College Students, Summer Break and Your License

College students are the most predictable licensing problem a counselor has. You know the dates months ahead: move-in, fall break, winter break, spring break, the end of term, the summer job in another city. And yet the questions arrive in May, when a student you have seen all year says they are heading home tomorrow.

The rule is the same as for any client. You need a license or a Counseling Compact privilege in the state where the student is located during the session. Their permanent address, the state on their driver's license and where their parents live do not decide it. See location versus residence.

What makes students different is the pattern. A student from Ohio at school in Pennsylvania is in two states every year, on a schedule you can write down in September.

Map the year at intake

For every student client, record the school's state, the home state, the academic calendar, and any planned summer location (internship, job, study abroad). Then answer one question for each block of time: am I authorized where they will be?

• Both states covered (licenses or privileges in each): no gap.
• One state covered: decide now what happens during the other block: pause, a planned handoff to campus counseling or a local clinician, or a temporary provision if one applies.
• Neither covered: you should not be the treating clinician for that student by telehealth.

What happened to Maryland's student license?

Maryland was the clearest example of a state writing a rule just for this. Its temporary telehealth license let an out-of-state counselor treat a student attending a Maryland college or university, if the therapeutic relationship had existed for at least 6 months. Chapter 242 of 2026 (HB 1483) repealed that license effective October 1, 2026.

In its place, Maryland now exempts a counselor licensed in good standing in another state who established the relationship outside Maryland, providing telehealth for continuity of care for up to 6 months after the client relocates to Maryland, or after the client returns to Maryland following "a continuous and nonincidental period of relocation outside the State." Read that second clause with students in mind: a Maryland student who spent the school year at a college elsewhere, and saw you there, appears to fall within it during the summer back home. The new provision has no registration requirement stated in the statute, but it is weeks old; ask the Maryland board how it reads the clause before relying on it.

Provisions that can cover part of the year

We maintain a full temporary practice table. The provisions most relevant to students, from the states we could verify:

• California: a free, 30-consecutive-day allowance once per calendar year for an existing client traveling in or moving to California. Good for a winter break at home in California; not enough for a summer.
• Washington: follow-up to maintain continuity of care with an established patient "temporarily located" in Washington. A student home for break is the textbook temporary presence.
• Idaho: no Idaho license needed for virtual care to a patient temporarily in Idaho for business, work, education or vacation, or for short-term follow-up. "Education" is in the statute.
• Virginia: continuity-of-care telehealth for up to one year for an existing practitioner-patient relationship.
• Telehealth registrations in Florida, Arizona, Vermont and a few other states can cover a student at school there all year, within their conditions.

Most states have nothing of the kind. New York and Texas, both large college destinations, have no exception we could find.

Is the Counseling Compact the better answer?

Often. If you live in and are independently licensed in a member state that is issuing privileges, you can obtain a privilege for the student's other state if it is issuing too. Ten states were issuing as of October 2026. For a counselor who sees many students at a particular out-of-state university, or many students from one home state, a privilege for that state turns a recurring problem into a renewal date. Check status on our Counseling Compact page.

Do "student exemptions" in counseling laws help?

No, and this confuses people. Many practice acts exempt students, but they mean counseling students in a supervised training program, not clients who happen to be in college. We found no current state provision written for clients who are college students apart from Maryland's, which is now repealed.

What about campus counseling?

Campus counseling centers are the natural partner when you cannot follow a student. Many students use both: a home-state counselor during breaks and the campus center during term. With the student's written consent, a brief handoff call at the start and end of each term makes that work. Give every student the crisis resources for both locations; 988 works in both.

A short protocol

1. At intake, record school state, home state, academic calendar and summer plans.
2. Check your authorization for each location and write down the plan for each break.
3. Put the dates in your calendar with a two-week reminder.
4. At each session, confirm the student's location and record it.
5. If you see many students in one state, price a privilege or license there.

White Glove MFT's traveling clients protocol covers students alongside vacations and snowbirds. If a privilege or second license is the answer, see pricing.