SB 287 - This act modifies the registration of interior designers from the Division of Professional Registration with advice and recommendations by the Interior Design Council to the licensing of interior designers from the Missouri Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors, Professional Landscape Architects, and Licensed Interior Designers ("Board"). The Board shall increase from fifteen members to seventeen members with the two new members being licensed interior designers. Additionally, this act defines the practice of licensed interior design along with modifying provisions to include a personal seal for licensed interior designers. Each personal seal for professions regulated by the Board shall be distinct from personal seals for other professions. A licensed interior designer shall affix his or her seal to all final interior technical submissions prepared by or under the direct control of the interior designer, except as provided by the act.
A licensed interior designer shall undertake to perform interior design services only when he or she is qualified by education, training, and experience in the specific technical areas involved. Furthermore, this act modifies the educational and training requirements for licensed interior designers by repealing the qualification of at least three years of an interior design curriculum from an accredited institution with three years of experience. Additionally, an applicant shall be exempt from providing substantial evidence of certain educational and training qualifications if his or her curriculum or transcript has been approved by the Board.
Nothing in this act shall be construed as preventing or restricting persons from engaging in professional services limited to the design of kitchen and bath spaces or the specification of products for such spaces in noncommercial settings.
Current law provides that a renewal or reinstatement application for registration as an interior designer shall be accompanied by proof of completion of continuing education in the fields of either interior design or architecture. This act repeals such provision and provides that the Board shall establish the continuing education requirements for interior designers which shall be substantially equivalent to the continuing education requirements for architects.
Finally, this act includes licensed interior designers in the definition of "design professional" for immunity from civil liability for participation in a peer review process.
This act is similar to SB 1325 (2024) and HB 2158 (2024).
KATIE O'BRIEN