Committee backs changes to retired-license rules to ease administrative burden

The California Board of Behavioral Sciences Policy and Advocacy Committee voted Jan. 24 to direct staff to develop statutory amendments clarifying retired-license requirements and restoration procedures for licensees who cease active practice.

Board legislative manager Roseanne Helms summarized the proposal and said the primary change would permit a license that has been expired for up to three years to be converted to retired status without first reactivating it — a change intended to reduce administrative burden for licensees who allowed a recent expiration and now wish to retire. Helms said, “We currently have about 2,900 retired licensees,” and described other clarifications in the draft, including specifying information required on retirement and restoration applications, clarifying permissible professional titles for retired licensees, limiting a retired-license reactivation to one time, correcting fingerprint references, and setting an age limit for required continuing education used to restore a license.

Helms told members the board initially considered longer restoration windows but halted that approach after legal review and comparisons to other boards to avoid unintended consequences. Committee legal counsel Christy Michels (legal counsel) and Christy Shields (legal counsel) noted constitutional limits around regulating religious or faith-based practice in other agenda items and explained the board is seeking statutory language that is “self-executing” to reduce the need for separate regulations.

The committee motion directed staff to make discussed and non-substantive changes and bring the proposal to the board as a legislative proposal. Public commenters from CAMFT expressed support for the clarifications, particularly the provision allowing recently expired licenses to be retired. Christina took roll-call votes: Chris Jones: Yes; Abigail Ortega: Yes; Kelly Ranasinghe: Yes. The motion carried.