Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Legislation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Kansas BSRB advisory committee delays push to reverse social work training changes
Summary
The Social Work Advisory Committee voted to withdraw prior recommendations to pursue statutory reversals (restoring a 1,500-hour clinical training standard and degree-course requirements) for at least a year, citing a hostile legislative climate and concern opening the statute could enable broader deregulation.
The Social Work Advisory Committee to the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board voted to pull its previously approved recommendations asking the board to seek statutory reversals to recent changes in clinical social work training requirements, the committee said during its Dec. meeting.
Co-chair Cynthia Schendel framed the issue as a choice between pressing now for a return to prior standards — including reinstating the 1,500 hours of face-to-face clinical experience and restoring coursework requirements that had been pared back — and waiting until the political environment is less likely to produce unintended changes. "I do have concern that once that starts happening… it would be a lot harder," Schendel said, describing the risk that newly licensed clinicians practicing under lower standards could be cited as evidence to maintain the change.
Members debated timing and tactics. Eric Schonecker said he was skeptical the political climate would shift soon and warned that repeatedly deferring the issue could amount to conceding the policy. Mary Gill and Leanne Gendry favored delay: "I'd rather sit on it," Gill said, citing worries that opening the statute during a legislature focused on workforce expansion and deregulation could allow unrelated or harmful changes to be attached.
At the committee’s request, a motion was made to withdraw the prior recommendations and hold them for at least one year; the motion, recorded in the meeting minutes with the mover identified in the record as Robert Scholes, passed by voice vote. Committee documents and members’ statements do not record a roll-call tally in the transcript; the motion passed on a voice vote.
Committee members and staff said they see value in gathering more data before pressing again. One option discussed was conducting targeted surveys in 2025 to build evidence that could support a later legislative request. The board will finalize its legislative agenda at a special Dec. 16 board meeting; advisory committee members were told that the board can change its mind on items proposed for the legislative session.
No formal statutory changes were made at the meeting. The advisory committee’s action limited itself to withdrawing the previously forwarded recommendations for the coming legislative session; any future advocacy would require board action or a legislator to sponsor a bill. The Advisory Committee noted the background statutory authority for the board (KSA 74-7501 through 74-7511) and recorded that the legislature, committees, or external parties can propose or amend bills during the session.
What happens next: the committee agreed to consider additional data collection and to revisit the recommendations at a later date; the board meets Dec. 16 to finalize its legislative agenda.
