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Senate passes substitute bill to streamline mental health and social-service licensure
Summary
The Senate approved first substitute Senate Bill 90 to simplify licensure by endorsement for mental health professionals and consolidate social-service worker tracks; sponsors said it has broad stakeholder consensus and imposes modest professional continuing-education requirements.
The Senate voted to pass first substitute Senate Bill 90, legislation intended to make licensure easier for mental-health professionals from other states and to clarify requirements for social-service workers.
Senator Hilliard, presenting the substitute, said the measure meets three conditions he set: it makes sense, it had consensus among stakeholders, and it would not require additional state spending. He said the bill facilitates license-by-endorsement pathways for therapists and substance-abuse counselors who hold credentials from other states and consolidates tracks for social-service-worker licensure. The substitute also refines scope-of-practice language and requires a modest amount of continuing professional education.
Senator Hilliard said the substitute incorporated concerns raised by Senator Butters and others and remedied licensing issues for marriage and family therapists and substance-abuse counselors, including clarifying associate/associate-period terminology and expanding eligibility to graduates of certain out-of-state programs pending accreditation.
On roll call, the Senate recorded the result as “first substitute Senate Bill 90, having received 27 yay votes, 0 nay votes, 2 being absent,” and the bill was advanced to the House for further action.
