A recognized court reporting school shall offer at least the following minimum prescribed course of study for not less than the hours specified in order to obtain and maintain board approval:
(a) Machine Shorthand or Voice Writing and transcription...........................................................2300 hours (1) The program shall include classroom lecture or non-lecture instruction in the mastery of making verbatim records of depositions, hearings, meetings, conventions and judicial proceedings, by means of machine shorthand writing or voice writing, and the accurate transcription of such proceedings.(2) Tests used to qualify students to sit for the CSR exam shall be transcribed under direct supervision. Schools may require all other tests to be transcribed under supervision.(3) When the machine shorthand student reaches a proficiency of 80 words per minute on unfamiliar material, the student shall be required to transcribe dictation from stenographic notes of varying difficulty (for the purposes of this subsection, "varying difficulty" shall mean content containing changing or differing degrees of complexity of vocabulary) and subject matter of a length equal to five minutes. When the voice writing student reaches a proficiency of 120 words per minute on unfamiliar material, the student shall be required to transcribe dictation from voice notes of varying difficulty and subject matter of a length equal to five minutes.(4) Individual dictation classes, other than theory classes, shall include only students whose tested reporting speeds are within the same 20-30 words per minute range on similar dictation material.(5) Students shall be provided the opportunity to read back from their stenographic or voice notes a minimum of one time each day.(6) Schools shall provide students with the opportunity to practice with school-approved speed-building material a minimum of one hour per day after school hours.(7) These hours may be reduced if a student is able to pass the qualifier exam defined in section 2412 of this chapter before having completed these hours.(8) When the voice writing student reaches a proficiency of reporting 200 words per minute on unfamiliar material, the student will be tested to determine that they cannot be heard from a distance of two feet away from where the student is reporting.(b) English...........................................................240 hours A minimum of 150 of these hours shall be in classroom lecture or non-lecture instruction. Instruction in the fundamentals of English grammar and usage with emphasis on sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and vocabulary development.
(c) Medical...........................................................120 hours A minimum of 75 of these hours shall be in classroom lecture or non-lecture instruction. Instruction, dictation, and transcription in human anatomy, including definitions of medical prefixes and suffixes and terminology.
(d) Legal...........................................................150 hours A minimum of 100 of these hours shall be in classroom lecture or non-lecture instruction. Instruction, dictation, and transcription material shall cover diverse subject areas including, but not limited to, the following:
(1) Legal Terminology. The general concepts of the law of real and personal property, torts, contracts, probate, family, business, criminal, evidence, and civil procedure.
(2) Court and Deposition Procedures.(A) The responsibility of the reporter in the courtroom, including the reporting of jury impanelment, opening statements, testimony, objections, summations, jury instructions, approaching the bench, in camera proceedings, and reading back to the jury.(B) The responsibility of the reporter in depositions, including administering oaths, the reporting of testimony and objections, reporting with an interpreter, reading back, directing (citing) the witness, certifying questions, and marking exhibits.(C) Management of pertinent records, including stenographic or voice notes, work sheets, financial records, daily reporting jobs, exhibits and transcripts.(3) Ethics of the Court Reporting Profession. The professional responsibilities of a reporter, including, but not limited to, those outlined in the Professional Standards of Practice.
(4) The California law and regulations and California Rules of Court affecting Certified Shorthand Reporters.(e) Keyboarding...........................................................45 words per minute net A course to prepare students to achieve a typing proficiency of 45 words per minute.
(f) Transcript Preparation...........................................................25 hours (1) Instruction in the current methods for preparing and producing a complete transcript, including, but not limited to, equipment and formatting standards.(2) Instruction in the preparation of transcripts, including covers, appearance pages, index pages, speaker identification, certificates, and exhibits, and the preparation of work sheets.(3) Development of proofreading skills in order to produce an accurate, verbatim transcript.(g) Resource Materials...........................................................5 hours Instruction in accessing resource materials including via the internet to provide the student with the ability to use such materials, including, but not limited to, case citations, codes, almanacs, directories, street atlases, and dictionaries.
(h) Apprenticeship Training...........................................................60 hours (1) Before the student attains a proficiency of 120 words per minute, the student shall observe a minimum of five hours of proceedings in a court of record. After attaining a proficiency of 120 words per minute and before attaining a proficiency of 180 words per minute, the student shall observe a minimum of five hours of proceedings in a court of record.
(2) When the student reaches a proficiency of 180 words per minute, the student shall sit in and report with a certified shorthand reporter 40 hours of court proceedings or depositions of which a minimum of 10 hours shall be in depositions and a minimum of 10 hours shall be in court. A maximum of 10 hours of this training may be gained in reporting mock proceedings sponsored by a law firm or by a law school.
