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

Delaware's peer credential is the Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, issued by the Delaware Certification Board, a private, nonprofit corporation certifying behavioral health and doula professionals since 1979 and an IC&RC member board.

It is a certification, not a licence, and no state agency issues it.

Above it sits the Certified Supervisor of Peer Specialists, and DCB's recertification page also lists a CFSP family peer credential at $50 with 30 hours relevant to family peer support.

DCB's credential-verification list carries more — CPSS, CPSS-S and Provisional CFSP among them — which the sources read do not describe.

The credential's force comes from employers and funders: the DSAMH ACT standards require a minimum of one FTE CPRS on each certified ACT team (section 7.2.6), and the standards' overview makes DSAMH certification the condition for Medicaid enrollment for those ACT services.

The CPRS definition is tied to your own recovery: personal, lived experience in your own substance use disorder and/or mental health disorder recovery.

A family member's experience is not what this credential certifies; DCB lists a separate CFSP credential for family peer support, whose full title the sources read do not state.

The 1,000-word statement must describe your experience with recovery and your history of sustained recovery, so the board asks for evidence of duration, not just a claim.

DSAMH's training-eligibility list adds that applicants must be willing to self-disclose their lived experience openly for education, role modeling and providing hope.

The education requirement is 46 hours in the CPRS domains, split exactly as the rule states it below.

DSAMH has designated the Mental Health Association in Delaware as the official provider of Delaware's IC&RC-aligned CPRS education and training, and its program fulfills the full education requirement at no cost, so the costliest input is your time.

DSAMH's pipeline runs Peer 101 (a two-day introduction, monthly), then an advanced nine-day certification training offered twice a year.

Its eligibility list requires a high school diploma or GED, being at least 18, direct personal experience living with mental illness and/or addiction and recovery, a willingness to self-disclose, and, as two separate conditions, at least 3 months of experience and being currently working or volunteering under supervision in a peer role.

The application sets no time limit on when training was received, accepts out-of-state education, and counts most three-credit college courses as 45 hours.

The two experience numbers are exact: 500 hours of work or volunteer experience in the CPRS domains, and 25 hours of on-the-job supervision in those domains.

The application's qualifying-work-experience checklist requires that you be currently employed as a peer recovery specialist at the time of application, and its CURRENT VOLUNTEER/JOB DESCRIPTION box requires a copy of the current peer recovery specialist volunteer/job description, obtained from the current organization and signed by the applicant and their immediate supervisor — both the application and DCB's CPRS page accept a volunteer description there.

The description is what verifies eligible experience: it must clearly delineate peer recovery support services as a primary function of the position.

Hours can accumulate across employers with letters verifying title, duties and dates; resumes are not accepted; time in mutual support groups does not count; and the application names sponsors, case managers, technicians, therapists and counselors among the positions that typically do not qualify.

You must live or work in Delaware at application, which the attestation puts at least 51% of the time.

Certification is exam-gated: DCB reviews the application within up to 10 business days, and an application counts as approved when the testing company emails you to register.

The exam is computer-based, 75 multiple-choice questions, two hours, at approved testing sites statewide or online, built from the IC&RC job analysis domains of Advocacy, Mentoring/Education, Recovery/Wellness Support and Ethical Responsibility.

Fail once and you can retest after a 90-day wait, with three retake opportunities; a fourth failure requires a study plan and a one-year wait.

The $150 application fee includes the examination, and the certificate follows within 10 business days of passing.

One wrinkle: DCB's CPRS page lists five CPRS domains — adding Harm Reduction to the four above — while the application, and the exam built from it, use four, so the domains you log hours against are named slightly differently across DCB's own materials.

DCB's rule is disclosure-based rather than a bar-by-category schedule: the sources read contain no list of offenses and no fixed look-back period.

Felonies and disciplinary actions from other certification/licensing entities may not prohibit certification, but documentation must be submitted with the application, and the checklist calls for a letter of explanation for disciplinary actions and for felony convictions.

The board separates its own decision from an employer's: certification does not replace disclosure to a potential employer and does not exonerate charges.

A denied applicant has 30 days to appeal in writing to DCB's Executive Committee.

Confirm current practice with DCB before applying, since the application is the operative document.

The sources read show no stand-alone Delaware peer benefit; what they show is ACT-specific.

