STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

MARIA I. GALARZA, )

)

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 91-3821

)

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL )

REGULATION, BOARD OF )

DENTISTRY, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to written notice, a formal hearing was conducted in this case at Miami, Florida, on November 6,1991, before Michael M. Parrish, a duly designated Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings. Appearances for the parties at the hearing were as follows:

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Martin L. Roth, Esquire

Haber & Roth

1370 N.W. 16th Street Miami, Florida 33125

For Respondent: Allen R. Grossman, Esquire

Assistant Attorney General Suite 1602, The Capitol Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1050

STATEMENT OF THE ISSUES

The basic issue in this case is whether the Petitioner, Maria I. Galarza, is eligible to take the dental mannequin exam. The Board proposes to deny the Petitioner's application to take the exam on the grounds that the Petitioner's dental degree from the Universidad Central del Este in the Dominican Republic is not the equivalent of four academic years of dental education. The Petitioner contends her degree is equivalent and meets the criteria for taking the dental mannequin exam.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

Prior to the hearing, the parties entered into a prehearing stipulation.

Pursuant to that stipulation, the only fact to be litigated is whether the Petitioner completed the equivalent of four academic years Of post secondary dental education. The parties agreed to a number of facts in their prehearing stipulation. At the formal hearing in this case the Petitioner offered fourteen exhibits, which were received in evidence. The Petitioner also testified on her

own behalf. The Respondent offered eleven exhibits, which were received in evidence. The Respondent also presented the live testimony of one witness and the deposition testimony of another.

At the conclusion of the hearing the parties were allowed fourteen days from the filing of the transcript within which to file their proposed recommended orders. A transcript of the proceedings was filed with the Hearing Officer on December 3, 1992. Thereafter, all parties filed proposed recommended orders containing proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The parties' proposals have been carefully considered during the preparation of this Recommended Order. Specific rulings on all findings of fact proposed by the parties are contained in Appendix "A" to this Recommended Order. In order to more clearly illustrate the Petitioner's course of study, Appendix "B" to this Recommended Order is a list of courses taken by the Petitioner arranged by the semester in which the courses were completed.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Facts stipulated to by all parties

1. Petitioner sought approval of the Board to take the manual skills (mannequin) examination as an avenue toward being certified for licensure as a dentist in Florida with an application dated September 17, 1991. 1/

   
   

2. With her application, Petitioner submitted sufficient evidence to establish that she graduated from high school in Puerto Rico; received a bachelor of arts degree from a college in Puerto Rico; graduated with a "titulo" or degree in dentistry from the Universidad Central del Este (UCE) in the Dominican Republic; has attained an age of more than 18 years; and had completed the National Dental Board Examination with passing scores within the ten years preceding her application.

   
   

3. UCE is not a dental school accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Dental Association or its successor agency or any other nationally recognized accrediting agency. UCE is a foreign dental school located in the Dominican Republic. It is a member of the Asociacion Latinoamericana de Facultades y Escuelas de Odontologia (ALAFO).

   
   

4. Pursuant to statute and rules of the Board, Petitioner submitted her educational credentials to ECE for a determination as to whether she had completed the equivalent of five academic years of post secondary education including four years of dental education.

   
   

5. The Board of Dentistry requires that all graduates of foreign dental schools have their degrees evaluated for equivalency to U.S. degrees by Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (hereafter ECE). ECE is headed by Dr. James Frey.

   
   

6. ECE has evaluated numerous dental degrees for graduates of Universidad Central del Este. In August 1990 ECE changed its opinion of the degree. ECE believes its previous evaluations finding the degree equivalent are erroneous.

   
   

7. The Petitioner attended the UCE dental program from September 1979 to September 30 ,1982.

8. UCE awarded Petitioner credit for previously completed course work and did not require Petitioner to take or complete the following courses in UCE's dental curriculum:

   
   

   Mathematics (4 credits)

   Literature (9 credits)

   Philosophy (undetermined credits)

   Sociology (undetermined credits)

   Physics (8 credits)

   Biology (4 credits)

   
   

9. UCE has a dental program consisting of three academic semesters per calendar year.

   
   

10. Dr. Frey testified that a four year dental degree requires a minimum of 120 semester hour credits. He determined that Ms. Galarza achieved the equivalent of 101.5 semester hours of credit at Universidad Central del Este. Dr. Frey also determined that UCE granted her the equivalent of fourteen additional semester hours of credit for course work already taken at the University of Puerto Rico.

