Board agrees to develop work group on evaluating extenuating circumstances for cross-profession supervisors

The board discussed statutory and regulatory limits on who may serve as a supervisor for certain license types and supported a staff-led working group to design a clearer process for evaluating requests that claim "extenuating circumstances."

Pfei described the current regulation: marriage-and-family and professional-counseling regulations generally require supervision by the same profession but allow an exception under "extenuating circumstances," defined in regulation as an "extreme condition" that makes compliance impossible or inadvisable. Because the board's requested statutory change did not advance this year, Pfei proposed an operational approach: convene a small group of board members, staff and relevant advisory-committee chairs to draft a consistent process and criteria for staff review of extenuating-circumstance petitions.

Board members Mary Jones and Laura Shaughnessy volunteered to participate; staff said the group would avoid constituting a majority of the board and would return proposed options for the full board to consider. Pfei said a clarified internal process could give applicants predictable guidance while staying within current statutory authority.