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Frequently Asked Questions
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I've forgotten my password.
The system can instantly and automatically send your password to the email address you entered when you registered. Go to the password reminder page and enter the email address you used when you registered. Your password will be immediately emailed to you.
If you cannot remember your User Name, did not enter a valid email addres when registering, or no longer have access to the email box you used when registering, click here.
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I'm having a problem starting courses, submitting courses, or getting courses recorded as complete.
Click here to read instructions, "How to Take A Course".
Your Internet browser must be properly set up to take online education. First, your browser must have "cookies" enabled. Click here to see how to set up your browser to properly handle cookies. It is also preferable to set your browser to allow your computer to communicate freely with the BailCE.com computer. The easiest way to do this is top make BailCE a trusted site in your browser. Click here to see how to set your browser to make BailCE a trusted site.
Your computer must also have a sound card and speakers installed and working properly so you can hear the instructor's lecture. If you are taking courses in a noisy office you might consider using headphones instead of speakers.
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How long are the courses?
BailCE offers many courses so that you can choose the subjects that you need the most. Each course is worth one hour of CE credit, and will take you at least 60 minutes to complete. You must complete at least six of these one hour courses to complete the six hour continuing education requirement for relicensure. The Department of Insurance mandates that you spend the required amount of time in the course, and if you fail to spend sufficient time the system will not give you credit for completing the course.
The system will prevent you from going too fast -- the "Next" button will only become active after the instructor has stopped speaking. If your mouse is over the "Next" button before the instructor stops speaking, you may need to move your mouse off the button for the button to become active.
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How do I launch a course? How do I restart a course that I left without completing?
After registering and purchasing a subscription, log in and you'll be in your Personal Journal. To launch a new course click on the "Take Courses" link. You will go to the Course Catalog. Choose a course and then click on the "Go" link.
If you have started a course and left before it was complete, you will see a notice in the upper right portion of your Journal. To restart that course where you left, click on the link in that notice.
You are allowed to have only one course in progress at any time. If you left a course before completion, it was saved and a notice is in your Journal. If you start that course from the Course Catalog instead of the notice in your Journal, you will lose your place and will have to start the course back at the first slide.
If the system has saved a course you have left (your course "in progress"), and instead of launching that course from the notice link you launch a different course from the Course Catalog, you will lose your place in the first course. It's pretty simple -- you can only have one course in progress at any time. Each time you launch a course from the course catalog you are starting a new course and erasing any other course you may have in progress.
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Do I have to take all of the required six hours at one time?
No. There is no requirement that you take all six hours at one sitting. Our courses are each one hour in length and are designed to enable you to earn your continuing education credits one hour at a time. This makes earning your CE much more convenient. Whenever you have an hour available, you can take a CE course.
If you'd like, you can do all six one-hour courses one after the other and be done that day. Or, you can do one each day until you have six completed. You control when you do your courses -- just remember you need at least one hour to complete each course, and you need to complete at least six courses before June 30 to meet the continuing education requirement for license renewal.
If you stop in the middle of a course, the system remembers where you were and saves your place. When you log back in you will see a notice in the upper right hand portion of your Journal indicating that you have a course in progress. Click on the link to go back to the same place in that course where you were when you stopped. You are only allowed to have one course in progress at any time. If you restart the saved course from the course catalog, you will lose your place and will have to start over at page one. If you have a course in progress and start a different course before finishing the course you already have in progress, you will lose your place in the saved course and will have to start that course again at page one.
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Do I have to complete a course in one sitting?
If you leave a course without finishing it or if you lose your Internet connection, the BailCE.com system will remember where you were. When you next log in, you will see a notice in the upper right portion of your Journal. Click the link and you'll start that course where you left off.
Remember that you can only have one course active at any time, so if you start another course without finishing the first, you will lose your place in the first course and will have to start the first course over from page one. Also, if you restart a course that is in progress from the course catalog instead of from the notice in your Journal, you will lose your place and will have to start at page one.
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When I try to print my course completion certificates I get an error message.
