ATLANTA — Professionals across Georgia are still complaining about the state's new professional license system called GOALS.
For months now, 11Alive has reported on issues physical therapists have had renewing or getting a license, reporting bugs within the system. Physical therapists were among the first and largest group to use the new system because of their renewal deadline. The deadline for this group has been extended twice following complaints.
Gabriel Sterling with Georgia's Secretary of State's office said Tuesday they have been able to process almost all of the physical therapist applications.
In recent weeks, cosmetologists and occupational therapists have been reporting issues with the system to 11Alive.
Chelsea Buffolino, who has been doing makeup in Atlanta for over a decade, recently decided to get her cosmetologist license to start doing hair. She said she submitted her application almost six months ago and hasn't been able to get an update.
“It took about two years and $25,000 to get my cosmetologist license and now it’s been six months of waiting to work in the field that I studied for, so it’s really frustrating," Buffolino said.
Sterling shared they were experiencing a coding issue with some cosmetologist license applications which had cause a minor issue.
"For the cosmetologists, one of the issues we have, which is one of the things we learned, is if you have multiple licenses, there's a conflict within the system. We are now working to manually fix where we have to merge those licenses together," explained Sterling.
Sterling said the main issue that they're seeing on their end is an error in applications, adding that the delays are often happening because of incorrect emails or names.
"We are asking for people to check their emails and check that all of their information and documents have been submitted correctly. And then once that is all done, we're asking for some patience," added Sterling.
The renewal deadline for cosmetologists has been pushed back to April 30 and the renewal deadline for physical therapists is now March 31.