Frequently asked questions
1. Do I have to submit certificates to the state?
No — no state or city we cover wants your certificates filed. The mandates work on proof-on-request: train on schedule, keep the documentation, produce it when an agency asks or a complaint lands. California's Civil Rights Department states it outright: training documentation "should not be sent to CRD but should be kept on the employer's premises." NYC wants acknowledgments kept three years and produced on request; Illinois and Chicago compel records on inspection or complaint. The audit trail is the product, the filing cabinet is yours. See Certificates & records.
2. What does "interactive" actually mean for an online course?
Responses, not just playback. New York's official guidance says a video watched alone, "with no feedback mechanism or interaction," does not count. Illinois, California, Connecticut, and Delaware use the same interactive framing. Verity Train enforces it mechanically: every lesson ends in a quiz and an 80% score is required to advance, which means every completion record shows answers given — participation you can show, not attendance you assert.
3. How long does each course take?
Where the statute sets a duration, we meet it exactly: California runs 1 hour for employees and 2 hours for supervisors (§12950.1); Chicago runs a prevention hour plus a bystander hour for everyone, 2 prevention hours for supervisors; Connecticut's course runs 2 hours. New York and Illinois set no fixed duration — the duty is meeting the minimum content standards with interaction, and our tracks do that without padding.
4. Annual or every two years — which states are which?
Annual: New York State (§201-g), the NYC ordinance (§8-107(30)), Illinois (775 ILCS 5/2-109), and Chicago (Muni. Code §2-160) — all on 12-month cycles. Every two years: California (§12950.1) and Delaware (§711A(g)). Connecticut is different again: within 6 months of hire, then a refresher not less than every 10 years. Maine trains new hires within a year of start and layers an annual written notice on all employers. The app sets each employee's clock from their state automatically — Managing assignments has the table.
5. Do supervisors really take a different course?
In several states, yes — a longer one, by statute. California requires twice the content for supervisors (2 hours against 1). Chicago doubles the prevention training for managers. Delaware adds a dedicated supervisor session to the base course. New York and Illinois require supervisor content inside every track rather than a separate course. Mark someone as a supervisor when you add them and the correct track is assigned; flip the role later and the next cycle uses the supervisory version. See Adding employees.
6. What happens if an employee misses the due date?
The assignment goes overdue — visibly. It stays open, keeps reminding, and counts against the overdue total on your dashboard until the employee finishes. Nothing is rewritten: the record will show the true, late completion date, because a late-but-honest record is defensible and a backdated one is not. The practical fix is the routine: add hires in week one, scan the dashboard weekly.
7. How do I prove compliance if a state agency asks?
Three artifacts, all exportable: the certificate PDFs (statute citation, completion date, verification ID), the per-employee assignment history, and the full audit log as CSV. Together they answer the question an investigator actually asks — "show me who was trained, when, in what course, and prove these documents aren't made up." Export before you're asked, and the file you hand over is complete within an hour of the request. Details: Certificates & records.
8. Do part-timers, seasonal staff, and interns count?
Depends on the jurisdiction. New York State and Illinois count everyone — there is no part-time carve-out. NYC's ordinance covers employees and contractors who work more than 80 hours in a calendar year and at least 90 days. California's five-employee trigger counts part-timers toward the threshold. The conservative habit most of our customers adopt: train everyone the statutes could plausibly reach. An extra seat costs $8; the first fact an agency establishes is who you chose not to train.
9. Can I add employees mid-year, and what does that do to the clocks?
Yes — add people any time, and each gets their own statutory clock from their assignment date. California's new-hire window (six months) runs from their hire, Illinois and New York annual cycles run from their assignment. Roster growth mid-year doesn't disturb anyone else's clock, and the volume tier recalculates from the active roster when it matters at renewal.
10. When do the Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, NYC, and Chicago courses ship?
Those five packs are in production now — each is being mapped 1:1 to its statute's mandated-content checklist, the same process the live NY/IL/CA courses went through. One subscription covers every state we offer the day it ships: existing accounts get new state packs with no upgrade and no price change. Until a state is live, the free mandate check tells you exactly what that jurisdiction demands of you.