    
    

11. The University of Florida has the only accredited dental program in the State of Florida. At the University of Florida, dental students attend courses for three academic semesters per calendar year and the dental curriculum lasts for 3.66 calendar years and a total of eleven semesters.

    
    

12. The Board, based upon its review of the Petitioner's credentials and the report from ECE determined the Petitioner has not completed four academic years of post secondary dental education. The Petitioner disagrees with the Board's determination.

    
    

    Facts based on evidence submitted at hearing

    
    

13. The dental mannequin examination is an examination given to graduates of dental schools that are not accredited by the American Dental Association. Successful completion of the dental mannequin examination is a statutory prerequisite to taking the licensure examination.

    
    

14. The dental education program at UCE is planned as an eleven semester program and consists of approximately 63 courses, for which the university awards a total of approximately 230 credits. 2/ Eleven of the courses are described as being part of the "Curso Comina" the so-called "common courses." The eleven courses that comprise the so-called "common courses" are high school level pre-dentistry courses.3/ These pre-dentistry courses are planned as part of the first two semesters, but in actual practice are taken at random times during the program, sometimes as late as the last semester. The eleven courses that make up the so-called common courses" represent a total of approximately 39 credits 4/ as follows:

    
    

    Mathematics 011 (or 101)	4
    Literature 011 (or 101)	5
    Phylosophy [sic]	2
    Sociology	2
    Physics 011 (or 101)	4
    Biology	4
    Literature 102	4
    Dom. Soc. History	2

    Mathematics 012 (or 102) 4

    General Chemistry 4

    Physics 012 (or 102) 4

    Total "common course" credits 39

    
    

15. The Universidad Central del Este awarded the Petitioner a total of approximately 233 credits, including the credits that were awarded for either successful completion of, or for exemption from, the so-called "common courses." When the credits for the so-called "common courses" (which as noted above are pre-dentistry courses) are subtracted from the total credits awarded, the Petitioner's transcript reflects a total of approximately 194 credits of dental education. One credit at the dental education program at UCE represents the equivalent of approximately one-half of a semester hour credit at a dental education program in the United States. Accordingly, the Petitioner's 194 credits of dental education at UCE are the equivalent of approximately 97 semester hours at a dental education program in the United States. 5/

    
    

16. A full four-year dental program in the United States consists of a minimum of 120 semester hours of credit, and usually consists of 128 semester hours of credit. The standard length of a semester in a United States dental education program consists of 15 or 16 teaching weeks. The standard length of a semester at the University of Florida dental program is 16 teaching weeks. The length of the typical semester at the Universidad Central del Este consists of

    13 or 13.5 teaching weeks.

    
    

17. The Petitioner completed all of her course work at UCE during a period of eight consecutive semesters. During her eighth semester the Petitioner began work on her thesis. During that same semester her transcript reflects that she was also taking at least eleven courses totaling 44 hours of credit. 6/ During her ninth semester at UCE, the Petitioner did not take any classes, but spent all of her time working on her thesis.

    
    

18. Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, is the only agency approved by the Board of Dentistry to review foreign educational credentials. No other agency has ever been denied approval by the Board. Although the Board's rules permit other organizations to be approved, no other entity has ever requested to be approved by the Board. Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, provides an evaluation of credentials to determine the quantity of education obtained at a foreign school in terms of the United States educational system.

    
    

19. At one time Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, was of the opinion that the dental education program at the Universidad Central del Este was equivalent to four years of dental education in the United States. The educational credentials of one of the Petitioner's classmates who also graduated from the UCE dental program in 1982 were earlier evaluated by Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, and determined to be equivalent to four years of dental education. In 1990, following receipt and review of additional information about the dental program at UCE, Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, concluded that its prior opinion was incorrect. The additional information that formed the primary basis for the change of opinion was that UCE was regularly waiving the so-called "common courses" on the basis of students' prior high school work and that UCE semesters were comprised of only thirteen or thirteen and a half teaching weeks. Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, is now of the opinion that the dental program at UCE is the equivalent of only 3.66 years of dental education. 7/

20. Upon review of the Petitioner's educational credentials from UCE, Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, concluded that she had actually completed the equivalent of only three and one-quarter years of dental education. 8/ This conclusion did not allow any credit for courses that were waived by UCE based on courses taken by the Petitioner at the University of Puerto Rico.

    
    

21. The Board of Dentistry has a Credentials Committee that evaluates all applications to take the dental licensure examination, the dental hygiene licensure examination and the dental mannequin examination. The Credentials Committee reviews the educational credentials of applicants who have graduated from foreign dental schools.