The ACT standards' overview — which is about DSAMH's certification of ACT teams — states that DSAMH certification is required for provider enrollment with the Division of Social Services and DMMA for Medicaid reimbursement through the rehabilitative services option of Title XIX.

Team composition then requires a minimum of one full-time-equivalent CPRS (section 7.2.6).

The standards define Certified Peer Recovery Support Services, including coaching in approaches such as WRAP, WHAM and HARP, peer counseling, referral to self-help programs, and self-advocacy support, delivered by CPRS team members.

A stand-alone peer SPA was not located; two SPAs surfaced by search (DE-25-0011 and DE-22-0015) are not about peers, and coverage of peer services outside ACT was not located in the sources read.

For the credential, DCB has no requirements for who provides the 25 supervision hours: the person is at the discretion of the agency or state requirements, supervision can be one-on-one or group, and more than one supervisor can document it on the application's attestation page.

That makes your employer the de facto gatekeeper, since the supervisor signs the hours and lists their own licenses, certifications or degrees.

In Medicaid-funded ACT settings the standards define a Certified Supervisor of Peer Specialists as a person who is providing direct supervision to certified peer recovery specialists and has completed the process to become certified as a supervisor — the term appears only in that definition, and the sources read contain no provision requiring ACT peers to be supervised by a CSPS — and DSAMH runs a one-day Supervising Peer Recovery Specialists course quarterly.

How a Medicaid biller must supervise a peer outside those standards was not located in the sources read, so ask DSAMH-certified employers directly.

DCB is an IC&RC member board, and the application describes the CPRS as an international, reciprocal credential.

If you already hold an IC&RC peer credential elsewhere, DCB's site lists a reciprocity page and a letter-of-good-standing request, so start there rather than re-taking the 46 hours and confirm with the board what it will accept.

Training from outside Delaware is acceptable for the education requirement, with no time limit on when it was received.

The jurisdiction gate still applies: you must live or work in Delaware at least 51% of the time when you apply.

The board requires recertification every two years, and the certification period runs two calendar years from the date you passed the examination.

The CPRS renewal line is exact: $100 and 20 hours relevant to peer recovery, including 6 hours in ethics.

The CSPS renews at $50 with either the 12-hour State of Delaware standardized peer supervisor training, if not previously taken, or 12 hours relevant to peer recovery.

DCB no longer pre-approves continuing-education vendors; what you need is a certificate of completion naming the training agency, the attendee, the date and the CEU value, signed off by the trainer or someone in the trainer's chain of command.

And with the lapsed status eliminated, a credential goes straight from active to expired: re-certification is possible within the first three months of expired status, and after that a new application is required.

The CPRS application was revised in August 2025; no rule change was located.

DCB's homepage carried two operational changes for 2026: from March 1, 2026 the board no longer provides paper certificates to those who recertify (one can be requested on the recertification application for $25), and the lapsed status was eliminated in favor of active or expired status — DCB's homepage itself gives two dates for the change, a June 1, 2026 ALERT and the July 1, 2026 banner quoted below, so confirm the effective date with the board.

Under the expired status you may re-certify within the first three months; after that you must re-apply for the credential.

The board also discontinued pre-approval of continuing-education vendors.

These are certifier processes rather than statutes, and Delaware's peer credential rests on DCB's own requirements, so watch the board's site for changes.

DSAMH's peer page lists the settings where CPRSs work across the system, as employees and volunteers: ACT teams, peer resource centers, detox programs, emergency departments, intensive care management teams, group homes, inpatient and treatment facilities, veterans programs, intensive outpatient programs and mental health court.

Inside the ACT standards the peer is a fully integrated team member operating within a DSAMH-approved scope of practice, and the medication rules come in two parts.

The ACT definitions set the education bar flatly: peers may not assist with medication adherence education.

Medication assistance is conditional: peers may assist only when the team has determined that only the peer will have the most success in helping the beneficiary adhere to a prescribed medication regimen, the intervention is documented in the Person-Directed Recovery Plan (PDRP), the allowance is time-limited with a plan to disengage the peer, and DSAMH gives permission before the practice starts.

Section 24.3, quoted below, is the broader operating rule, worded differently: it bars peer staff from routinely providing medication education or assistance rather than repeating the definitions' flat education bar.