processing times. Each state page links the board’s current fee schedule and processing times instead of a figure that could go stale.
Sources
- PT Compact Commission (Physical Therapy Licensure Compact), read October 25, 2026
- OT Compact Commission, Before You Apply, read October 25, 2026
- FSBPT, Licensing Authorities Contact Information, read October 25, 2026