AGENCY POLICIES

To follow are the official policies of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors' website. The mission of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (Board) is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the people in Texas by ensuring that the practice of engineering and surveying in the state is carried out only by those persons who are proven to be qualified and by regulating the practice of Professional Engineering and Surveying in Texas. The agency website is used as a continuation and means of communicating this critical mission.

Physical Location Accessibility Website Accessibility Cookies E-Mail Linking to TBPELS Pages Linking to Sites Other Than Our Own Security Privacy Social Media Policy User Profiles Online Payments Webmaster Contact Information

Physical Location Accessibility

Two handicap access parking spots are available in the rear of the TBPELS facility. One spot is van accessible. In addition, a wheel chair ramp is available. Signs will direct the user to the parking area.

Website Accessibility

The Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors is committed to making its Web sites accessible to all users and we have included several features designed to improve accessibility for users with disabilities. Some of these features are described below.

Images on the site contain 'alt tags' with descriptions of the image, which aid users who listen to the content of the site by using a screen reader, rather than reading the site. Major reports, forms and other special publications are made available on the agency's Web site. In most cases that are several versions of the same document to choose from. To improve the accessibility of our Web site we test any major redesign with several screen readers and other Web tools. The results of these reviews have been incorporated into the website. We welcome comments on how to improve the site's accessibility for users with disabilities.

If you use assistive technology and the format of any material on our Web sites interfere with your ability to access the information, please use the following point of contact for assistance. To enable us to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please indicate the nature of your accessibility problem, the preferred format in which to receive the material, the Web address of the requested material, and your contact information.

This web site has been engineered using the recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This web site meets the definition of generally accessible Internet site as defined in Texas Administrative Code Section6 206 - State Web Sites. Additional information about accessibility programs in Texas is available from the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities.

Cookies

What are cookies? A cookie is a small piece of information that is sent to your browser when you access a website. The use of cookies is an industry standard and they are found at most major websites. There are two kinds of cookies. A session cookie is a line of text that is stored temporarily in your computer's RAM. It is never written to a computer's drive and it is destroyed as soon as you close your browser. A persistent cookie is a more permanent line of text that gets saved by your browser to a file on your hard drive. Depending on your browser settings, you may receive notification that a site is requesting cookie information, possibly with an expiration date. Persistent cookies have a future expiration date. Session cookies have no date associated with them. TBPELS uses cookies to facilitate your use of our site, we do not collect personal information about you and the cookie will be destroyed as soon as you exit your browser. There is no information stored on your computer and no unauthorized files are written onto your disk drives. The kind of cookies we use are called "session cookies." They help you use our website interactively and are destroyed as soon as you close your browser. These "session cookies" do not collect information about you, but only about your browser "session." The cookie makes it easier for you to use the dynamic features of these web pages, without having to provide the same information as you move from one page to another. To protect your privacy, be sure to close your browser completely after you have finished conducting business with any website that uses cookies. If you are concerned about the potential use of information gathered from your computer by cookies, you can set your browser to prompt you before it accepts a cookie. Most Internet browsers have settings that let you identify and/or reject cookies.

E-mail

If you send an electronic mail message with a question or comment that contains personally identifying information, we will only use the personally identifiable information to respond to your request.  We may redirect your message to another government agency or person who is in a better position to answer your question. In accordance with the provisions of Government Code §441, we consider e-mail messages to be official state records. E-mail messages are managed for their content in accordance with the agency's authorized records retention schedule. However, E-mail addresses are considered confidential and are strictly used for agency correspondence and are not releasable to the public via an open records request nor are they releasable for marketing purposes.

Linking to Site Pages

The following link to the Texas Administrative Code outlines the state policies for linking to, the use of, or copying information from state agency Web sites. TAC §206.54

Linking to Sites Other Than Our Own

Our Web site contains links to Web sites other than our own. Even though we attempt to ensure the accuracy and usefulness of our own Web site, we make no claims about the accuracy of materials and Web sites other than our own. Links to other websites are provided for informational purposes only. The direct link access to these sites does not imply endorsement or approval of the information, products or services offered at those sites. TBPELS does not officially review any information or products available on the linked sites.

The Board reserves the right to deny links to other sites if it determines that a web site contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the mission of the Board or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth above or in the sections set out below. Every link request must undergo this review to determine its relevance and appropriateness to the Board.

Links are approved for the Board website based on the criteria that the external web site corresponds with the purpose of the Board and the site content is not primarily a:

  • Commercial site, which charges a fee for products or services online;
  • Site that exhibits hate, bias, discrimination, pornography, libelous or otherwise defamatory content;
  • Site that advocates or promotes the use of alcohol or tobacco;
  • Site that lobbies, advocates, or advances the policies and priorities of a particular industry, organization or enterprise. This includes sites of non-profit organizations;
  • Site belonging to or supporting a political affiliation; or
  • Site that furthers the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office.

Security Policy

One of our highest priorities is to ensure your privacy and peace of mind by employing industry standard security. When using the online payment application ECHO (Electronic Cash Handling Online), you will use a self-selected Login Name/Password to log in. Connections to our website are secured with at least TLS 1.2 and modern industry standard ciphers.

