Counselor Licensure in Kansas: LPC Requirements, Hours and Exams

Kansas's licensure act creates two practice tiers, and the acronym alone does not tell you the tier.

The LPC is a full counselling licence whose holder practises professional counseling only under the direction of an LCPC, licensed psychologist, physician or independent mental health practitioner, with licensure that allows diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders under that direction.

The LCPC is the independent licence, defined by independent practice including diagnosis and treatment.

Before either, the act issues two licences rather than a registration.

The temporary professional counselor license covers an applicant who has met the education requirements and is waiting to take the examination; it expires on the board's licence decision or 24 months after issuance, and its holder may not use "LPC" alone.

The community-based professional counselor license, added in 2023, binds practice to employment by a community mental health center, a federally qualified health center, a psychiatric residential treatment facility or a private treatment facility for 24 months, non-renewable; its holder may use "LPC" independently.

Neither is issued to anyone who has already held either one.

The LPC applicant furnishes evidence of 60 graduate semester hours including a graduate degree in counseling or a related field from a college or university approved by the board, with 45 graduate semester hours of counseling coursework distributed among the statute's listed areas, from counseling theory and practice and the helping relationship through research and evaluation, professional orientation and a supervised practicum and internship.

Applicants must be at least 21 years of age and satisfy the board that they merit the public trust.

The LCPC layers 15 credit hours supporting diagnosis or treatment of mental disorders through the DSM on top — identifiable study of psychopathology, diagnostic assessment, interdisciplinary referral and collaboration, treatment approaches and professional ethics — plus a graduate-level supervised clinical practicum including psychotherapy and assessment with not less than 280 hours of direct client contact, or additional postgraduate supervised experience as determined by the board.

The statute asks for a board-approved school, not an accreditor: CACREP accreditation is not required.

The LCPC experience requirement is not less than two years of postgraduate supervised professional experience under a clinical supervision plan approved by the board: not less than 3,000 hours of supervised professional experience, including at least 1,500 hours of direct client contact conducting psychotherapy and assessments, and not less than 100 hours of face-to-face clinical supervision, including not less than 50 hours of individual supervision.

The rule sets a ratio of one supervision hour for each 15 hours of direct client contact, with meetings of at least one hour at least twice per month, at least one of them individual, and up to 50 of the 100 hours may be group supervision with no more than six supervisees.

The trap is sequencing: the cosigned plan on board forms must be approved before any hours accrue, and later changes must reach the board within 45 days or nothing accrues from the change date until approval.

A doctoral-degree applicant who completes the remaining half of the hours in not less than one year may have the other half waived.

K.A.R.

102-3-5a requires each LPC applicant to take a nationally administered, standardized written examination approved by the board, and each LCPC applicant a nationally administered, standardized written clinical examination.

The rule and the board's page stop there: the board page says "Pass a nationally standardized competency exam" and "Pass a nationally standardized clinical exam", directs exam questions to NBCC, and does not name the NCE or the NCMHCE — the exam names were not established in the sources read, so confirm the current instrument with the board before you register.

The rule allows a waiver if you passed an examination the board deems substantially equivalent, at or above the criterion-referenced cutoff score, and you cannot register until your education is complete and the board is satisfied that you merit the public trust.

The board's page asks for the application on file six weeks before the exam.

The Counseling Compact commission's fees table records no Kansas jurisprudence exam.

Kansas approves supervisors; it does not licence them.

Since July 1, 2017, every licensee providing postgraduate clinical supervision must be a board-approved clinical supervisor.

The baseline route is an LCPC who has practised for two years beyond the licensure date; if no LCPC is available, someone qualified by coursework and degree for LCPC licensure may supervise with five years of postgraduate clinical experience, and under extenuating circumstances a graduate-level behavioral science licensee whose scope permits independent practice, with two years beyond the qualifying licence.

