5654050 Health, Department of - Notice of Final Rulemaking - Supervised Practice, Licensed Professional Counselors

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

NOTICE OF FINAL RULEMAKING

The Director of the Department of Health, pursuant to the authority set forth under § 302(14) of the District of Columbia Health Occupations Revision Act of 1985 (“Act”), effective March 15, 1986 (D.C. Law 6-99; D.C. Official Code § 3-1203.02(14) (2012 Repl.)), and Mayor’s Order 98-140, dated August 20, 1998, hereby gives notice of the intent to take final rulemaking action to adopt the following amendments to Chapter 66 (Professional Counselor) of Title 17 (Business, Occupations, and Professionals) of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations (DCMR). 

 

The purpose of the amendments is to eliminate the provision in 17 DCMR §§ 6603.1(b) and 6606.1 that allows an applicant to acquire the requisite 3,500 hours of supervised practice necessary for licensure in the District of Columbia, under the supervision of an individual who is licensed in another jurisdiction and is not licensed in the District of Columbia, but “would have been qualified for a license as a professional counselor in the District of Columbia” during the time of the supervision. The Board finds that this provision is not practical, as it would require the supervisee to provide documentation at the time an application is filed from the supervisor, that the Board would have to review for the purpose of determining whether the supervisor would have qualified for licensure during the period of supervision, which may be two to five years after the supervised practice had begun.

 

The amendments also creates a separate Subsection 6603.4 that allows the Board to extend the period in which supervised experience must be acquired to five years for good cause shown.

 

These amendments were published as Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on February 20, 2015 at 62 DCR 002351.  No comments were received; no changes have been made.  These rules were adopted as final on August 27, 2015 and will become effective upon publication in the D.C. Register. 

 Chapter 66, PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING, of Title 17 DCMR, BUSINESS, OCCUPATIONS, AND PROFESSIONALS, is amended to read as follows:

 

Section 6603, SUPERVISED EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS, is amended as follows:

 

Subsection 6603.1(b) is amended to read as follow:

 

6603.1

…

(b)        The experience shall have consisted of a minimum of three thousand five hundred (3,500) hours of professional counseling performed over a period of not less than two (2) years and not more than five (5) years, under the general supervision of a qualified supervisor who shall be a professional counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or independent clinical social worker who was licensed in a jurisdiction of the United States during the supervised period. 

 

Add a new Subsection 6603.4 to read as follows:

 

6603.4             Pursuant to § 6603.1(b), the Board may extend the five (5) year limit for good cause.  All hours worked in a position in which general counseling services are offered shall be counted toward the minimum required hours.

 

Section 6606, PRACTICE OF PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING BY STUDENTS AND GRADUATES, is amended as follows:

 

Subsection 6606.1 is amended to read as follows:

 

6606.1             A student or graduate may practice professional counseling in accordance with this section only under the general or immediate supervision of a professional counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or independent clinical social worker licensed in the District of Columbia.