    
    

22. In its evaluation of foreign credentials, the Board of Dentistry does not accept as part of the statutorily required dental education any credit for course work completed at an undergraduate institution.

    
    

23. Since 1987, the Board of Dentistry has relied upon reports from Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, along with its own review of dental school transcripts, licensure applications, and national board examination scores, to determine the eligibility of applicants to take the dental mannequin examination. The Board has always accepted the recommendation of Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, as to the equivalency of dental education. Prior to 1990, the Board of Dentistry generally accepted a dental education from the Universidad Central del Este as meeting the requirement for dental education set forth in the statutes. In 1990, based upon a report from Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, which tended to confirm some of the Board's suspicions regarding the dental program offered at UCE, the Board changed its position regarding the equivalency of a UCE dental education.

    
    

    CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

    
    

24. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the subject matter of and the parties to this proceeding. Sec. 120.57(1), Fla. Stat.

    
    

25. In a case of this nature, the applicant bears the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, her eligibility take the examination. If the proof is insufficient to demonstrate eligibility, the application to take the examination must be denied. In this regard, the Petitioner must show that she meets all relevant statutory and rule criteria. See, generally, Florida Department of Transportation v. J.W.C. Company. Inc., 396 So.2d 778 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Balino v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 348 So.2d

    349 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977).

    
    

26. Section 466.006(3)(c)2, Florida Statutes, requires passage of a manual skills examination by any applicant who has obtained a dental education at an unaccredited dental school. Passage of the examination is a prerequisite to such an applicant being approved to take Florida's dental licensure examination. The manual skills examination consists of a mannequin procedure as described in Rule 21G-2.01 9, Florida Administrative Code. The applicable rules permit applicants who began attending dental school prior to October 1, 1983, to qualify by showing five years of post secondary education, at least four of which must be dental education. The statute provides for the Board to establish by rule the procedure for evaluating the education credentials of applicants who have graduated from unaccredited schools. The Board has provided in Rule 21G- 2.0147(2)(c), Florida Administrative Code, that applicants shall have their

    educational credentials evaluated by Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, or by any other Board approved credentials agency and that a credentials report shall be submitted to the Board.

    
    

27. The Board has followed the procedures established by the applicable statutory and rule provisions. The greater weight of the evidence supports the Board's conclusion that the Petitioner's educational experience at the Universidad Central del Este was not the equivalent of four academic years of dental education.

    
    

28. Although the Petitioner clearly disagrees with Dr. Frey's evaluation of her educational experience at UCE, the Petitioner did not produce any expert witness to support her contention that the dental program at UCE is equivalent to four academic years of dental education. In sum, the Petitioner has failed to meet her burden to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that she is eligible to take the dental mannequin examination.

RECOMMENDATION

On the basis of all of the foregoing, it is RECOMMENDED that a Final Order be entered in this case concluding that the Petitioner has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she has received the equivalent of four academic years of dental education, concluding that the Petitioner is not eligible to take the dental mannequin examination, and dismissing the petition in this case.

DONE AND ENTERED at Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida, this 31st of March, 1992.

MICHAEL M. PARRISH, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building

1230 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1550

(904) 488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 31st day of March, 1992.

ENDNOTES

1/ The stipulated date of the application is obviously incorrect. The date (October 29, 1990) on the Board's letter advising the Petitioner of its intent to deny her application is probably also incorrect, because the report from Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc., evaluating the Petitioner's credentials was prepared on November 29, 1990. The Petitioner's application to Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc., was received by them on October 26,1990. The Petitioner's application to take the dental mannequin examination was probably filed with the Board on or about the same day.

2/ The quality of the evidence in this case requires the use of the modifier "approximately" in several places. For example, with regard to the number of courses offered in the UCE dental program, Petitioner's Exhibits 13 and 14 (the

original and a translation of a description of the dental school) state in one place that the program consists of a total of 64 courses, but another portion of those exhibits that purports to list all of the courses lists only 62 courses.

The Petitioner's transcript (Respondent's Exhibit 7) shows that her program consisted of 63 courses. With regard to the number of credits, Petitioner's Exhibits 13 and 14 state in one place that the program consists of 230 credits, but another portion of those exhibits that purports to list all of the credits lists a total of only 229 credits. The best interpretation that can be made of the Petitioner's transcript (Respondent's Exhibit 7) in light of the information in Petitioner's Exhibits 13 and 14 indicates that she received 233 credits. The next most logical interpretation would indicate that the Petitioner received 231 credits.

