A number of professions grant special recognition to members upon
completion of specified academic and professional programs, and "CFSP" is funeral service's national individual
recognition. The Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice (APFSP), since its 1976 founding, has had
its goals: (1) to recognize those practitioners who have voluntarily entered into a program of personal and
professional growth, (2) to raise and improve the standards of funeral service and (3) to encourage practitioners
to make continuing education a life-long process in their own self-interest, the interest of the families they
service, and the community to which they serve.
To receive this designation, the practitioner must complete a 180
hour program of continuing education activities and events. In addition, the practitioner is required to accumulate
20 hours per year to recertify. Credits are awarded by the Academy for work leading to personal and/or professional
growth in four areas: