1. a. Any person who successfully completes a course at a county fire academy shall receive college credit for the course at a four-year public institution of higher education that offers a fire science degree program if: (1) the institution determines after a review of the curriculum of the course offered by the county fire academy that the curriculum is similar to the curriculum of a course offered in its fire science program; and (2) upon completion of the course, the person successfully completes an examination approved by the institution. The institution shall waive any credit-by-exam fee that it may charge.
b. The county fire academies shall work jointly with four-year public institutions of higher education that offer a fire science degree program to identify courses at the county fire academies which offer a curriculum similar to that of courses included in the fire science programs of those institutions.