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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 18. Professional And Occupational Licensing
Agency 115. Board of Counseling
Chapter 60. Regulations Governing the Practice of Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioners
11/23/2024

18VAC115-60-115. Continued competency requirements for renewal of a license.

A. Licensed substance abuse treatment practitioners shall be required to have completed a minimum of 20 hours of continuing competency for each annual licensure renewal. A minimum of two of these hours shall be in courses that emphasize the ethics, standard of practice, or laws governing behavioral science professions in Virginia.

B. The board may grant an extension for good cause of up to one year for the completion of continuing competency requirements upon written request from the licensee prior to the renewal date. Such extension shall not relieve the licensee of the continuing competency requirement.

C. The board may grant an exemption for all or part of the continuing competency requirements due to circumstances beyond the control of the licensee, such as temporary disability, mandatory military service, or officially declared disasters.

D. Those individuals dually licensed by this board will not be required to obtain continuing competency for each license. Dually licensed individuals will only be required to provide the hours set out in subsection A of this section, subsection A of 18VAC115-50-95 in the Regulations Governing the Practice of Marriage and Family Therapy, or subsection A of 18VAC115-20-105 in the Regulations Governing the Practice of Professional Counseling.

E. Up to two hours of the 20 hours required for annual renewal may be satisfied through delivery of counseling services, without compensation, to low-income individuals receiving health services through a local health department or a free clinic organized in whole or primarily for the delivery of those services. One hour of continuing education may be credited for three hours of providing such volunteer services, as documented by the health department or free clinic.

F. A substance abuse treatment practitioner who was licensed by examination is exempt from meeting continuing competency requirements for the first renewal following initial licensure.

Statutory Authority

§ 54.1-2400 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from Virginia Register Volume 20, Issue 24, eff. September 8, 2004; amended, Virginia Register Volume 32, Issue 24, eff. August 24, 2016; Volume 33, Issue 11, eff. March 9, 2017; Volume 34, Issue 6, eff. December 28, 2017.

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