Methodology
How we check a state
Everything here is a rule you can verify yourself in two clicks. This page explains what we did before writing it down.
What counts as a source
A state agency page, a statute or administrative code section, or an official notice from the agency that enforces the rule. Not another site that summarizes it, and not a course provider explaining the requirement its own course satisfies.
When we read one, we copy the exact wording into our records. That is not decoration: quoting forces you to open the source instead of paraphrasing whatever the last site said. It is how the errors below were found in the first place.
The two levels, and why you see them
Every requirement we publish carries a level, and the two never mix on the same claim:
- State-verified.Read directly in the state's own source, with the link and the date next to it. This is the only level we publish as fact.
- Not state-verified yet.We have seen the claim somewhere secondary but have not confirmed it against the state. It is labeled, every time, and never presented as fact. A state whose requirements sit entirely at this level does not get a page here at all: you get the agency's own link instead.
The date is part of the fact
Every requirement shows the date we checked it, right next to the number, not at the bottom of the page. There is a reason for the fussiness. "On this date, this agency page said X" stays true forever. "This state requires X" can become false on its own, with nobody touching the page, the day the legislature moves.
That already happened, repeatedly, to the pages ranking above us: validity periods that changed, a grace period that was removed, a bill number cited that never became law. Those are not typos, they are pages that were written once and never re-read.
What we do when the state does not say
We say so, in that spot, and link where the state does publish. Some agencies genuinely decline to answer common questions, and some publish rules that are not machine readable. An honest gap is worth more than a filled one, because a filled gap costs you money in a way the gap does not.
Providers
Where a state publishes an approved list, we reproduce that list in full, including providers that pay us nothing, with the price they charge. We do not rate them, rank them by preference or pick a winner, and we publish the ordering rule we use so you can tell the difference between an order and an opinion.
Corrections
If a requirement here is wrong or out of date, it is a defect, and it gets fixed and re-dated rather than quietly edited. The editorial policy covers what blocks a page from publishing in the first place.