A major change in the educational requirements for counselors looking to become licensed is coming to Ohio.

Starting in 2018, a counselor graduating from an Ohio counselor program designed for licensure will need to have graduated from a clinical mental health, clinical rehabilitation or addiction counseling program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) to be considered for licensure in Ohio.

Ohio will be the first U.S. state to require a CACREP degree for licensure.

Ohio’s state Legislature passed a bill this spring changing the requirement. The new law takes effect July 9.

Roughly 18 of the 23 graduate counseling programs across Ohio are currently accredited by CACREP. The few programs that aren’t are working on becoming accredited, according to Jim Rough, executive director of Ohio’s Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board.

Ohio’s counselor-educator community was involved with and supportive of the bill’s more than three-year journey to become law, according to Rough.

Ohio counselors who are licensed prior to July will be “grandfathered” in, and the change will not affect these counselors, he says. Additionally, counselors who have graduated from a CACREP-accredited clinical mental health, clinical rehabilitation or addiction counseling programs from outside the state will automatically meet the educational requirements for licensure in Ohio.

“I think we’ve made this [bill] as inclusive as we possibly can,” Rough says says. “Everybody talks about [licensure] portability – here is a step toward simplifying things for everybody.”

 

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For more information

 

Read the full bill here (search for section 4757.23): legislature.state.oh.us/BillText130/130_HB_232_I_N.html

 

Ohio’s Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board (click on “what’s new” for details about the bill): cswmft.ohio.gov

 

CACREP website: cacrep.org

 

An open letter from ACA President Cirecie West-Olatunji and President-Elect Robert Smith: http://t.co/JGYDY6WUK3

 

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Bethany Bray is a staff writer for Counseling Today. Contact her at bbray@counseling.org

 

Letters to the editor: ct@counseling.org

 

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