3/ The classification of these courses as high school level pre-dentistry courses is based on the past practice of UCE of granting credit for these courses on the basis of the student's completion of high school courses covering the same material. Even if the allowance of credit for high school courses were to be treated as an aberration, the so-called "common courses" are still only pre-dentistry courses because UCE regularly gives credit for successful completion of those courses based on courses taken in undergraduate programs.

For example, in this case the Petitioner was given credit for 8 of the 11 so- called "common courses" on the basis of courses she took at the University of Puerto Rico for her Bachelor of Arts degree.

4/ Again it is necessary to say "approximately" because it is not clear from the evidence in this case exactly how many credits were assigned to the Sociology course. Whether the number of credits assigned to the Sociology course are 2 (the most likely number) or 4 (a possible number), does not affect the ultimate conclusion in this case.

5/ Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, concluded that the Petitioner's educational experience at UCE was the equivalent of approximately

101.5 semester hours in a dental education program in the United States. For reasons not clearly explained in the record, the Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, allowed credit for the credits represented by the three "common courses" the Petitioner successfully completed at UCE, even though Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, is of the view that the so- called "common courses" are pre-dentistry courses.

6/ Depending on how the transcript is interpreted, during her eighth semester the Petitioner may have been taking as many as 13 courses totaling 50 credits. See the courses listed on Appendix "B" under the caption "SEMESTER ENDING APRIL 1982. It is possible that the two courses listed as having been completed in January of 1982 were completed during the semester ending December 1981, but it is most likely that a course reported as completed in January 1982 was completed during the semester ending in April 1982. As noted on the fourth page of Petitioner's Exhibit 13, the three semesters each year "are called by the initial and final months."

7/ The opinion of Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, appears to be flawed in one respect. Although they are of the opinion that the so-called "common courses" are pre-dentistry courses, they nevertheless treat credits received for completion of those courses as credits for "dental education." Those courses are not "dental education" courses. Accordingly, the opinion of Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, that the dental program at UCE is the equivalent of 3.66 years of dental education in the United States is a more generous evaluation of that program than is warranted by the evidence.

8/ For reasons mentioned in footnotes 5 and 7, the conclusion of Educational Credential Evaluators, Incorporated, that the Petitioner's participation in the UCE dental program is the equivalent of three and one-quarter years of dental education is overly generous.

APPENDIX "A" TO RECOMMENDED ORDER IN CASE NUMBER 91-3821

The following are my specific rulings on all proposed findings of fact submitted by all parties.

Findings submitted by Petitioner: Paragraphs 1(a) through 1(l): Accepted.

Paragraph 2(a): Rejected as irrelevant and subordinate and unnecessary details. Paragraph 2(b): Rejected as subordinate and unnecessary procedural detail.

Paragraphs 2(c), 2(d), and 2(e): Accepted in substance.

Paragraph 2(f): Rejected as irrelevant or as subordinate and unnecessary details, because the transfer credits from the University of Puerto Rico constitute, at most, pre-dentistry credits; not credits in a dental education. Paragraph 2(g): Rejected as constituting argument about the evidence rather than findings of fact.

Paragraphs 2(h) and 2(i): Accepted in substance.

Paragraph 2(j): Rejected as subordinate and unnecessary details. Also rejected as irrelevant inasmuch as the sample is too small to be meaningful and neither school in the sample has a dental program.

Paragraph 2(k): Rejected as subordinate and unnecessary details interspersed with argument.

Paragraphs 2(l), 2(m): Rejected as subordinate and unnecessary details. Paragraph 2(n): First sentence is accepted. Second sentence is rejected as not supported by competent substantial evidence. (The proposal misinterprets the testimony cited to.)

Paragraph 2(o): The central thought in this paragraph is accepted, but most of the details are rejected as subordinate and unnecessary details.

Paragraph 2(p): Rejected as irrelevant in the absence of evidence that there are other reliable evaluation services available.

Findings submitted by Respondent: Paragraphs 1, 2, and 3: Accepted.

Paragraphs 4 and 5: Rejected as constituting conclusions of law rather than

findings of fact.

Paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 9,10, and 11: Accepted.

Paragraph 12: First sentence accepted. Second, third, fourth, and fifth sentences rejected as either irrelevant or as subordinate and unnecessary details. For reasons discussed in the Conclusions of Law portion of this Recommended Order, the credits given to the Petitioner based on her courses at the University of Puerto Rico are irrelevant to the issue of whether the Petitioner completed the equivalent of four academic years of dental education. The last sentence is rejected as constituting a misinterpretation of the transcript. See Appendix "B" to this Recommended Order, which is a summary of the information contained in the Petitioner's UCE transcript with the courses arranged in chronological order in the semesters in which they are reported as having been completed.