Approval takes supervision training too: 15 hours of continuing education in supervision within the last six years, or one graduate semester credit hour on supervision, across nine listed topics.

The supervisor must have professional authority over and responsibility for your clinical functioning, no dual relationship with you, and a staff position in your practice setting unless the rule's external-supervisor conditions are met.

All supervision is face-to-face — in person, or by synchronous videoconferencing if confidentiality is technologically protected — though the statute lets the board waive it for extenuating circumstances.

Both tiers may diagnose and treat the mental disorders specified in the DSM edition the board designates by rule — the difference is direction.

The LPC does it only under the direction of an LCPC, licensed psychologist, physician or independent mental health practitioner; the LCPC does it in independent practice.

Both tiers also carry a duty that is easy to miss: when a client has symptoms of a mental disorder, the counselor must consult with the client's primary care physician or psychiatrist to determine whether a medical condition or medication may be causing or contributing to those symptoms.

The client may waive the consultation in writing, the waiver becomes part of the record, and the counselor may keep evaluating and treating until the consultation is obtained or waived.

For an LPC, the direction rule is structural: whether you can diagnose at all depends on the supervising licensee above you, so read the arrangement before you accept the job.

The board may license a counselor registered, certified or licensed in another jurisdiction when that jurisdiction's standards are substantially equivalent to Kansas's, or by documenting registration, certification or licensure with a similar scope of practice for at least 12 months immediately preceding the application, no disciplinary actions of a serious nature, and a master's degree in counseling or a related field from a regionally accredited institution.

An LCPC applicant must also show competence to diagnose and treat mental disorders through at least two of three routes: graduate coursework or a passed national clinical examination; three years of clinical practice that included diagnosing or treating mental disorders; or an attestation from an independently practising licensee or a physician.

On the 12-month route the rule asks for five continuous years of licensure documented, with an attestation of practice averaging at least 15 hours per week for nine months in each of those years.

The board's page also offers independent-level counselors an out-of-state temporary permit: 30 days of practice in the year the permit is active.

Kansas enacted the Counseling Compact in 2023: L.

2023, ch. 17 added K.S.A.

65-5825, effective July 1.

Enactment is not operation.

As of September 2026 the Counseling Compact Commission's homepage does not list Kansas among the states issuing and accepting privileges, and no go-live date was located in the sources read.

Until that changes, a Kansas LCPC cannot use the Compact to practise in another state, and a counselor licensed elsewhere cannot use it to practise in Kansas; the route in remains a Kansas licence, by examination or by endorsement under K.S.A.

65-5807.

Check the commission's homepage and the board for the current status before relying on the Compact.

Each licence renews on a two-year cycle, and every renewal period takes 30 hours of documented and approved continuing education oriented to the enhancement of a professional counselor's practice, values, ethics, skills, or knowledge — including three hours of professional ethics and six hours related to the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders — with no carry-over of excess hours.

One CE hour is at least 50 minutes of classroom instruction; an academic course earns 15 hours per credit hour up to the 30-hour cap, and supervising practicum students or licensure applicants can earn up to 10.

One wrinkle to resolve before you book CE: the rule text requires six diagnosis-and-treatment hours, while the board's renewal page lists "at least 3 hours in Ethics and at least 3 hours in Diagnosis and Treatment" for both licences.

The two sources disagree, so confirm the count that applies to your renewal with the board.

Two 2023 laws, both effective July 1, are the recent record.

L.

2023, ch. 90 amended the licensure act — 65-5802, 65-5804a and 65-5807 — and the community-based professional counselor license now lives in 65-5804a(j).

L.

2023, ch. 17 enacted the Counseling Compact at 65-5825, which is not yet live.

The experience, supervision and CE rules predate the window: K.A.R.

102-3-7a was last amended effective December 16, 2022, and 102-3-10a was last amended in 2003, so an older guide mostly still has the hours and CE right — its Compact status and its silence on the community-based licence are the dated parts.