HARRISBURG, Pa. - For the past two years, landscape architecture students in Pennsylvania have had to travel out-of-state in order to take CLARB's LARE test. The situation stemmed from tests administered in June of 1999 by CLARB, who failed to receive payment from a third-party company hired by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Since the state owed CLARB money for the 1999 tests, CLARB has been withholding any further testing. Now, however, this long-standing impasse appears to be approaching a resolution.

"Representatives from the ASLA Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter and CLARB have been holding discussions in an attempt to resume LARE testing of Landscape Architecture candidates in the State of Pennsylvania," said Chapter President Carl Keleman. "All parties agree that two years without a test are too long."

Discussions began in the spring, and have culminated in a memorandum outlining options for test resumption. Currently, the options are being reviewed and further discussions are scheduled with the goal of finalizing an approach for full scale test resumption.

"We hope that this will be the beginning of full resumption of LARE testing in the State," said Keleman. "The State Board of Landscape Architects, CLARB, ASLA National and the PA/DE Chapter ASLA are hopeful that the LARE will be offered in a CLARB regional test site in Pennsylvania as soon as June 2002."