The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) announced that all 55 state licensing boards have now retired the five-year rolling clock policy, which limited the validity of the Architect Registration Examination^® (ARE^®). The final jurisdiction adopted regulations to replace the rolling clock policy with NCARB’s new score validity policy this spring. 

NCARB officially retired the rolling clock policy—which placed a five-year expiration on passed divisions of the national licensing exam for architects—in May 2023. However, some licensing boards had formalized the rolling clock within their rules and regulations, requiring regulatory or statutory rule changes before the new policy could be implemented. Since then, NCARB has been working with the 55 jurisdictional licensing boards to help align their requirements with NCARB’s and ensure the adoption of the new score validity policy. The score validity policy recognizes successful scores for the current and immediately preceding exam versions (ARE 5.0 and ARE 4.0, respectively) rather than recognizing passed exams only during a fixed time period. 

“This milestone reflects the incredible collaboration between NCARB and the 55 U.S. licensing boards to remove unnecessary barriers while upholding our shared commitment to protecting the public’s health, safety, and welfare,” said NCARB CEO Mike Armstrong. 

As part of the rolling clock policy’s retirement, NCARB reinstated all previously expired exam divisions of the most recent past version of the exam. Many candidates who had exam credits reinstated had since stopped pursuing licensure, with thousands of impacted candidates having been inactive for 7-8 years. As of May 2025, NCARB has reinstated approximately 7,000 ARE credits to over 3,400 candidates. Over 200 impacted candidates have since completed the exam, and another nearly 1,500 are in progress.  

The rolling clock represents just one aspect of the licensure process that NCARB is re-evaluating. Through its Pathways to Practice initiative launched in 2023, NCARB is working to expand licensure access by creating a more accessible licensure model outside of the traditional approaches to education, experience, and examination. This approach positions NCARB to work with its member licensing boards to create more pathways to licensure without compromising the standards needed to protect the public.

Learn more about NCARB’s Pathways to Practice initiative.