Paragraph 13: Accepted in substance.

Paragraphs 14,15,16, and 17: Accepted.

Paragraph 18: First sentence covered in stipulation. Second sentence rejected as subordinate and unnecessary details.

Paragraphs 18,19, and 20: Accepted. Paragraph 21: Accepted in substance.

Paragraph 22: Rejected as unnecessary statement of the obvious. Paragraphs: 23 and 24: Accepted.

Paragraph 25: Rejected as subordinate and unnecessary details. Paragraphs 26, 27, and 28: Accepted.

Paragraph 29: Rejected as irrelevant. Paragraphs 30, and 31: Accepted.

Paragraph 32: Accepted in substance.

Paragraphs 33 and 34: Rejected as constituting argument rather than findings of fact.

APPENDIX `B' TO RECOMMENDED ORDER IN CASE NO. 91-3821

LIST OF COURSES TAKEN BY PETITIONER ARRANGED BY SEMESTER COMPLETED

SEMESTER ENDING AUGUST 1979 SEMESTER ENDING DECEMBER 1981

(No course listed) Complete Prosthesis 1 3

Mouth Surgery I 4

Complete Prosthesis 2

SEMESTER ENDING DECEMBER 1979 Odontopediatrics 2

External Odont. V 2

Mouth Diagnostic & Path. 3 Integral Clinics V 10

Human Anatomy 8

Biostatistics 3 SEMESTER ENDING APRIL 1982

External Odontology 2

General Histology 6 <>Dom. Soc. History Jan. 1982 2

<>Biochemistry Jan 1982 4

SEMESTER ENDING APRIL 1980 Mathematics 012 4

General Chemistry 4

<>Periodontics Jan. 1980 3 Physics 012 (exon.) (4) Sciences of Dental Mat. 3 Periodontics II 4

External Odon. II 2 Crowns & Bridges II 4

Mouth Hist. & Embriology 3 Integral Clinics III 6

Dental Anatomy 4 Dental-facial Orthodontia

& Orthopedics 3

Operative 3 Odontological History 3

Human Anatomy II 8 Dental Economy 1

General Microbiology 6 Legal & Ethic Odont. 2

External Odont. VI 3

SEMESTER ENDING AUGUST 1980 Integral Clinics VI 10

Social & Preventive Odont.

(Epidem.) 3 SEMESTER ENDING AUGUST 1982

Anesthesia 2

Mouth Microbiology 3 (No courses listed) Radiology 6

Integral Clinics I 3 NOTES:

Crowns & Bridges I 2

General Pathology 2 The semesters at the Universidad

Central del Este are as

follows: January through April, May through August, and

SEMESTER ENDING DECEMBER 1980 September through December.

<>Physiology Sept.1980 5 * = "common course" Operative II 3

External Odontology III 2 (exon.) Credit given

without taking the course.

Pharmacology I 4

Integral Clinics II 3 <> Course reported as

completed at a date other than end of a normal semester.

These courses have been SEMESTER ENDING APRIL 1981 grouped in the semesters that

include the month reported as the completion date.

Reported completion date is in Removable Partial 4 square brackets after course

name.

Pathological Anatomy 4

Social & Preventive

Odontology 1 Numbers following each course are the Mouth Surgery II 4 number of "creditos" represented by

the course. A question mark following the number indicates uncertainty as to whether the number of "creditos" for that course is accurately recorded Numbers in parentheses reflect courses for which credit was given without taking the course.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Martin L. Roth, Esquire Haber & Roth

1370 N.W. 16th Street Miami, Florida 33125

Allen R. Grossman, Esquire Assistant Attorney General Suite 1602, The Capitol Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1050

Mr. William Buckhalt Executive Director Board of Dentistry

1940 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0792

Jack McRay, Esquire General Counsel

Department of Prnfessional Regulation 1940 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0792

NOTICE OF RIGHT TO SUBMIT EXCEPTIONS

All parties have the right to submit written exceptions to this Recommended Order. All agencies allow each party at least 10 days in which to submit written exceptions. Some agencies allow a larger period within which to submit written exceptions. You should contact the agency that will issue the final order in this case concerning agency rules on the deadline for filing exceptions to this Recommended Order. Any exceptions to this Recommended Order should be filed with the agency that will issue the final order in this case.

Docket for Case No: 91-003821

Orders for Case No: 91-003821