Occupational Licensing Board Structures and Decision-Making Taxonomy

July 2026
Researcher: DCI Consulting & SkillEdge Research and Consulting

HRRI commissioned this study to develop a revised, multidimensional taxonomy of occupational licensing board structures, supported by the first national dataset to systematically document how boards are organized and operate across jurisdictions.

Executive Summary

Occupational licensing boards play a critical role in determining who may enter or continue practicing in regulated professions, shaping workforce mobility, economic opportunity, and public protection. Despite this importance, publicly available information about board structures is often inconsistent, fragmented, or incomplete, making it difficult for regulators, legislators, and researchers to meaningfully understand or compare how boards are organized. States have adopted widely differing governance models, oversight structures, transparency practices, and funding approaches, yet no comprehensive or standardized dataset existed to document these variations. Earlier frameworks, most notably the Shimberg and Roederer (1994) taxonomy—provided an important foundation, but they do not fully capture the complexity and diversity of contemporary regulatory systems.

Over the past three decades, changes in state oversight, increasing transparency expectations, workforce pressures, and legal decisions such as North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC (2015) have further underscored the need for a more comprehensive and current understanding of board structures. This study addresses that gap by developing a systematic, data-driven taxonomy that organizes key dimensions of board structure and enables clearer understanding, comparison, and discussion across jurisdictions.

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