Counselor Licensing Rule Changes, Dated and Sourced (Through October 2026)

Licensing rules change through statutes, board rules and compact milestones, and almost none of it is announced to the people it affects. This page collects changes from the past few years that matter to counselors who practice in, or are moving to, more than one state. Each entry has a date and the kind of source it came from. If we could not tie a change to a primary source and a date, it is not here.

Newest first within each group. Effective dates are what the source says; check the current rule before acting on any of them.

Counseling Compact milestones

• October 1, 2026: Oklahoma begins issuing privileges, the tenth state to do so. Eligible home license: LPC. Oklahoma requires a jurisprudence exam for privileges.
• September 1, 2026: Tennessee goes live. Only the LPC with Mental Health Service Provider designation (LPC-MHSP) is eligible, not the plain LPC. Tennessee requires a jurisprudence exam, offered through the CCE academy.
• August 31, 2026: Wyoming goes live (LPC). No jurisprudence exam.
• July 30, 2026: Arkansas goes live (LPC). Jurisprudence exam required.
• July 12, 2026: Pennsylvania's governor signs the compact, making it the 40th member jurisdiction. The Commission reported the law takes effect 60 days after signing. Pennsylvania still has to complete implementation before it can issue or accept privileges.
• June 8, 2026: Indiana goes live (LMHC). No jurisprudence exam.
• June 2, 2026: Georgia goes live (LPC). No jurisprudence exam.
• April 20, 2026: Louisiana goes live (LPC). No jurisprudence exam.
• January 5, 2026: Ohio goes live (LPCC). Ohio asks privilege applicants to complete its laws and rules video.
• January 1, 2026: Nevada's compact law takes effect. Governor Lombardo signed AB 163 on June 10, 2025.
• October 29, 2025: Michigan HB 4591 passes the Michigan House, 83 to 23. It was referred to the Senate Health Policy committee on October 30, 2025. Michigan is not a member until the bill is enacted.
• September 30, 2025: Arizona and Minnesota issue the first privileges. Eligible licenses: Arizona LPC, Minnesota LPCC. Arizona requires its statutes and regulations tutorial; Minnesota has no jurisprudence requirement.

Sources: counselingcompact.gov announcements, its application and jurisprudence pages, the Michigan legislature's bill history. For what the go-lives mean in practice, see the compact hub and jurisprudence exams.

Exam rule changes

• July 1, 2027 (announced): new NCE and NCMHCE. NBCC's published specifications set a 170-question NCE with 140 scored items and three answer options, and a 10-case NCMHCE, both on a shared six-domain blueprint with a scaled passing score of 360. Source: NBCC examination specifications. See our breakdown.
• January 1, 2026: Ohio drops the NCMHCE requirement for the LPCC. LPCs who have completed supervision can apply for the LPCC on their NCE score; the NCMHCE remains available on request. New LPC applicants may use either exam. Source: Ohio CSWMFT Board newsletter, Winter-Spring 2026.

Endorsement and education rules

• July 2, 2026: Virginia rewrites licensure by endorsement (18VAC115-20-45). An applicant must hold or have held a counselor license in another U.S. jurisdiction that allows independent assessment, diagnosis and treatment, plus a passing score on the exam that jurisdiction required, an NPDB report and a graduate transcript. The rule sets no minimum years of practice. Source: Virginia Administrative Code.
• July 1, 2025: Florida's accreditation requirement begins. LMHC applicants on the exam route must hold a 60-semester-hour master's from a program accredited by CACREP, MPCAC or an equivalent accrediting body. Source: Florida Statutes 491.005.
• December 1, 2024: Louisiana amends endorsement (LX-1101). Counselors licensed and actively practicing at least one year in another jurisdiction qualify with an NCE or NCMHCE pass (or the board's oral exam) and 40 CE hours earned in the prior two years. Source: Louisiana Administrative Code via the board's published rule.
• January 25, 2024: Utah amends its CMHC experience rule (R156-60c-302a). The rule now reads 3,000 hours of clinical mental health experience, including 1,000 hours of direct therapy and 75 hours under direct supervision, over at least 18 months. Older sources quoting higher totals are out of date. Source: Utah Administrative Code.
• July 1, 2022: North Carolina requires a 60-hour CACREP degree for LCMHC applicants. Source: NC Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors.

Continuing education and renewal rules

• January 1, 2024: Texas requires at least half of an LPC's 24 CE hours from listed providers. Texas LPCs also pass the jurisprudence exam each renewal period. Source: Texas BHEC renewal page.
• July 1, 2023: California adds a one-time telehealth course for renewals postmarked on or after that date: three hours on providing mental health services via telehealth, including related law and ethics. Source: BBS renewal form.

Things that have not changed, despite what you may have read

• California, Texas, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii are still not compact members. Michigan's bill has passed only one chamber.
• Texas still offers no reciprocity, endorsement or temporary license for counselors. See the Texas guide.
• The Social Work Compact has not issued a license. Its data system is expected in spring 2027.
• There is still no compact for MFTs, and PSYPACT covers doctoral psychologists only.

How can you catch changes that affect your own licenses?

Boards rarely email licensees about rule changes that do not touch renewal. A few habits catch most of what matters:

• Read the board newsletter. Ohio's exam change, for example, was explained in the board's own Winter-Spring 2026 newsletter.
• Check the history note on the rule itself. State administrative codes print an amendment date under each rule. If the date is newer than your last read, read it again. That is how the Virginia and Louisiana changes above show up.
• Watch the compact's news page for go-live announcements, and the application page for the current list of eligible license types in each live state.
• Re-read your renewal form each cycle. California's telehealth course requirement appeared on the renewal form; a counselor renewing from memory would have missed it.
• Treat secondary summaries as leads. Old figures linger. Utah's experience requirement is still quoted at its pre-2024 level in places, and Ohio still appears on some lists of dual-exam states.

What we left out

We left out changes we could not tie to a primary source and a date: reported bill introductions with no confirmed status, rule proposals that have not been adopted, and secondhand reports of processing changes. If you have seen a change that belongs here, send it to us and we will check it against the source.

Our Annual Renewal and CE Compliance clients hear about changes that touch their own licenses directly, so they do not have to watch every state.