Washington's Electrician Exam Rules Change November 20. The NEC Follows.

Washington's Department of Labor and Industries is scheduled to file the permanent version of a rule on October 20 that rewrites how the state examines electricians and electrical administrators and writes a new certification mandate for electric vehicle charging work into the state electrical code. On the department's published schedule, the rule takes effect November 20.

The proposal was filed as a CR-102 on July 14, 2026, and amends Chapter 296-46B of the Washington Administrative Code. It implements Second Substitute Senate Bill 5528, enacted as Chapter 233 of the 2025 session laws. L&I took testimony at a public hearing in Tumwater on August 26 and closed written comment the same day. The statute is already operative: anyone installing or maintaining the electrical components of electric vehicle supply equipment on a public works project in Washington must hold certification from the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program or a comparable nationally recognized program, unless the department finds that such training is not accessible to all journey-level electricians.

A second rulemaking is moving on a parallel track. Washington adopted the 2026 National Electrical Code by reference in November 2025 but set a delayed effective date of December 31, 2026, expressly to give stakeholders time to propose state amendments once the code was published. That review opened with a CR-101 in December 2025, advanced to a CR-102 on August 4, held its hearing on September 14, and is scheduled for permanent filing on November 17. L&I carried both items on its July 1 semi-annual rules development agenda under the same program contact.

The practical effect lands on commercial and industrial job sites in sequence. From November 20, the EVITP requirement sits in the administrative code rather than only in statute, which makes it an inspection and compliance question on public charging installations at transit yards, municipal fleet depots, and other public works. Six weeks later, on December 31, the 2026 NEC becomes the installation standard Washington inspectors enforce, with whatever state amendments are adopted in November riding on top of it. Plan review, submittals, and correction notices all shift to the new edition at once.

The licensing consequence is narrower but more permanent. Washington closed its trainee exception on July 1, 2026. The temporary path that let some trainees accrue general journey-level experience without registering as apprentices has expired, and future (01) certificate holders must come through a registered Washington apprenticeship program or an approved equivalent. The experience requirement behind the exam has not moved: 8,000 hours, of which at least 4,000 must be new commercial or industrial installation work, plus 96 hours of basic classroom instruction.

That leaves contractors bidding Washington public work tracking two credentials rather than one, an apprenticeship pipeline that no longer admits unregistered trainees, and a code edition change landing in the same quarter. All three dates fall before January.