Funeral Service / Mortuary Science

This foundational course equips funeral service learners with the safety knowledge, mathematical skills, communication competencies, and career-readiness tools they need before entering any technical course in the program. Students complete OSHA 10-Hour General Industry training, first aid and CPR certification, and practice the trade-specific measurements, documentation, and professional communication they will use daily in the preparation room and at the arrangement desk. All content is anchored to the knowledge domains tested on the ICFSEB National Board Examination and to state licensing requirements.

How the course runs. 7 blocks: OSHA 10-Hour General Industry and Preparation Room Safety; First Aid, CPR, and AED Certification; Trade Mathematics: Measurement, Conversions, and Solution Calculations; Technical Reading and Funeral Service Documentation; Digital Tools for Funeral Service Practice; Communication with Bereaved Families; Career Pathways, Credentialing, and Professional Identity in Funeral Service.

What competent looks like. Demonstrate compliance with OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard and Hazard Communication Standard by correctly donning and doffing required PPE and locating Safety Data Sheets in a simulated preparation room setting. Perform first aid and earn current CPR/AED certification through an accredited provider. Apply trade mathematics—including metric and US customary unit conversions, percentage solutions for embalming chemicals, body-weight calculations, and casket/vault dimensional measurement—accurately on timed problem sets with at least 80% accuracy. Interpret and produce written funeral service documents, including case reports, authorization forms, and professional correspondence, using correct terminology and plain language appropriate for bereaved families. Use standard digital tools—practice management software concepts, spreadsheets, and professional email—to organize case records and communicate in a funeral service context. Describe the professional and legal landscape of funeral service, including the roles of the ICFSEB National Board Examination and state Funeral Director/Embalmer License in beginning and maintaining a lawful career.

This course covers the complete science and practice of embalming, from the chemistry of preservative fluids and the anatomy of the vascular system to arterial injection, cavity treatment, and special-case procedures. Students develop hands-on competency in a supervised laboratory setting, applying infection-control protocols and OSHA bloodborne-pathogen standards throughout every procedure. Lesson content maps directly to the Arts and Sciences and Embalming sections of the ICFSEB National Board Examination.

How the course runs. 12 blocks: Microbiology and the Need for Embalming; Embalming Chemistry: Preservatives, Humectants, and Supplemental Fluids; OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens, PPE, and Preparation Room Safety; Vascular Anatomy for Embalming; Embalming Equipment: Machines, Instruments, and Preparation Room Setup; Pre-Embalming Analysis and Case Report Documentation; Arterial Embalming: Injection and Drainage — Supervised Laboratory I; Cavity Embalming: Aspiration and Treatment; Special Cases: Edema, Decomposition, Trauma, and Autopsy; Disinfection, Waste Disposal, and Regulatory Compliance; Preparation Room to Viewing Room: Post-Embalming Evaluation and Handoff; Integrated Embalming Practicum and Credential Exam Alignment.

What competent looks like. Explain the physiological, chemical, and microbiological principles that underlie embalming and preservation of human remains. Select appropriate embalming chemicals, dilution rates, and injection techniques for a range of decedent conditions including edema, decomposition, and trauma. Perform a complete arterial and cavity embalming procedure on an assigned case under instructor supervision, meeting established sanitation and preservation standards. Apply all required personal protective equipment and follow OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard procedures during every laboratory session with zero critical violations. Document each embalming case with an accurate written case report that records pre-embalming analysis, chemical selection, observations, and post-embalming evaluation. Identify when a special-condition case exceeds routine scope and articulate the corrective techniques or referral actions required.

This course develops the technical and artistic skills required to restore a deceased person's appearance to a natural, peaceful state suitable for viewing by family and the public. Students learn tissue building, surface restoration, feature reconstruction, and cosmetic application using industry-standard materials and equipment. Lessons are mapped to the National Board Examination (ICFSEB) content areas covering restorative art theory and embalming-related restoration.

How the course runs. 12 blocks: Foundations of Restorative Art: History, Ethics, and Scope; Anatomy Review for Restoration: Surface Landmarks and Facial Structure; Post-Mortem Tissue Changes and Condition Assessment; Infection Control and OSHA Compliance in the Restoration Room; Suturing Techniques: Closure, Channeling, and Feature Repositioning; Wax Modeling: Materials, Preparation, and Basic Applications; Advanced Wax Modeling: Feature Reconstruction; Mortuary Cosmetics: Color Theory and Skin-Tone Matching; Cosmetic Application Techniques: Brush, Sponge, and Airbrush; Corrective Techniques: Discoloration, Swelling, and Dehydration; Traumatic and Special-Case Restoration; Case Documentation, Presentation, and Professional Standards.

