FAQ

As the hosts, we ask that you provide a comfortable location for the course. This can range from a training center at your agency to a hotel conference room. The most important factor is that the room has audio and visual capabilities for video and PowerPoint. For the brochure, we also ask that you recommend some lodging that is convenient to the course location.

Refreshments are appreciated, but certainly not required.

Note: Majority of our courses involve hands-on, practical exercises. When hosting a course such as the Buried Body and Surface Skeleton, or Shooting/ Crime Scene Reconstruction, it’s a good idea to have a location with outdoor facilities that allow gun-firing exercises, or space to bury skeletons that will later be recovered.

Unless the host agency chooses to purchase the course outright there is no fee to host a class.  The instructor(s) covers their own travel, lodging, meals, and course materials for students.  However, the exception is that for any IAI Test Preparation courses, costs for any required IAI mandated textbooks nor the test are not covered by the instructor, nor are they provided and the application fee to take the exam is covered by the students.  To make it practical to make travel and shipment of materials possible for our instructors, a minimum of 15 students is required for each course to confirm it can take place in your area for your preferred dates.  If the minimum number is not met, the host and Forensic Pieces will need to either reschedule or cancel the course unless a rare exception is made to conduct the training with fewer than the course minimum.  Should this be the case, then the would-be host seat may be required to pay the tuition to make the course a worthwhile venture for the instructor to make the trip for the training.   Since cancelling or rescheduling is not ideal, please stress to any prospective students that they register as early as possible so that we have an accurate registration count as the time draws nearer to make the call to keep the course as scheduled or the need to re-schedule or in the unfortunate event of having to cancel the training.  Tuition payment is not required upon registration but we do ask that it is completed or submitted no later than 30 days out unless previously discussed. 

In the event that the host agency requires an insurance policy for Forensic Pieces to come teach, the first host seat awarded wiht 15 registered and paid students will not be issued, as this expense can be quite high for us, depending on the location.  If an external policy is not required for Forensic Pieces to come to your location, your hosting agency is entitled to a complimentary host seat once we meet the minimum of fifteen (15) paying students and the agency will receive an additional free slot for each additional 15 students.  For every thirty (30) paying students are accumulated, the hosting agency is entitled to two (2) free slots.  Some courses have an instructor cap of students that is less than 30.  In these cases, only one free host slot is allotted.  Again, for each of our courses your agency always has the option of buying a course for a flat fee which is much more cost effective for a larger group that needs the same type of training.   We will evaluate the agency needs and will provide a quote for this service upon request for the most economical route for your agency.  Each flat fee course quote is dependent on attendance, location and many other factors so each situation may vary.  Please contact us for details.

After a course is scheduled with your agency, we’ll create a brochure for the course that your department can send out to nearby departments and other agencies. We at Forensic Pieces will also be posting the course on our website, the IAI and state divisions of the IAI websites, as well as sending out newsletters to all of our contacts in efforts to advertise the course.  It is important that the host agency helps to get the word out to as many local agencies as possible to help ensure the success of reaching the course minimum.

We recommend registering for courses as soon as possible as space can be limited and courses that are not full 30-60 days out run the risk of cancellation due to low enrollment.  Additionally being on the roster complete with direct contact information means you will receive any important updates and alerts regarding the course. However, you can register for a course up until one week before its start date.

Important Note:

Any student registering from outside the continental U.S.A. is required to make payment upon registration to prevent no-shows on the first day of class.  Forensic Pieces is unable to officially reserve a spot in class without said payment.  The reason for this requirement is a result of Forensic Pieces, on several occasions, has taken such registrations and has had no follow-up from the majority of students that have registered from out of the country resulting in a loss of our course income.   We rely heavily on our registration count to keep a course scheduled so are not able to risk this being the case in the future.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you need an invoice or receipt for tuition to be reimbursed by your department, please contact our office and we would be happy to send one. 

Typically, tuition for a 5-day course runs at $695- $735 per student, and tuition for a 3-day course runs at $465-$525 per student.  If a flat fee course is purchased by the agency, that price per student does reduce for a percentage that varies per each course.

For students registering within the United States:  Though payment is appreciated as soon as possible, we understand that this process often takes time.  We do require payment no later than 45 days out from the class in order to ensure the student(s) has a reserved seat in the class.  Should Forensic Pieces not have received payment by 30 days from the course start date, an email reminder will be sent to request payment method and the status of the payment.

On occasion, there are circumstances that may be worked around with as much prior notice as possible.  Please call the office to arrange any special payment requirements in order to reserve a seat and only if you are certain of your attendance.  The number to reach Forensic Pieces' staff is (850) 332-0141.

For students registering from outside the United States:  Due to a high non-attendance rate from several students having signed up from 0utside the U.S., it has become Forensic Pieces policy to require payment upon registration for whichever course the prospective student registers for in order to ensure the spot will be reserved.  If payment is unable to be processed immediately, then a purchase order showing that funds for the specified course have been obligated for that course will be sufficient.  Without either of these things in place once registered, we are regrettably unable to guarantee a seat or materials for class and do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Forensic Pieces is currently in the process of re-applying for IAI Credits for our courses.  Please contact the IAI directly for questions or information on specific courses that may have IAI Approval or keep an eye on our website for course updates on approval.

With the exception of the IAI Crime Scene Certification Preparation course, there are no required preparations for a course. Some course materials, such as calculators, laptops, digital cameras, etc. are strongly suggested; this information can be found on that course’s specific brochure. Course notebooks, handouts, etc. will be provided for you.

If you are planning on taking a IAI Crime Scene Certification Preparation course, and taking the exam on the final day, it is extremely important to submit your testing application to the IAI as soon as possible as an approved application will be required in order to take the exam. Please submit your application 30-90 days advance in order to process these applications. 
 

There are  required textbooks mandated by the IAI for the CCSI, CCSA, CSCSA exams. These textbooks will be used, highlighted and discussed throughout the course.

More information on the exam applications and required texts can be found on the IAI website

Required textbooks have been updated as of April 2026 and the link for the current reading materials here: Ops_Manual_FCMB-01-2020-C25_040126_Final.pdf.  

Note: Application fees and IAI mandated texts are not included in the tuition for the IAI CSI Book Review courses.  

If you take this preparation course and do not pass the end of course examination and would like to re-take the class, Forensic Pieces will allow the student to re-enroll into a future course date for a discounted fee of $300.

Information on qualifying to test for CCSI, CCSA and CSCSA can be found on the IAI website 

We understand things happen, however our course attendance is what we have come to rely on to put on a course cost-free to agencies around the country and beyond.  Should you find you are not able to attend a course you've registered for, please notify Forensic Pieces as soon as possible.  If payment has been processed for your attendance, we are happy to send a refund if the notification of the student's inablity to attend has taken place more than 14 days of the class.  However, if that notificaiton does not take place until we are within 14 days of the upcoming course, we're unfortunatley unable to extend a refund.  At that point, preparations to include printing notebooks and shipments for the class have already taken place for all slated to attend. Not to worry though, we are happy to roll over that tuition for either the student who registered, or for another person from the registring agency as needed in the form of a course credit!  This credit does not expire, however you MUST notify Forensic Pieces upon registration that you or your agency intends to utilize the credit.  

If a refund is awarded, we will issue that refund via check only and will mail that back once provided with the payee, address and attention information.   Please allow up to 30 days to acquire the refund.