Your browser must have javascript enabled in order to print your course completion certificates. Click Here for instructions to enable javascript in Internet Explorer.
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I launched a course and then, before finishing that course, launched another course. When I go back to the first course I get an error message. Why?
As noted in the instructions, in the course catalog, and on the course launch page, you can only launch one course at a time for credit. When you launched the second simultaneous course the system invalidated the first course. To prevent this from happening, launch and complete only one course at a time.
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When I completed a course I got a message that I did not receive credit. Why?
Department of Insurance regulations require you to spend at least 60 minutes in each one hour course and answer all exam questions in order to receive CE credit. You may receive this error message if something has happened to compromise the integrity of this requirement.
You may pause in or stop and restart all of our courses. If you are going to be gone from a course for more than a few minutes, it is best to close the course and then log in again and restart the course where you left using the link in the notice in the upper right hand portion of your Journal. (The system will save your place if you leave a course, but to go back where you were you must relaunch that course from the notice link in your Journal and not from the course catalog).
Our system has multiple security features that ensure students spend the required time in each course, view all of the course material, and complete all exam questions before they receive credit for a course completion. You may only have one course in progress at any one time. If you start one course, leave it open, then start another course the work completed on the first course is voided. You may continue working on the first course but you will receive no credit because the prior required work on that course has been voided. Using multiple simultaneous computers, multiple simultaneous browsers, or multiple simultaneous browser windows are examples of what may cause the system to return this error message.
Simply remember that you can only have one course in progress at any one time, that you must spend the required time on each slide and complete all exam questions and you will never encounter any of these problems.
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When is my course completed?
The system automatically records the time and date when you successfully complete a course. To successfully complete a course, you must spend the required amount of time in the course material (at least 60 minutes per CE hour) and complete the open-book test questions found in the course. The completion time and date are printed on your course completion certificate.
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What is the Journal?
When you register, the BailCE.com system automatically creates your Personal Journal. When you log in, you'll go right to your Journal. From your Journal you can click on the "Take Courses" link to go to the catalog and launch courses. Your Journal also tracks all of the courses you have completed and allows you to print course completion certificates and duplicates. You may also update your registration information using a link in your Journal.
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What do I have to do to renew my Bail Agent License?
Please click here to check the bail agent license requirements at the California Department of Insurance website. If you have questions, you can also call the CDI Producer Licensing section at 800-967-9331 (916-492-3035).
There are two basic steps to renew your bail agent license:
1) pay the renewal fees
2) complete 6 hours of approved continuing education
You must submit your renewal form and fees to CDI prior to June 30 of each year. Your renewal form and fees (for bail agents, currently $72.00 per surety company) must be mailed to: DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE, P.O. BOX 311, SACRAMENTO, CA 95812-0311. Be sure to write your bail agent number on your check to prevent delays. Click here to fill out and print the California Application to Renew Bail License.
You must also complete at least six hours of continuing education each year, and all six hours of continuing education must be completed no later than June 30. We will be sure to report your course completions to CDI in time for your renewal, but you must be sure to complete all six hours before midnight on June 30.
If you fail to submit your renewal form and fees or fail to complete your continuing education prior to June 30, you are effectively no longer a bail agent as of July 1 and cannot legally transact business at that time. There is no grace period. CDI may require you to pay penalty fees (double the normal fees) if you do not reapply and complete your CE by the June 30 deadline. The consequences are unpleasant and the prevention is easy, so we highly recommend you act prior to these deadlines to prevent any problems.
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How often can I take the online courses? Can I take a course more than once?
Your annual subscription entitles you to take as many courses as you like from the time you purchase it until Midnight on the next June 30th. Please remember that the California Department of Insurance will provide you credit for each course only once in each license period. When you have completed a course, the BailCE system will display a lock next to the course in your course catalog to prevent you from erroneously taking a course a second time in that same license year.
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Are these course approved by the Department of Insurance? Will the Department of Insurance accept these courses when I renew my license?
