BSRB executive director reports survey work, eBroker uptake and budget; legislative fixes delayed until next session

David Fye, executive director of the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board, delivered the committee’s executive-director report, summarizing recent operations, legislative items and board actions.

Fye said the board closed a multiform survey sent to licensees across the seven professions the BSRB regulates. Staff created 13 survey versions to reflect different license levels and planned to produce summary charts with appendices of individual responses. The BSRB has also joined multi-state licensing compacts affecting psychologists (PSYPACT), professional counselors and social workers to monitor practitioner mobility and workforce trends.

Fye urged licensees to activate and use the eBroker continuing-education portal, which lets licensees upload CE documentation and can speed audits; he noted the board audits roughly 10% of licensees at renewal and that using the portal can make audit review quicker. On finance, Fye said the fee fund balance was “right around $1.9 million” and the agency’s annual budget is about $1.2 million; he told the committee the board had taken a conservative approach and came in roughly $40,000 under last year’s approved spending.

On legislative matters, Fye explained the BSRB submitted a biennial budget and the House Higher Education Budget Committee recommended the agency’s requested limits; the House Appropriations Committee included those amounts in the House appropriations bill. He said the Senate had signaled it would not hold a specific budget hearing for the BSRB and that the board, as a fee-funded agency, returns 10% of revenue to the State General Fund up to a statutory cap of $100,000 per year.

Fye also reported that several board-requested statutory changes—including a committee recommendation to expand eligibility for a student temporary addiction-counselor license—could not be introduced in committee in time this session because of logistical delays with bill drafting and committee assignments. He described the delay as a likely one-year timing issue and said staff will reintroduce the measures next legislative session.

Fye briefed the committee on recent board activity: a February special meeting to receive confidential legal advice; a January full board meeting that included public comment from the Kansas Art Therapy Association about a licensure bill that did not receive a hearing; an update from Jason Hess about the Kansas Fights Addiction Grant Review Board; and board review of proposed regulatory language for an expedited application process and a suggested educational definition change for psychology to align “in residence” coursework language with other professions.

The meeting recorded routine formal motions: the advisory committee approved its meeting agenda and the minutes of the previous meeting by voice vote, and later moved to adjourn. No member recorded an objection on those motions.