BHEC and member boards propose and adopt multiple rule changes; LPC withdraws one package for further work

The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council approved a set of rule proposals and several adoptions affecting its member boards and took action to withdraw an LPC adoption package for additional development.

Proposed rules: Council members voted to propose multiple rules across the member boards (agenda items for the MFT, psychology, counseling and social work boards). Staff summarized these proposals as largely statutory alignments—updates for military credit, child-custody evaluator qualifications and the statutory "school psychologist" title in psychology rules—as well as nonsubstantive editorial cleanups and reorganizations to make social work rules more user-friendly.

Supervision and associate rules: The council discussed proposed language intended to clarify supervision expectations and the transfer of remediation and complaint notices between supervisors. Staff advised removing one proposed subsection (draft subsection e in rule 882.2) from adoption because boards may need to clarify the interplay of full-time versus part-time work and minimum supervision metrics. The council accepted staff's recommendation and adopted the rule without that subsection, directing staff to work with the boards for clarifying language.

Adoptions and withdrawals: The council adopted proposed supervisory and cooperation language for the Marriage and Family Therapy and psychology boards (items labeled 7b and 8b) to require supervisors to notify supervisees about remediation steps and for supervisees to inform future supervisors about outstanding complaints or remediation. The LPC board asked to withdraw its adoption packet (9b) to further refine proposals about associates, remediation plans and supervision structure; the council voted to withdraw 9b without prejudice so the LPC board can do additional work.

Guidelines and internal documents: The council adopted a guideline titled "Use of New and Emerging Technologies/Emerging Practices" to serve as an educational document for applying existing rules to technological developments (including AI). Separately, the council agreed to keep "Guidelines for Practice Monitors" as an internal staff document rather than a public guideline, to avoid unintentionally discouraging potential practice monitors and to allow staff to tailor the guidance to individual cases.

Why it matters: These rule proposals and adoptions affect supervision, license transferability of remediation information, professional titles and how boards will advise licensees about new technologies. The LPC board's withdrawal indicates the council expects more stakeholder work before adopting complex associate/supervision reforms.

What happens next: Staff will take the removed subsection and the LPC concerns back to the member boards for clarification and/or reworking and will return with revised proposals. The newly adopted guidelines will be posted (new-and-emerging-technologies) or retained as an internal document (practice-monitor guidance) as the council directed.