Privacy Policy

The TBPELS maintains this web site as a public service. The following is the privacy policy for this site:

  1. Our site uses cookies to save passwords so that visitors do not have to re-enter passwords upon revisiting our site. Note: A cookie file contains unique information a web site can use to track such things as passwords, lists of pages you've visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific page or to identify your session at a particular web site. A cookie is often used in commercial sites to identify the items selected for a specific shopping cart application.
  2. Our site's registration forms and/or surveys may require users to give us contact information (e.g. name, email address) and unique identifiers (e.g. social security numbers). The customer's contact information is used to contact the visitor when necessary. Unique identifiers are collected for use in our internal licensing system.
  3. If you send us an e-mail with a question or comment that contains personally identifying information, or fill out a form that e-mails us this information, we will use the personally-identifiable information only to respond to your request.
  4. Our licensees/registrants are automatically opted in to email communications and can opt out by updating their online profile or contacting us at info@pels.texas.gov
  5. This site contains links to other sites. The TBPELS is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.
  6. For site management functions, information is collected for analysis and statistical purposes. This information is not reported or used in any manner that would reveal personally identifiable information. Nor will this information be released to any outside parties unless the TBPELS is required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings. We use Google's site statistics to summarize what information is being accessed by users - collected information is anonymized and aggregated

Social Media Policy

Linking TBPELS may make available content to third party sites. These sites are not official TBPELS web sites and therefore, the external sites' policies apply. Please refer to the TBPELS Linking Policies above for more information.

Privacy Only public information will be posted on social media websites. If communication involves or requires private information, communication will be redirected through other appropriate channels. This information may be subject to public information requests. For more information about public information requests, please refer to the TBPELS Public Information Policies Page.

No personally identifiable information will be posted on TBPELS social media sites by TBPELS personnel. TBPELS is not responsible for content posted by others to TBPELS social media sites. Individuals that enter personal information on social media sites do so at their own risk; TBPELS is not responsible for the public display of such private information. TBPELS may remove postings to its social media sites that contain personally identifiable information, but neither TBPELS, nor its licensors or contractors are responsible for any damages caused by delays in such removal.

Public Information and Record Retention Social media sites may contain communications sent to or received by state employees, and such communications are therefore public records subject to State Records Retention requirements. These retention requirements apply regardless of the form of the record (digital text, photos, audio, or video, for example). To the extent that the third party records retention policies are inconsistent with the Texas State Record Retention Schedule, TBPELS will put forth reasonable efforts to archive copies of social media content in order to meet State records retention obligations.

Terms of Service TBPELS social media sites are third party sites and have terms of service and policies that are not governed by TBPELS or the State of Texas. These third party sites are not official TBPELS web sites and the third party's website terms of service and policies apply. The terms of service for the social media sites used by TBPELS are: Twitter and Facebook.

Content of Social Media Posts All published TBPELS social media content is subject to monitoring. This content may take the form of digital text or photography images.

User-generated posts will be rejected or removed if possible when the content of a post:

  • is off-subject or out of context
  • contains obscenity or material that appeals to the prurient interest
  • contains personal identifying information or sensitive personal information, as defined in Tex. Code Bus & Com. Sec. 521.001 et. seq.
  • contains offensive terms that target protected classes
  • is threatening, harassing or discriminatory
  • incites or promotes violence or illegal activities
  • contains information that reasonably could compromise public safety
  • advertises or promotes a commercial product or service, or any entity or individual
  • promotes or endorses political campaigns or candidates

Accessibility: Please view the following alternative pages for accessibility assistance. Twitter - To accommodate TBPELS users with disabilities, www.accessibletwitter.com is the suggested alternative access to the TBPELS Twitter profile. Facebook - To accommodate TBPELS users with disabilities, there are two suggested alternatives to access the TBPELS Facebook Fan page:

  1. The Facebook mobile site http://m.facebook.com is a suggested accessible alternative to the original TBPELS Facebook page.
  2. TBPELS will post the same content to Twitter and Facebook. Therefore, http://www.accessibletwitter.com will serve as an accessible alternative.

User Profile Information On some of our web pages we offer interactive forms that let you view or change contact information (such as phone number or address). This information is considered Open Record under Texas Government Code, Chapter 552 and is releasable to the public or businesses offering services to the public such as marketing establishments. You can ensure the security of your information by following these steps: · Never reveal your Login Name and Password to anyone. · Change your password frequently using the Change Password function. · Always log off before leaving your computer. · Always log off of this site before accessing other Web sites.

Online Payments TBPELS coordinates online payments for PE License Renewals, Firm Registration Renewals and PE Applications through our online system ECHO (Electronic Cash Handling Online). TBPELS contracts with the state mandated payment processor NIC for this service. Thus, TBPELS does not collect or store sensitive credit card information.

Webmaster Contact Information If you have any questions about our Web policies and disclaimer statement, the practices of our site, or your dealings with our Web site, please contact: