Board staff briefed members on implementation work after the Legislature passed and the governor signed the board’s sunset legislation (identified in the meeting as SB 776). Staff said the law is chaptered and will take effect in 2026, and that much of the implementation work will require changes to Breeze (the department’s online licensing platform) and to supporting regulations.

Staff identified implementation tasks already under way: amending every application form to make an email address a required field; removing a regulatory cap that limited mobile optometric office permits to 12 per permittee; and standardizing mobile optometric office reporting to an annual submission on or before January 1. Several other IT and regulatory updates tied to prior sunset reviews were also noted as unfinished business that must be corrected to avoid lingering confusion on the books (staff gave the example of a regulation still permitting the board to sponsor foreign graduates for a national exam even though statute had repealed that authority a decade earlier).

The board was told changes will include combining certain transaction steps for nonresident ophthalmic lens dispenser registration so a single Breeze transaction can complete a registration rather than two separate transactions. Staff also described upcoming Breeze updates already deployed: alignment of exam titles, updated license certificates to include the board logo and the board email address, and repair of a mobile permit reporting link that had been malfunctioning.

Staff warned that implementation includes two workstreams: IT/business‑process changes in Breeze and parallel regulatory changes (amendments to regulations to eliminate outdated language and to reflect statutory changes). Staff said these regulation packages will be developed with regulation counsel and will come before the board for approval.

Board members pressed staff about timelines and asked that implementation plans be presented in future meetings; staff confirmed they will return with proposed regulatory packages and IT change timelines.