(3) The student shall be required to transcribe and submit to the school for approval a minimum of 20 consecutive pages from stenographic or voice notes taken at a court proceeding and a minimum of 20 consecutive pages from stenographic or voice notes taken at a deposition in compliance with the Minimum Transcript Format Standards.(4) After attaining a speed of 160 words per minute, the student shall receive a minimum of 10 hours additional instruction to review the following categories: (A) Court and deposition procedures(B) Professional practice and ethics, including the Professional Standards of Practice(C) Legal research and the California Codes(D) Job preparation skills including professional appearance and etiquette, attitude and demeanor, interviewing skills, and resume writing.(5) Schools shall document that they provide students with the opportunity to interact with professional court reporters at least four times per calendar year, to offer mentoring, counseling, guest speakers, job shadowing, etc.(i) Technology...........................................................60 hours (1) The student shall demonstrate knowledge of basic computer terminology and the ability to manage the computer operating system outside the specialized Computer Aided Transcription (CAT) software, including, but not limited to, functions such as deleting, moving, and renaming files, and creating electronic files.(2) The student shall demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of litigation support, Web streaming, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), Best Practices for the use of Backup Audio Media (BAM), and captioning.(3) The student shall demonstrate the ability to produce a transcript from the student's own stenographic or voice notes in compliance with the Minimum Transcript Format Standards.(4) The student shall spend a minimum of 10 hours in realtime writing. The student shall also demonstrate the ability to set up and connect the components to provide interactive realtime. Interactive realtime is defined as the student outputting to a second computer.
(5) The student shall demonstrate knowledge of how to prepare an electronic file from the student's own stenographic or voice notes. TOTAL MINIMUM PRESCRIBED ACADEMIC HOURS ...........................................................660 hours
(j) A recognized court reporting school may grant equivalent proficiency for one or more classes to applicants who have provided proof of prior educational or practical experience which is directly related to classes described in Section 2411(a) of this chapter.(k) A recognized court reporting school shall provide access to a library of reference materials. This access shall be provided on campus. On-campus access may include online access. These materials shall include at least the following: (1) Current reference materials shall include at a minimum: Business & Professions Code, Sections 8000 through 8051; Title 16, California Code of Regulations, Division 24, Sections 2400 through 2481; Code of Civil Procedure, Sections 2021 and 2025; Government Code, Chapter 5, Article 9, commencing with section 69941; and California Rules of Court.(2) Current reference materials shall include at a minimum: California Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure, Evidence Code, Government Code, Penal Code, Welfare and Institutions Code, Health and Safety Code, Probate Code, Family Code and Labor Code; a world atlas, a world almanac, a local street atlas, standard and specialty dictionaries, drug manufacturer reference, and directory of attorneys. In addition, the Board recommends that the school also maintains current professional association publications and current publications including at least one daily newspaper and magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Money, Inc., Fortune, etc.
(l) Whenever there has been a change in school status as set forth in Section 8027(f) of the Business and Professions Code, the change or changes as specified shall be reported to the board as required by Business and Professions Code Section 8027(f). Such report shall be in writing on the letterhead of the school or other stationery setting forth the current name, address and telephone number of the school, and shall be signed by the responsible program manager, the school owner, the responsible corporate officer if the school is a corporation or the responsible partner if the school is a partnership.(m) All annual statements filed with the board by court reporting schools in compliance with Section 8027 (l) of the Business and Professions Code shall be in writing on the letterhead of the school or other stationery setting forth the current name, address and telephone number of the school and shall have enclosed or attached thereto the current school catalog as specified by Section 8027 (l).(n) Each court reporting school shall advise all applicants to its court reporting program of the existence and purpose of the board, including the board's address, telephone number, and Web site which shall be prominently displayed in any catalogs or Web sites which include course offerings.(o) For the purposes of this Division, "voice writing" shall have the meaning set forth in Section 8017.5(b) of the Code.Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 16, § 2411
Note: Authority cited: Section 8007, Business and Professions Code. Reference: Sections 8007, 8017.5, 8020 and 8027, Business and Professions Code.
Note: Authority cited: Section 8007 Business and Professions Code. Reference: Sections 8007, 8020 and 8027, Business and Professions Code.
1. Amendment of subsections (b), (c), and (d)(1) filed 5-18-79; effective thirtieth day thereafter (Register 79, No. 20). For prior history, see Register 74, No. 34; 70, No. 19; 62, No. 11.
2. Amendment filed 9-22-83; effective thirtieth day thereafter (Register 83, No. 39). CROSS REFERENCE: Section 2419.
3. Amendment of subsections (a) and (b) and new subsections (c)-(f) filed 5-1-89; operative 5-31-89 (Register 89, No. 18).
4. Amendment of section heading, repealer of first paragraph and subsections (a)(5), (a)(6), (a)(8), and (a)(10), subsection renumbering, and amendment of subsections (a)(1)-(a)(7) and (f) filed 1-8-93; operative 2-8-93 (Register 93, No. 2).
5. Amendment filed 1-20-2000; operative 2-19-2000 (Register 2000, No. 3).
6. Amendment of subsection (a)(1)(A) filed 12-17-2001 as an emergency; operative 1-1-2002 (Register 2001, No. 51). A Certificate of Compliance must be transmitted to OAL by 5-1-2002 or emergency language will be repealed by operation of law on the following day.
7. Certificate of Compliance as to 12-17-2001 order transmitted to OAL 4-9-2002 and filed 5-21-2002 (Register 2002, No. 21).
8. Amendment filed 12-9-2002; operative 1-8-2002 (Register 2002, No. 50).
9. Amendment of section and Note filed 8-31-2011; operative 9-30-2011 (Register 2011, No. 35).
10. Amendment of section and NOTE filed 12-18-2023; operative 4/1/2024 (Register 2023, No. 51).