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Board says bill would extend windows for hours and ease renewal exam timing; fee cuts begin July 1, 2026
Summary
Presenters described AB 1598, a board-sponsored bill that would extend the supervised-hours validity from six to seven years, change law-and-ethics timing and allow a one-time hardship extension for some subsequent registrations; the board also announced fee reductions effective July 1, 2026.
At a recorded lunchtime webinar, executive officer Steve Sodegheri summarized proposed changes the Board of Behavioral Sciences is sponsoring in AB 1598 and a separate administrative fee reduction.
Sodegheri said AB 1598 would, as presented, remove the annual law-and-ethics renewal requirement for associate registrants and require that the law exam be passed within seven years of applying for an initial license. "It will also increase the amount of time supervised experience hours remain valid from 6 to 7 years," he said. He added the bill would increase the maximum number of associate registration renewals (from five to six) and permit a one-time two-year hardship extension allowing some registrants on a subsequent registration number to work in a private-practice setting to collect hours.
When an attendee flagged a date inconsistency in the presentation, Sodegheri corrected an earlier verbal mistake about effective dates and confirmed that the board is posting law-change information on its website. Separately, he announced a fee reduction for registration, exam applications and renewals: the current $150 application fee will be cut to $75 beginning July 1, 2026. "The fee reduction goes into play July 1st, 2026," he said.
Those measures would be implemented only if and when legislation is enacted or administrative policy is adopted; Sodegheri directed listeners to the BBS website for official law-change postings, the board’s statutes and regulation pages, and subscriber alerts for updates.
