The FEMA Administrator established the Continuity Excellence Series - Level I, Professional Continuity Practitioner and Level II, Master Continuity Practitioner on April 16, 2008.  This effort is dedicated to enhancing the excellence in the development and implementation of Continuity programs and emergency management.

Please note: Applicant must complete the following courses and activities in any order from Level I or Level II unless specified as prerequisite to another course on the list. 

Professional Continuity Practitioner
Continuity Excellence Series – Level I

• IS 546.12: COOP Awareness Course
• IS 547.a: Introduction to COOP
• IS 242 or equivalent E/L/G course: Effective Communication
• ***E/L/G 548 or IS 548: COOP Manager’s T-t-T Course or E/G/L 549: Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program Manager Course or MGT 331 University of Maryland Preparing the States Continuity Courses
• ***E/L/G 550: COOP Planner’s T-t-T Workshop or L 552: Continuity of Operations for Tribal Government Course
• IS 100 or IS 100.b: Intro to Incident Command System (ICS) or ICS 100: Introduction to Incident Command System (ICS) or ICS 200 or IS 200.b:  Incident Command System (ICS) for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
• IS 230 or equivalent E/L course:  Principles of Emergency Management or IS 230.b: Fundamentals of Emergency Management
• IS 700.a: Intro to National Incident Management System (NIMS)
• IS 800.b: A National Response Framework (NRF), An Introduction
• ***E 136 (limited to EMI Resident Master Exercise Practioner Program (MEPP) candidates) or IS 139: Exercise Development Course/Exercise Design Course/or COOP Exercise Design/Development T-t-T Course
• Complete attendance in continuity exercise Pandemic Influenza (PI) Determined Accord Workshop or IS 520: Introduction to Continuity of Operations Planning for Pandemic Influenzas and IS 522: Exercising Continuity Plans for Pandemic Course (both Independent Study courses are required) or Resilient Accord Cyber Security Workshop or Guardian Accord Terrorism Awareness Workshop
• ** NARA/CoSA Vital Records Training (optional, recommended)

Master Professional Continuity Practitioner
Continuity Excellence Series – Level II:

• Applicants must attain a Continuity Excellence Series – Level I, Professional Continuity Practitioner
• IS 130:  Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning or E 132 (limited to EMI Resident MEPP candidates) or G130: Exercise Evaluation
• IS 240.a or equivalent E/L/G course: Leadership and Influence
• ***E/L/G or IS 551: Devolution Planning Workshop
• ***E/L 156: Building Design for Homeland Security T-t-T Course for Continuity of Operations or E/L 155: Building Design for Homeland Security
• ***E/L 262: Instructional Delivery for Subject Matter Experts or G265: Instructional Delivery Skills (formerly G261: Instructional Presentation Skills) or E 605: Instructional Delivery or E/L 141: Instructional Presentation & Evaluation Skills Course
• *** Instruct E/L/G or IS 548: COOP Manager’s T-t-T Course
• *** Facilitate E/L 550 or IS 550: COOP Planner’s T-t-T Workshop or E/L/G or IS 551: Devolution Planning Workshop or Determined Accord Pandemic Preparedness Workshop for Continuity Managers or Facilitate Resilient Accord or Guardian Accord or Reconstitution Planning Workshop
• *** Written Comprehensive Exam (150 questions) – Applicants are eligible to take the comprehensive exam once they have met all other Level II requirements

*Course credit is authorized for flexible instructional delivery, i.e. local resident instruction with students completing IS exam.

**Previous versions of above listed courses will be accepted.

***All requirements for Level I and Level II must be completed prior to taking the Written Comprehensive Exam.

All Independent Study (IS) courses can found at http://training.fema.gov/is and by clicking on ISP COURSE LIST. 

** To register and obtain more details please visit www.nara.gov.

*** Please contact FEMA National Continuity Training Manager at  FEMA-CONTINUITY-PRACTITIONER@DHS.GOV.

Continuity Practitioner Certificates

• The FEMA Emergency Management Institute will issue all certificates

• Level I and Level II requests must be accompanied by copies of all required course certificates or an official EMI transcript

• Send certificate requests and copies of certificates or official EMI transcript to mailbox FEMA-CONTINUITY-PRACTITIONER@DHS.GOV or mail to

• Please include your name, organization, work address or home address, email address and phone number

• Expect to wait up to eight weeks to receive your certificate