CE3000 is approved by the California Department of Insurance as a continuing education provider for bail agents (Provider ID Number 91241), and we're approved to deliver courses over the Internet. Each of our courses are individually approved for continuing education credit by the Department of Insurance. You will find the individual course approval number on the course description page and it will also be printed on your course completion certificate.
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What happens at the end of my licensing period? What is the Archive?
On June 30 of each year, all of the courses you've completed in the prior licensing period will be sent to your Archive, and the Certificates page of your Journal will be clean and ready for you to begin completing courses for the new licensing period -- no confusing which courses were taken in which licensing period. You may always see the courses you've completed in prior licensing periods by clicking on the Archive link in your Journal.
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Do you report course completions to the Department of Insurance? Do I have to print the course completion certificate?
All approved providers of continuing education to insurance agents in California (including bail agents) must report course completions to the California Department of Insurance (CDI), and so of course we do report your successful course completions to the Department of Insurance. While the law gives us thirty days to report your completions, we send course completions to the Department more often than required and the Department uploads our data into their database upon receipt. You can confirm that your course completions have been reported to the Department of Insurance online. Go to our Resources Page page and click on the Check on your California Bail Agent License Status Online link. Enter your name and then click on your license number to see your current license status. Scroll down and click on the Continuing Education button to see if your courses have been properly reported to the Department (remember it may take a few days after you complete your courses before they will appear in the CDI database.)
We are also required to provide you a course completion certificate, and you are required to print and retain that certificate for at least five years. We therefore recommend you print each course completion certificate and keep them all in a safe place in the event you are audited by CDI.
While you are required to print and hold onto the certificates, you do not have to send them to the Department of Insurance. You must send in your renewal form and renewal fees before June 30 of each year, but you do not have to send in your course completion certificates.
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What is a subscription?
Instead of purchasing courses one at a time, on BailCE you purchase a subscription that will allow you unlimited access to all of the courses in our bail agent continuing education course catalog for the current licensing year (through June 30) for only $99. You will find new courses will be added throughout the year in many subjects, written by experienced and interesting authors. You are required to complete at least six of these courses each license period to meet California's 6-hour CE requirement for renewing your bail agent license.
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What do I do if I lose my certificate?
You may print one original course completion certificate at any time using the print button in your journal. You may print a duplicate using the same button. Duplicate certificates have the same information as an original certificate but the word "duplicate" is printed across them. A duplicate certificate is as valid as the original.
For security and auditing purposes, each certificate has a unique serial number printed on it to prove that you were the person who completed that course and earned the CE credit. The Department of Insurance can audit these certificates using the unique serial number.
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How can I contact Customer Service?
You can contact Customer Service via email or telephone. We recommend email because we can usually respond to you faster and in most cases give you more specific information in response to your question. Our offices are closed after regular business hours and on weekends, but we do monitor email "after hours".
Email: Contact Customer Service
Phone: 916-923-3334 or 877-563-3330
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Can I take any of the courses? I'm a new bail agent and some courses are marked Intermediate or Journeyman.
Any California bail agent can take any of the one hour courses in our catalog for credit toward relicensing. We try to offer courses for agents at all levels of experience, and use the ranking system to let you know which courses might be of more interest to your experience level. There is no reason a new agent can't take an Intermediate or Journeyman-level course. After all, isn't continuing education supposed to stretch your knowledge and teach you something new? Experienced agents will benefit from Basic courses to help them brush up on important foundation material. And, there's no stigma to taking a Basic course -- there is some really good information in these courses that even the most experienced agent will find useful.
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I have a question about course material. How can I contact the instructor?
If you have a question about course material, you can contact an instructor through our Resources page. Click here to go to the Resources page. Instructors cannot answer questions about registration, group sales, refunds, or technical problems. For answers to these or other questions not related to the course material, contact BailCE directly through our About Us page.
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What is your refund policy?
You may request a refund for a subscription at any time after registering, purchasing, or viewing a course. Refunds may not be granted after completing a course. Courses for which refunds have been granted will not be reported to the Department of Insurance as having been completed. Click here to request a refund.
