A compact privilege expires on your home license's expiration date as it stood when the privilege was issued. Renewing your home license does not extend it. After your home board renews you, renew each privilege in CompactConnect and pay its fee again. Ohio, for example, charges $55 to renew. CE is home-state only.
The renewal rule for privileges fits in two sentences from the Commission: your privilege to practice expires on the same date as your home license at the time the privilege is issued, and the privilege expiration date does not automatically update when you renew your home license. To extend the privilege, you renew it in CompactConnect after your home state renews your license.
That is the whole mechanism, and it catches people because every other renewal in a counselor's life is a single step.
The sequence
- Renew your home license with your home board, on its schedule, with its CE. The Commission says privilege holders only need CE for their home state.
- Wait until the renewal shows in your board's record, and in CompactConnect. Your privilege can only extend to the new home expiration date once the system has it.
- Renew each privilege in CompactConnect, paying again for each one. The Commission's published Ohio example is $55 to obtain and $55 to renew.
- Print new verification documents from your dashboard for your records.
What if I renew late?
If your home license expires, every privilege that rests on it expires with it. The compact makes the privilege valid only until the expiration date of the home license. If your home license is current but you forget step three, the privilege still expires on its frozen date. In both cases, practicing in the remote state after expiration is practicing without authorization there.
What happens next varies. Your home board's late-renewal and reinstatement rules control the license. Whether a lapsed privilege can simply be renewed or must be applied for again is a CompactConnect question; check before you see any client in that state.
Things that change your renewal
- Moving. If you move to another state, your home state changes. Privileges that rested on the old home license will not renew as before. See home state rules.
- An encumbrance. Any encumbrance on your home license ends all privileges, and any member state revoking a privilege does too, followed by two years of ineligibility.
- A remote state changing its fee or jurisprudence requirement. Fees are set by each state's rules, and the Commission notes its jurisprudence list is subject to change.
- Upgrading your license. If you move from one tier to another in your home state, confirm in CompactConnect that the privilege is tied to the right license record.
How to keep it from slipping
Put the privilege renewal in the same calendar entry as the home renewal, a week later, with every remote state listed. Keep a running list of what each privilege costs so you are not surprised. And each cycle, ask whether you still need every state: a privilege you no longer use is an annual cost with no return.
If you hold full licenses in other states as well, those run on their own cycles and their own CE rules. Our colleagues cover juggling those in CE requirements across multiple licenses.
Our Annual Renewal and CE Compliance service ($199 a year) tracks your home license, every compact privilege and any full licenses, and reminds you before each step, including the privilege renewals people forget. It is on the pricing page.
Common questions
- Does my compact privilege renew automatically when I renew my license?
- No. The Commission says the privilege expiration date does not automatically update. After your home state renews your license, you renew each privilege in CompactConnect separately.
- Do I need continuing education for each compact privilege?
- No. The Commission says privilege holders complete CE for their home state only. Remote states can still require a jurisprudence exam when you first apply.
- What happens if my home license lapses?
- Every privilege that depends on it ends with it, because a privilege is only valid until the home license expires. Seeing clients in a remote state after that is unauthorized practice there.
- How much does it cost to renew a compact privilege?
- It depends on the state. The Commission's published Ohio example is $55 to renew, the same as the initial fee. Check each state's renewal amount in CompactConnect when you renew.
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