What competent looks like. Analyze the nature and extent of post-mortem tissue changes and traumatic conditions and select an appropriate restoration plan. Perform wax-based and suture-based restorations to reconstruct facial features and surface defects to a natural appearance. Apply mortuary cosmetics—including pigment mixing, stippling, and airbrush techniques—to achieve skin-tone accuracy across diverse complexions. Demonstrate safe handling of restorative chemicals and sharps in compliance with OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard and facility infection-control protocols. Document restoration procedures accurately in a case record, including product names, techniques used, and before-and-after assessment. Evaluate completed restorations against reference photographs and professional standards, identifying deficiencies and correcting them before viewing.

This course develops the full range of funeral directing competencies, from the first call through final disposition and aftercare, emphasizing professional communication, ceremony planning, regulatory compliance, and dignified service to families of diverse backgrounds. Students learn to guide bereaved families through arrangement conferences, coordinate with clergy, cemeteries, crematoriums, and third-party vendors, and manage the logistical and legal documentation required for every disposition type. Content maps directly to the funeral directing domains assessed on the ICFSEB National Board Examination and supports the practical service requirements of state funeral director licensure.

How the course runs. 12 blocks: The Role of the Funeral Director: Profession, Scope, and First Impressions; First Call Procedures: Removal, Transfer, and Identification; Death Certificates and Vital-Records Documentation; Disposition Permits, Transit Permits, and Cremation Authorization; FTC Funeral Rule: Consumer Rights and Price Disclosure Compliance; Arrangement Conference: Gathering Information and Presenting Options; Funeral Service Planning: Ceremony Design and Coordination; Cultural, Religious, and Military Funeral Practices; Cremation Services: Procedures, Documentation, and Witness Options; Green and Alternative Disposition: Aquamation, Natural Burial, and Emerging Methods; Aftercare, Grief Resources, and Family Follow-Up; Funeral Directing Field Integration: Supervised Arrangement and Service Coordination.

What competent looks like. Conduct a complete arrangement conference, gathering all required demographic, financial, and disposition information while demonstrating empathetic, culturally responsive communication. Prepare accurately completed death certificates, burial permits, transit permits, and cremation authorizations consistent with state vital-records requirements. Plan and coordinate a funeral service or memorial event, selecting and sequencing music, readings, tributes, and clergy or celebrant participation to match family wishes. Explain the Federal Trade Commission Funeral Rule requirements and provide a compliant General Price List, itemized statement of goods and services, and outer-burial-container price list to families. Describe the procedures and regulatory requirements for all common disposition methods, including earth burial, entombment, cremation, and green burial. Demonstrate safe, professional vehicle operation and transfer procedures for human remains, including proper use of cots, transfer equipment, and personal protective equipment.

This course prepares funeral service students to understand the psychological, cultural, and physiological dimensions of grief and to provide competent, ethical bereavement support to families before, during, and after services. Students examine major grief theories, diverse mourning practices, and the boundaries of the funeral professional's supportive role versus that of licensed mental health providers. Emphasis is placed on communication skills, family-centered care, and referral practices that meet both professional standards and credential exam requirements.

How the course runs. 12 blocks: Foundations of Grief: Definitions, History, and the Funeral Professional's Role; Major Grief Theories: Kübler-Ross, Worden, Stroebe & Schut, and Continuing Bonds; Trauma-Informed Communication and Active Listening; Grief Across the Lifespan: Children, Adolescents, and Older Adults; Cultural and Religious Diversity in Mourning Practices; Grief in Traumatic and Sudden Death: Suicide, Homicide, Accident, and Disaster; The Funeral as a Therapeutic Ritual: Evidence and Application; Aftercare Program Design and Documentation; Referring Families: Scope of Practice, Mental Health Resources, and Ethical Limits; Grief and the Funeral Service Worker: Secondary Traumatic Stress and Self-Care; Family-Centered Conferences and Arrangement Meetings with a Grief Lens; Credential Exam Review: Grief and Bereavement Content Domains.

What competent looks like. Explain and compare major grief theories—including those of Kübler-Ross, Worden, Stroebe and Schut, and Klass—and apply them to real family scenarios encountered in funeral service. Demonstrate active listening, empathic communication, and trauma-informed language when conducting family conferences and aftercare follow-up contacts. Identify grief responses that exceed the funeral professional's scope of practice and execute appropriate referral to licensed mental health or chaplaincy resources. Adapt bereavement support strategies to reflect the cultural, religious, and demographic diversity of the communities served, including children, older adults, and survivors of traumatic or sudden death. Design and evaluate a structured aftercare program for a funeral home that includes initial contact, follow-up timeline, support-group resources, and documentation practices. Recognize warning signs of complicated grief, suicidal ideation, and secondary traumatic stress in both families and funeral service workers, and respond within professional and legal boundaries.