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Do you have an Enrollment Agreement?
Yes. You are required to read and agreed to this document before you may launch a course. Click here to read the Enrollment Agreement.
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I'd like to buy subscriptions for each of my employees. Is there an easier way than having each employee enter a credit card?
If you have a group, we can assign subscriptions and invoice your company. If you have a group larger than ten agents, we can do a group entry to save each employee from having to register. We can also provide you with group management tools to allow the group manager to monitor each employee's training progress. Call us at 877-563-3330, extension 123.
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Do I have to buy a course to use the resources on this site?
No! We have created the Resources page to provide instant information to the bail agent community at no cost. You will find links to the Penal Code, the Insurance Code, the Code of Regulations, the Department of Insurance, law enforcement agencies, courts, and to other important resources such as standardized forms. Click here to go to the Resources page.
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Do you monitor courses? How can I be sure to get credit for my work?
The BailCE.com Learning Management System has multiple security features to ensure you receive credit for your work and to prevent others from cheating. The system monitors and records your time in the course and may not award a completion certificate if you fail to spend the minimum required time in the material.
Of course, you may spend additional time as you need to complete the course in excess of the minimum requirement. If you want to go back and hear a slide more than once, please do so -- we don't report how long you spend in a course, so if you missed something please go back. This is one of the best features of Independent Study -- you move forward in a course only when you're ready and nobody but you knows how long you needed to master the material.
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What about security? Is my personal information safe? Will you sell it to others?
CE3000 maintains all of our systems in our own network center. When you register and pay with your credit card, all of that information is encoded to the highest commercial standards so it can't be stolen while being transmitted over the Internet. We maintain the highest levels of physical and electronic security, and are certified to meet the stringent FBI/SANS standards for online transactions and are certified to comply with the credit card industry's security requirements. We never sell our customer's personal information. Only our staff with a need-to-know, the credit card processing company, and the Department of Insurance have access to your information.
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How secure is my personal information once it gets to you? How can I be sure no one will steal the information or that you will lose it?
Encoding data while in transmission is important, but over 90% of data is stolen the old-fashioned way -- physically from inside the Internet company. While most Internet companies rent a portion of server in a "server farm" somewhere far from home, CE3000 owns, operates, and maintains our own network center here in California. Our network center is an enterprise-level operation, including Internet connectivity via redundant fiber-optic lines; redundant uninteruptible power supplies backed up with a diesel generator and automatic transfer switch; dedicated air conditioning with redundant backup; and servers with redundant power supplies, cooling fans, and hard drives. We also do our own equipment maintenance, and keep a complete set of spare parts onsite for every piece of equipment we operate.
Importantly, we have multiple layers of security including video and audio surveilance; physical and electronic locks that require multiple keys and passcodes to gain entry; and multiple-layered intrusion detection systems. Additionally, there are redundant environmental monitors that constantly track and report conditions including temperature, humidity, air flow, and several other environmental and network center parameters.
We automatically back up all of our data every day, and keep those backups in specially designed data safes inside the secure network center. For maximum security, we also maintain a redundant data back-up set in a secure off-site location.
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Is my information safe? Do you share it with anyone else?
We never sell or share your information, and we do not use your information to send you unsolicited offers. The only people able to view your information are our staff that have a need to access your information to perform their duties, regulatory bodies, and those who have legal authority (for example the Department of Insurance). If your subscription was purchased by your employer as part of a group, your employer may see some of your information, such as the courses you have completed and the dates you completed them. Click here to view our privacy policy.
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Is it safe to enter my Social Security Number or credit card information on your site?
This is a very important question, and you should be sure any Internet company you do business with meets the PCI standards of the credit card industry and are SANS/FBI Top 20 Vulnerability Test Compliant. BailCE.com is independently certified to meet and exceed these requirements. Other online providers do not have their own network center or servers, use a portion of someone else's learning system, and do not even use their own credit card processing account so you can't be sure who has access to your private information when you use their system.
