Peer Support Specialist Certification in Arkansas: Training, Hours and Medicaid Rules

Arkansas runs two systems side by side.

The Arkansas Peer Recovery (APRP) program certifies a three-level career ladder — Core Peer Recovery Specialist, Advanced Peer Recovery Specialist, and Peer Recovery Supervisor — with the application and exam handled by NAADAC.

Separately, DHS grants Peer Support Specialist, Youth Support Specialist (ages 18 up to 29), and Family Support Partner status under 2019 standards, and that status is what the Medicaid OBHS program requires for reimbursement; its minimum qualifications — age 18 or older, a high school diploma or GED, a valid Arkansas driver's license or ID, the DHS-approved PSS training, and QBHP documentation — are set in the standards themselves.

The status is scoped to one service and tied to your employing agency, so it is not a portable credential.

Check which of the two a job posting actually asks for.

For the Core Peer Recovery Specialist, the Levels PDF requires at least 2 years of consecutive abstinence from illicit substances or alcohol and at least 2 years of recovery from substance use disorder and/or mental health; NAADAC's application asks you to attest to two years of abstinence-based recovery.

The Peer Recovery Supervisor bar is higher: a minimum of three years of recovery and three years of abstinence.

The Medicaid-track PSS standard is different again — two years or more of lived experience having personally received services within the behavioral health system — so the definition you must meet depends on which track you apply under.

The education floor for the Core credential is a high school diploma or equivalent: the Levels PDF asks for a copy of at least your High School diploma or equivalent transcript, and NAADAC's eligibility is a GED or high school graduation.

Every candidate then starts with the 30-hour core training, a one-week in-person course, taken as a Peer-in-Training after acceptance into the program.

After that the two DHS sources disagree: the Levels PDF published September 11, 2025 says to complete an additional 16 educational hours, while the How-to page says 30 continued education hours.

The PDF appears newer, but the conflict is unresolved in the sources read, so confirm the current figure with the certifier before scheduling coursework.

Above the Core level, the Advanced requirement is the 18-hour Advanced training plus 17 continued educational hours, and the Supervisor path is 40 education hours including the 24-hour Supervisor training, per NAADAC's program page.

As a Peer-in-Training you complete 500 experience hours, including 100 hours of domain-specific experience split 25 each across advocacy, ethical responsibility, mentoring/education, and recovery/wellness.

You also complete 25 hours of domain-specific peer supervision, individual or group.

The program counts only pre-approved hours accumulated while serving as a peer-in-training — the DHS FAQ rules out college credit, counselor-in-training hours, or hours accumulated elsewhere.

The APRS level repeats the same 500 and 25 hours, and the Supervisor path — open only to someone with one to two years of consistent employment as a CPRS or APRS who is currently employed as such — adds its own 25 hours of peer supervision and splits its 500 into 250 hours of supervised work experience and 250 hours of providing peer supervision.

Your current credential must stay valid while you accrue in-training hours for the next level.

After the hours are complete you sit the credentialing exam for your level, administered through NAADAC, and any score equivalent to or higher than 70% is considered a passing score.

Applying carries a fee — $50 for the Core application, $75 for Advanced, and $100 for the Peer Supervisor application, each non-refundable.

Only the Core application's instructions ask for a copy of a background check completed in the last 60 days; the Advanced and Supervisor applications ask for reference evaluations instead.

No Arkansas state exam beyond the NAADAC-administered credentialing exam appears in the sources read.

On the APRP track, NAADAC's Core eligibility requires that you have not committed a sexual offense or murder or have any active warrants, and the Levels PDF's CPRS list requires a background check showing no disqualifying murder, manslaughter, or sexual criminal offenses — the whole bar as that PDF states it, with no waiver or exception process located in the sources read.

The Medicaid track carries its own bars: under the 2019 standards, an applicant may not be employed or provide services for reimbursement if excluded from Medicare, Medicaid, or both, debarred under Ark.

Code Ann.

19-11-245, excluded under DHS Policy 1088, or subject to a final determination that the provider failed to comply with professionally recognized standards of care, conduct, or both.

The Core application asks for a copy of a background check completed in the last 60 days, and the DHS FAQ points applicants to the Arkansas State Police for the check.

In the Outpatient Behavioral Health Services manual, section 253.006 Peer Support covers H0038 — self-help/peer services, per 15 minutes — with a telephonic variant, H0038 U4.

The unit is 15 minutes, delivery is face-to-face under the Rehabilitative tier, and the benefit limit is a yearly maximum of 120 units, combined between H0038 and H0038, U8, per state fiscal year, with an extension of benefits available on request.

The allowable performing providers the manual names are Certified Peer Support Specialist and Certified Youth Support Specialist.

The edition read is dated 2-1-18, and current coverage under the PASSE managed-care model was not verified in the sources read — check the current manual before relying on any billing figure.

Supervision means different things on the two tracks.

On the certification track, a Peer-in-Training attains an agreement to work with a Peer Recovery Supervisor and logs the 25 supervision hours; the DHS Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health publishes a list of credentialed PRSs with contact details, and the FAQ says fees for peer supervision are currently covered by DHS through grant funding.

On the Medicaid track, the 2019 standards require the PSS to be supervised by a Mental Health Professional as defined by the QBHP requirements in the Behavioral Health Agency certification.

The certification-track PRS and the Medicaid-billing MHP are different roles with different requirements.

The NCPRSS national credential is not just an outbound extra — it is a rung on the ladder.

The DHS FAQ says Advanced training applicants must be actively credentialed as NCPRSS, and Supervisor applicants must hold NCPRSS and APR, so STEP 5 of the How-to page — the test-exempt application for NCCAP Peer Certification through NAADAC, the door to the NCPRSS National Peer Certification — is a required step before moving past Core.

An inbound reciprocity route — using another state's peer credential to skip Arkansas training or hours — was not located in the sources read, and no IC&RC pathway is described for this program.

The Medicaid-track PSS status is expressly not transferable or assignable, so moving to a new Behavioral Health Agency means applying again.

The Levels PDF's renewal steps apply at all three levels: complete the renewal application with an ethics statement, self-attest to ongoing abstinence and recovery, complete 20 continuing education hours of which 6 must be ethics, and complete peer supervision hours — 20 for CPRS, 15 for APRS, while a PRS satisfies the item by providing supervision.

What the sources do not state is the renewal interval: the PDF lists requirements but no cycle length, so the CPRS renewal period is not stated in the sources read.

The Medicaid-track PSS status is clearer: approval runs continuous for two (2) years from the date of approval, with 8 hours of training annually and a renewal application due at least 15 business days before expiration.

The Levels of Peer Support Specialist PDF is dated September 11, 2025, and it is the newer of the two conflicting sources on additional education hours — 16 there versus 30 on the How-to page — a conflict the sources read leave unresolved.

NAADAC's Arkansas application packet shows recent revisions too: the Core application is a May 2025 form, and the NCPRSS test-exempt application is revised February 21, 2025.

The 2019 PSS/YSS/FSP standards and the 2018 OBHS section remain the newest Medicaid-facing documents in the sources read.