This course examines the federal and state legal framework governing funeral service, including consumer protection regulations, licensing requirements, and disposition law, alongside the professional ethics that guide mortuary practice. Students analyze real regulatory scenarios, apply ethical decision-making models, and develop the compliance habits required for licensure and daily practice. Lessons map directly to the law, ethics, and regulatory content tested on the National Board Examination (ICFSEB) and addressed by state licensing boards.

How the course runs. 12 blocks: Foundations of Funeral Service Law: Sources, Structure, and Jurisdiction; The FTC Funeral Rule: Consumer Protection and Price Disclosure; Licensing: Funeral Directors, Embalmers, and Establishments; Authorization for Embalming and Disposition: Legal Chain of Authority; Death Certificates and Vital Records: Completion, Filing, and Errors; Disposition Law: Burial, Cremation, Body Donation, and Green Burial; Pre-Need Law: Contracts, Trust Requirements, and Consumer Protections; OSHA and Environmental Compliance in Funeral Service; Professional Ethics: Foundations, Codes, and Decision-Making Frameworks; Ethics in Practice: Conflicts of Interest, Social Media, and Advertising; Consumer Rights, Complaints, and Regulatory Enforcement; Integrated Law & Ethics Capstone: Compliance Audit and Ethical Case Defense.

What competent looks like. Explain the major federal laws governing funeral service—including the FTC Funeral Rule and OSHA standards—and describe how each protects consumers and workers. Identify the categories of state funeral service law (licensing, establishment permits, disposition, vital records) and apply them to common compliance scenarios. Apply a structured ethical decision-making framework to realistic funeral service dilemmas, producing a written rationale that justifies the chosen course of action. Accurately complete or interpret standard legal documents used in funeral service, including authorization for embalming, disposition authorization, and death certificates. Describe the rights of survivors and the legal chain of authority for making disposition decisions, and explain how to handle contested authorization situations. Demonstrate professional conduct consistent with NFDA and state association codes of ethics when responding to simulated consumer complaints, pricing disclosures, and end-of-life conflicts.

This course prepares students to own, manage, or work within a funeral service business by developing competence in accounting, pricing, consumer protection law, preneed planning, human resources, and marketing specific to the funeral industry. Students apply business principles directly to funeral home operations, from completing FTC-compliant price lists to reading financial statements and managing staff. Lessons map to the ICFSEB National Board Exam business and legal content areas and support licensure as a funeral director.

How the course runs. 12 blocks: The Funeral Home as a Business: Structure, Ownership, and the Industry Landscape; FTC Funeral Rule: Consumer Protection and Price Disclosure Requirements; Funeral Home Accounting Fundamentals: Chart of Accounts, Journals, and Ledgers; Reading and Interpreting Funeral Home Financial Statements; Funeral Home Pricing: Cost Analysis, Markup, and the Unit Pricing Method; Preneed Funeral Contracts: Regulations, Funding, and Consumer Rights; Human Resources in the Funeral Home: Hiring, Supervision, and Employment Law; Staff Scheduling, Payroll Concepts, and Independent Contractor Rules; Marketing Funeral Services: Ethics, Advertising Rules, and Community Relations; Digital Tools and Technology in Funeral Home Operations; Business Planning: Writing a Funeral Home Business Plan; Capstone Integration: Funeral Home Business Case and ICFSEB Board Exam Business Content Review.

What competent looks like. Construct a legally compliant FTC Funeral Rule General Price List and itemized statement of funeral goods and services for a hypothetical funeral home. Analyze a funeral home's basic income statement and balance sheet to identify profitability, liquidity, and areas for operational improvement. Explain the regulatory requirements governing preneed funeral contracts, trust funds, and cancellation rights in general terms applicable across state jurisdictions. Apply federal and state employment law fundamentals—including OSHA recordkeeping, anti-discrimination statutes, and wage rules—to typical funeral home HR scenarios. Develop a marketing plan for a funeral home that incorporates community outreach, digital presence, and culturally competent service offerings. Complete a funeral home business plan draft that integrates pricing, financial projections, staffing, and compliance elements into a coherent operational document.

Students design, execute, and defend a full-scope funeral service case from first call through final disposition, integrating embalming technique, restorative art, funeral directing, grief support, legal compliance, and business documentation into a single documented project. The capstone requires students to apply every competency area of the program to a realistic simulated decedent case, producing a complete professional case file and presenting their decisions before a faculty panel. This course prepares students to demonstrate readiness for both the National Board Exam (ICFSEB) and state licensure by showing they can synthesize knowledge across disciplines without a safety net.

