When the Dept created the Hunter Education Bonus Point the cut off year for having the AZ Certificate was 1980. It has always been the case that the certification had to be from 1980 and forward to present time. Certificates earned, received or bestowed prior to 1980 were thought to not have the kind of uniformity or standardization of course materials and firearm handling and firing under certified instructor supervision that courses offered in 1980 to present.
The AZ Hunter Education Branch is actively working on plans to restart courses in the time of Covid, Covid-19. There are hurdles and hoops to navigate, safety and other concerns to iron out and some training that will need to be undertaken by the current all-volunteer instructor teams before field days can resume.
It is correct that the Online Course Completion Certificate is sufficient for youth hunters to participate in hunts they have permits for at this time. As long as there are Covid restrictions, and no field days to attend, the Dept will continue to honor them and extend any "deadline" to complete the field day portion of the completed course.
Adults wanting the field day to earn a bonus point will be behind a considerable back log of youth students that have completed the online course. Those youth will be the priority participants once field days resume.
If adults will exercise continued patience their reward will be the opportunity to obtain the extra bonus point without the current requirement to travel to Arizona for the field day. Hopefully this will be a reality by late summer of 2021.
I'm confident I speak for all the volunteer instructors in Arizona that we'll be very happy to get back to conducting field days as soon as possible and especially look forward to resuming classroom education to youth and new hunters.
Jim Rich
VHET CI REG III
Mohave Valley, AZ