Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of marriage and family therapists, educational psychologists, clinical social workers, and professional clinical counselors by the Board of Behavioral Sciences, which is within the Department of Consumer Affairs. A violation of these provisions is a crime.

This bill, commencing July 1, 2020, would require those licensees and registrants, prior to initiating specified services, to provide a client with a specified written notice that the board receives and responds to complaints regarding services within the scope of the licensed practice and that the client may contact the board.

Under existing law, an employee or volunteer of a governmental entity, educational facility, or nonprofit charitable institution is exempt from the provisions of the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act and the Clinical Social Worker Practice Act if the work is performed solely under the employer’s supervision. Under the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act, an employee of a governmental entity, educational facility, or nonprofit charitable institution is exempt from the provisions of the act if the work is performed solely under the employer’s supervision.

This bill, instead, would exempt from the provisions of the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act, the Clinical Social Worker Practice Act, and the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act an unlicensed or unregistered employee or volunteer working in a governmental entity, a school, a college, a university, or an institution that is both nonprofit and charitable if the work of the employee or volunteer is performed solely under the employer’s supervision. The bill, commencing July 1, 2020, would additionally condition these exemptions upon the employee or volunteer providing, prior to initiating psychotherapy services, a specified written notice to a client that provides the name and contact information of the agency that the client may contact to file a complaint regarding that practice of psychotherapy.

The Clinical Social Worker Practice Act exempts from its provisions a person using hypnotic techniques by referral from a person licensed to practice medicine, dentistry, or psychology if their practice is performed solely under the supervision of the employer.

This bill would remove from that exemption the condition that the practice of the person using hypnotic techniques is performed solely under the supervision of the employer.

The Clinical Social Worker Practice Act provides that its provisions pertaining to the licensure of clinical social workers are prohibited from restricting or preventing activities of a psychosocial nature on the part of persons employed by accredited academic institutions, public schools, government agencies, or nonprofit institutions engaged in the training of graduate students or social work interns pursuing the course of study leading to a master’s degree in social work in an accredited college or university, or working in a recognized training program, provided that these activities and services constitute a part of a supervised course of study and that those persons are designated by such titles as social work interns, social work trainees, or other titles clearly indicating the training status appropriate to their level of training.

This bill would revise the provision described above to specify that the provisions pertaining to the licensure of clinical social workers employees are prohibited from restricting or preventing psychosocial activities by employees of accredited academic institutions, public schools, government agencies, or nonprofit institutions who train graduate students pursuing a master’s degree in social work in an accredited college or university. The bill also would revise the provision described above to specify that psychosocial activities by the employee are required to be part of a supervised course of study and that the graduate students are required to be designated by those titles. The bill would prohibit a student from performing clinical social work in a private practice.

Because this bill would specify additional requirements under provisions pertaining to marriage and family therapists, educational psychologists, clinical social workers, and professional clinical counselors, the violation of which would be a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.