STAND. COM. REP. NO.1201

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1412

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 1412, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROFESSIONAL COUNSELORS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a professional counselor licensure program.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from Kaiser Permanente, National Association of Social Workers, Hawaii School Counselors Association, Hawaii Youth Services Network, Hawaii Vocational Services, Hawaii Counseling Association, Hale Opio Kauai, Waikoloa Community Based Substance Abuse Rehabilitation and Recovery Program, Alliance for Professional Counselor Licensure, American Counseling Association, Child and Family Service, Hawaii Rehabilitation Counseling Association, Sestak Rehabilitation Services, Christian Science Committee on Publication for Hawaii, and twelve individuals. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs opposed the measure. Comments on the measure were submitted by an individual.

There are several hundred counselors in the State who provide mental health, rehabilitation, career, and school counseling, yet Hawaii remains among a handful of states that have yet to establish a licensing program for counselors. Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico all regulate professional counselors within their jurisdictions. Further, the State's failure to regulate professional counselors is inconsistent with its regulation of the other core helping professions, including psychologists, social workers, and marriage and family therapists.

Currently, there is no single authority responsible for the oversight of the hundreds of professionals who hold themselves out to the public as counselors. While the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) monitors rehabilitation counselors who provide services to workers' compensation claimants, it has experienced a drastic reduction in its oversight staff from twelve persons to one person, and is therefore unable to maintain the same level of oversight as prior to the reduction.

Licensure, as established in this measure, would require persons holding themselves out as licensed professional counselors to have a master's or doctoral degree in counseling and supervised counseling experience, and to have passed a national examination.

Without these safeguards, the public has no assurance that individuals using the title "licensed professional counselor" have met minimum standards for professional education and experience.

Your Committee finds that this measure will enhance consumer protection. Your Committee further finds that, as federal programs increasingly require services to be provided by licensed professionals, adopting a licensure program will broaden the pool of qualified professionals available to provide needed services.

Your Committee has amended this measure to address some of the concerns raised by DCCA about the proposed regulation. As amended, this measure:

(1) Deletes the definitions "professional counseling" and "rehabilitation counseling";

(2) Deletes the new section entitled "Practice of professional counseling", but sets forth the activities that constitute professional counseling by adding the definition "practice of professional counseling";

(3) Clarifies the exemption from licensure as it applies to social work students by deleting the requirement that a student be a clinical social work student;

(4) Aligns the coursework and educational requirements and standards for licensure with national requirements as established by the National Board for Certified Counselors;

(5) Requires that a person who seeks to be "grandfathered in" under the licensing program, in addition to applying and paying the appropriate fee within the requisite time period, hold current national certification and pass one of the specified national examinations within a year of the start of the licensing program;

(6) Establishes the first license renewal deadline as June 30, 2008, rather than June 30, 2007;

(7) Replaces the provisions relating to a professional counselors licensing start up trust fund with language that authorizes a temporary $75 surcharge against licensees to reimburse the general fund for appropriations made to implement the licensing program;

(8) Appropriates $43,000 in general revenues for fiscal year 2004-2005 to implement the licensing program;

(9) Changes the effective date from July 1, 2050, to July 1, 2004; provided that no licenses are issued until July 1, 2005; and

(10) Makes technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style, and to correctly reflect the language of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1412, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1412, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing,

____________________________

RON MENOR, Chair