1. Who is ICOR?

For over 50 years, the Interorganizational Council on Regulation (ICOR) has served as a collaborative forum for national regulatory organizations that oversee the professions of architecture, engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, and surveying. Founded in 1972, ICOR is composed of four member organizations:

• Council for Interior Design Qualification (CIDQ)
• Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB)
• National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB)
• National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES)

Each organization is a nonprofit association whose members are the U.S. and, in some cases, Canadian licensing boards for their respective professions. In many jurisdictions, these boards are consolidated and oversee multiple design disciplines.

ICOR’s collective mission is to promote and support sound licensure policy and regulatory systems that protect the public’s health, safety, and welfare. The organizations within ICOR collaborate on shared challenges, including strengthening licensing board effectiveness, advancing best practices in professional regulation, and reinforcing the public protection role of each profession.

Through ongoing collaboration, ICOR also works to harmonize policies and procedures across disciplines to reduce regulatory friction and support consistent, competency-based licensure systems. This includes initiatives to modernize regulatory frameworks, clarify professional qualifications, and promote transparent, defensible decision-making by licensing boards.

2. What is the ICOR Practice Overlap Guidance?

The Practice Overlap Guidance is a resource developed collaboratively by ICOR’s four national regulatory bodies. It provides a defensible framework for identifying where professional competencies across architecture, engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, and surveying overlap—and where they remain distinct. Grounded in shared regulatory inputs, the guidance supports fair, consistent, and competency-based regulation across jurisdictions.

3. Why was this guidance developed?

Across jurisdictions, inconsistencies in regulatory language and varied interpretations of “incidental practice” have led to confusion, professional conflict, and barriers to practice. The guidance was created to clarify how competencies align across professions and to help design professionals, licensing boards, code officials, and the public make better-informed decisions about professional qualifications based on consistent national standards.

4. Why was ICOR the right group to develop this resource?

ICOR is uniquely positioned to lead this effort because its member organizations are national regulatory bodies, not professional societies. Their shared mandate is public protection through the regulation of design professions. The effort was not about advancing the interests of any single profession, but about providing a clear, competency-based understanding of overlapping and distinct responsibilities across regulated practice.

5. Why were professional societies not included in this project?

While professional societies were not formal partners in this initiative, many of the subject matter experts involved in the project are active members of their respective societies. Their participation reflected their individual expertise—not society representation.  Because the project was regulatory in nature, focusing on public protection and licensure standards—not advocacy — it required an approach grounded in regulatory frameworks. The goal was to produce objective, licensure-based guidance to help regulatory boards clarify qualifications in areas of overlapping responsibility.

6. What inputs were used to develop this guidance?

The guidance was developed through a rigorous, multi-step, consensus-based process involving:

• Model definitions of practice used across the professions developed by the respective ICOR member organization
• Education standards and curricula established by each profession’s accrediting body
• Licensure and certification examination domains, which identify the competencies each profession is tested on
• Structured experience categories and practice areas required for licensure
• Results from a survey of ICOR member boards, identifying real-world regulatory challenges related to incidental practice

Subject matter experts from all five professions participated in a detailed analysis through cross-profession subcommittees, using these inputs to determine areas of overlap and differentiation. This ensures the guidance is valid, defensible, and consistent across all five disciplines. A complete list of professional input references is included in the guidance document as an appendix.

7. How should regulatory boards use this guidance?

This resource is intended to serve as a reference tool for regulatory boards in evaluating scope-related questions, resolving overlap issues, and guiding updates to statutes, rules, and policies. It is not a prescriptive standard or legal requirement, but rather a support for consistent, informed decision-making that reflects demonstrated competencies.

8. Is this guidance legally binding?

No. The ICOR Practice Overlap Guidance is not a statutory or legal mandate. It is a non-binding reference developed to inform discussions at the state or provincial level about practice qualifications, especially in areas of overlapping responsibility. Jurisdictions remain responsible for interpreting and applying their own laws and regulations.

9. How will this benefit the design professions?

This guidance fosters a shared understanding of where design professionals are qualified to contribute, based on licensure standards. It supports:

• Greater regulatory clarity and fairness
• More consistent recognition of competencies across jurisdictions
• Strengthened credibility and value of licensure
• Opportunities for better interdisciplinary collaboration
• Reduced regulatory friction when incidental practice occurs

Although not created to promote any single profession, the framework may also help identify areas where certain professions have been under-recognized despite their qualifications.

10. What is the long-term goal of this guidance?

Over time, the ICOR Practice Overlap Guidance may serve as a foundation for regulatory or legislative improvements that recognize professionals based on demonstrated competencies. A future goal is to collaborate with the appropriate stakeholders on potential updates that will help clarify which professionals are qualified to take responsibility for specific types of work. These updates could improve recognition of qualified professionals and reduce unnecessary limitations on practice.

11. How will this resource be maintained and updated over time?

ICOR is committed to maintaining the Practice Overlap Guidance as a living resource that evolves in response to real-world use. Once released, users will be able to submit feedback through an online survey. During the initial member-only distribution, the document and survey link will be available through each ICOR organization’s website for access by its respective members.

When the resource is launched publicly, the survey link will also be posted on the ICOR website at www.icor-reg.org so that a broader range of stakeholders can provide input. Members and users are encouraged to share what is working well, what may require clarification, and what additional practice areas may need to be addressed in future versions of the resource.

ICOR will periodically review all collected feedback and update the guidance to reflect new information, clarify language, and ensure continued relevance across jurisdictions. All updates will be consensus-based and led by ICOR’s regulatory leadership, with a continued focus on public protection and regulatory best practices.

12. How will the Practice Overlap Guidance be distributed?

The Practice Overlap Guidance will be released in phases to ensure that our member boards have adequate time to review and understand the resource before it is shared more broadly. The initial distribution will occur within the membership of the four ICOR organizations: CIDQ, CLARB, NCARB, and NCEES. In early 2026, ICOR will share the guidance with the staff and volunteer leadership of the professional societies associated with the five design disciplines, followed by distribution to a wider audience within each profession.

During this initial period, recipients are asked not to share the document outside their boards. This will allow members the opportunity to review the material, understand its intent, and ask questions before it is released publicly. After this introductory phase, the guidance will be made publicly available on the ICOR website at www.icor-reg.org.

13. Who should I contact with questions or for additional information?

If you have questions about the Practice Overlap Guidance or need additional information, please contact the staff representative from your ICOR member organization:

• CIDQ: Matt Barusch – mbarusch@cidq.org
• CLARB: Veronica Meadows – vmeadows@clarb.org
• NCARB: Josh Batkin – jbatkin@ncarb.org
• NCEES: Josh Twitty – jtwitty@ncees.org

These representatives can provide clarification, answer questions about the resource, and assist with member access to the survey or document.