Those pages on the BailCE.com system that require you to enter sensitive information like your Social Security Number and credit card number are encrypted via SSL to the highest commercial standards. Encryption simply means that when you send information from your computer to ours, the data is encoded by your computer and then decoded by ours -- if someone between us intercepts the transmission, all they will get is a bunch of garbled ones and zeroes.
You will know that you are on an encrypted page when the Address window of your Internet browser program changes from "http://..." to "https://..." (note the "s" for secure), and you see a closed lock icon on your browser. You can try this now -- go up to the Address window of your browser and type an "s" after the "http" and then hit Enter. You'll see a closed lock appear in your browser. If you double-click on the lock, you can check the validity of our SSL certificate.
We maintain our own network center and employ an outside company certified by the credit card industry to randomly scan our systems for security breaches. This company tries to break into our systems using every known computer hacker trick. Because they have always failed to do so, BailCE.com is certified to meet the SANS/FBI Vulerability Test and the tough PCI credit card industry standards.
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Why do you have all of these security systems and monitor all of my activitites in BailCE.com?
Continuing education is designed to accomplish three principle tasks: teach new information, update existing knowledge with changes in the industry, and refresh knowledge that may not be regularly used. We take our job of delivering accredited CE seriously, and as professionals we expect our students to do the same.
We deliver accredited continuing education to many professions including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and bail agents. A continuing education requirement is one indicator of a profession. One mark of professionals is that they take their profession seriously, want to improve their professional performance, and can take responsibility for their actions.
Of course we know that many licensed "professionals" don't act like professionals, including when it comes to completing their CE -- they may think of CE as just another pain that they have to do to keep their jobs; may think that they already know everything they need to do their jobs and don't need education; or simply don't care about their professional performance. We also know there are people who believe they can manipulate any sytem or that rules don't apply to them. These are the people that inspire the regulations and security measures that everyone must pay for and put up with.
The bottom line is that if you are a professional, you want to learn new things and look forward to the opportunity to have your professional knowledge regularly updated. It's also a matter of basic fairness -- our security systems make sure that you get credit for the time and effort you spend in the courses, and prevents others from getting their certificates without putting in the same effort as you did.
By delivering a choice of Independent Study courses, BailCE.com allows you to choose the course topics that you most need and allows you to choose when and where you will take your courses. Quite simply, we provide professional education to professionals, and professionals rarely run afoul of our security and tracking systems.
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Why are there test questions in the course?
The California Insurance Code requires you to take an open book test to complete the course. We have placed test questions at the end of each section of a course to make sure you understand the previous material prior to moving on to the next course section. After answering the test questions, you click on "Submit" and the test is instantly graded. If you marked an incorrect answer, you immediately receive a message with an explanation of the missed question. Read this remediation material, enter the correct answer, and resubmit the test. When all questions are answered correctly, you will move on to the next page of the course.
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What are cookies?
The system uses cookies to ensure we provide you the proper course material and give you proper credit for your work. Cookies are small computer files that act like ID tags during your course work. When you log out the cookies are expired to protect your personal information.
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I cannot hear the lecture. What's wrong?
All of our courses contain audio. Your instructor delivers a portion of his or her lecture on each slide. You must have a sound card and speakers installed and working on your computer to take our courses.
The audio portion of our courses require your computer to have the Flash media player installed. It is free and it is safe, quick and painless to download. Click on the logo below to download the latest Flash media player:
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Can all the agents in my office take courses with one subscription? We could all watch the course on one computer at the same time.
No, each agent must register and take their courses themselves. Internet continuing education is based on an independent study education model -- each student launches a course, goes through the material at their own pace, and answers their own quiz questions.
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I am interested in becoming an instructor. What should I do?
Thank you for your interest in instructing a BailCE.com course. We are eager to hear ideas for new courses from the bail community. We provide educational and productionm support to our authors and will pay you to purchase the electronic publishing rights to your course material. Please contact us with information about the course you'd like to author and your contact information and we'll contact you to discuss your course proposal.
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