How the course runs. 4 blocks: Case Intake, Legal Authorization, and Project Planning; Embalming Plan, Restorative Art Design, and Technical Documentation; Arrangement Conference Simulation, Grief Support Integration, and Business Documentation; Ethics and Law Resolution, Final Case File Assembly, and Oral Defense Preparation.

What competent looks like. Construct a complete, legally compliant funeral service case file—including authorization forms, embalming report, disposition permit checklist, merchandise itemization, and aftercare plan—that meets state regulatory standards. Execute an embalming and restorative art plan for an assigned simulated case, documenting case analysis, chemical selection rationale, and technique decisions in writing with accurate trade terminology. Develop a family-centered arrangement conference plan that incorporates grief-informed communication strategies, FTC Funeral Rule disclosure requirements, and culturally appropriate service options. Produce a complete business record set for the simulated case, including a General Price List review, itemized Statement of Funeral Goods and Services, and cash-advance accounting, with no mathematical errors exceeding accepted tolerance. Identify and resolve at least three embedded ethical or legal challenges in the assigned case scenario, citing the applicable regulatory framework and articulating a defensible professional decision. Deliver a structured oral defense of the completed case file to a faculty panel, answering technical, ethical, and procedural questions to a passing standard.

Students complete a minimum of 648 supervised hours at a licensed funeral home or mortuary under the direct oversight of a licensed funeral director and/or embalmer, applying every technical and professional skill developed in prior coursework to real decedent care, family service, and business operations. The externship bridges classroom preparation and independent professional practice, culminating in a formal employer evaluation and a reflective practicum log submitted for faculty review. Competencies addressed map directly to the National Board Examination domains and to the standards required for state funeral director/embalmer licensure.

How the course runs. 4 blocks: Externship Orientation: Site Expectations, Safety Protocols, and Documentation Requirements; Preparation Room Practicum: Embalming, Restoration, and Decedent Care Under Supervision; Funeral Directing and Family Services Practicum: Arrangements, Ceremonies, and Regulatory Compliance; Practicum Synthesis: Final Employer Evaluation, Log Completion, and Reflective Portfolio Submission.

What competent looks like. Perform embalming, post-mortem restorative procedures, and body preparation tasks on actual decedents under licensed supervision, meeting the technical standards required for ICFSEB National Board Examination competency areas in embalming and restorative art. Conduct or assist with arrangement conferences, funeral ceremonies, graveside services, and cremation transfers, demonstrating the family-service and directing skills assessed in the funeral directing domain of the National Board Examination. Apply federal and state regulatory requirements — including OSHA bloodborne-pathogen standards, FTC Funeral Rule itemized pricing, and death-certificate completion procedures — correctly in every applicable worksite task. Maintain complete, accurate practicum log entries for each shift, documenting case types, procedures performed, supervisor name, and hours worked in the format required by the program and by the state licensing board. Respond appropriately to bereaved families using grief-informed communication techniques, maintaining professional boundaries and cultural sensitivity throughout all direct-contact interactions. Receive a satisfactory or above rating on the employer mid-point and final competency evaluations across all required skill domains, meeting the minimum performance threshold for program completion and licensure application.

This course systematically reviews every content domain tested on the ICFSEB National Board Examination and the core subject areas assessed by state funeral director and embalmer licensing boards, using spaced repetition, timed practice sets, and full-length mock exams. Learners identify personal knowledge gaps across embalming science, restorative art, funeral directing, law, ethics, grief, and business, then direct targeted study to close those gaps before sitting for credentialing exams. The course culminates in two full-length simulated board exams administered under authentic testing conditions with a detailed score analysis and individualized remediation plan.

How the course runs. 4 blocks: Diagnostic Assessment and Exam Orientation; Targeted Content Domain Review: Sciences, Embalming, and Restorative Art; Targeted Content Domain Review: Funeral Directing, Law, Ethics, Grief, and Business; Full Mock Board Examinations and Individualized Remediation Planning.

What competent looks like. Correctly answer practice questions in each ICFSEB National Board content domain at a rate consistent with passing-level performance on the actual examination. Identify personal weak content domains using diagnostic score reports and execute a written remediation study plan addressing each gap. Demonstrate accurate recall of embalming theory, chemistry, and technique as tested on both the National Board and state embalmer licensing examinations. Apply knowledge of federal and state funeral service law, FTC Funeral Rule provisions, and professional ethics to scenario-based examination questions. Complete two full-length timed mock board examinations under standardized conditions, achieving benchmark scores that predict readiness to sit for the National Board Examination. Explain the registration, scheduling, score-reporting, and retake policies of the ICFSEB National Board Examination and describe the state licensure application process for the jurisdiction in which they intend to practice.