(a) Any person entering into employment for the purpose of obtaining practical experience and skill as a licensed optician shall register as an optician trainee with the Office within 60 days of entering the employment. The computation of any period of training shall commence at the date of the registration.

(b) The application for registration shall be certified by the employer and by the applicant and accompanied by an application fee. The Office may issue to the applicant an optician trainee's certificate. Every registered optician trainee who continues to act as an optician trainee shall, biennially, renew his or her optician trainee's certificate of registration by paying a renewal fee.

(c) No optician may have more than two optician trainees under his or her supervision during any given period of time, nor shall any establishment employ more than two optician trainees for every full-time optician in its employment. An optician trainee must be under direct personal supervision of an optician, optometrist, or ophthalmologist. A supervisor shall provide direct personal supervision of an optician trainee, while the optician trainee is working, by being physically present for consultation or intervention on the premises where the trainee is working. Merely being available at another optical facility for consultation does not constitute direct personal supervision. (Added 1973, No. 174 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; amended 1989, No. 250 (Adj. Sess.), § 61; 1993, No. 190 (Adj. Sess.), § 5; 2005, No. 27, § 79; 2005, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 30.)