Bill > S636

Introduced Session

This bill reduces the amount of supervised full-time counseling experience in a professional counseling setting required for professional counselor licensure. Current law, under the "Professional Counselor Licensing Act," P.L.1993, c.340 (C.45:8B-34 et seq.), requires that applicants for a professional counseling license complete at least three years of supervised full-time counseling experience in a professional counseling setting acceptable to the Professional Counselor Examiners Committee, one year of which may be obtained prior to the granting of the master's degree. An applicant may eliminate one year of the required supervised counseling experience by substituting 30 graduate semester hours beyond the master's degree if those graduate semester hours are clearly related to counseling and are acceptable to the committee. In no case, however, may the applicant have less than one year of supervised professional counseling experience after the granting of the master's degree. This bill revises these requirements to provide that an applicant is only required to complete at least two years, instead of three, or 3000 hours of supervised full-time counseling experience in a professional counseling setting, one year or 1500 hours of which may be obtained prior to the granting of the master's degree. The bill also provides that an applicant may eliminate one year or 1500 hours of the required supervised counseling experience by substituting certain graduate semester hours beyond the master's degree; however, an applicant cannot have less than one year or 1500 hours of supervised professional counseling experience after the granting of the master's degree.

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Latham Tiver (R)*,  Declan O'Scanlon (R), 

Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Hearing (13:00:00 3/14/2024 Committee Room 6, 1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ) (on 03/14/2024)

Official Document