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

Vermont issues two peer certifications, both created by 26 V.S.A. chapter 60 and effective July 1, 2025: the Certified Peer Support Provider for mental health peer support and the Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist for recovery support services.

The statute does not require certification to practice; it is title protection, so you can work as a peer without certifying, but the certified title, letters, words and insignia are reserved to people who hold it.

Certification still matters practically: VDH's scheduled Medicaid benefit requires a PRSS, and the certification is what makes the state's own gatekeeping apply to you.

Applicants for either certification must be at least 18 (26 V.S.A. § 3195(a)(1)).

The statute writes lived experience into both definitions, and the two differ.

For the mental health side, peer support is provided in a mutual relationship between individuals with a lived experience of trauma, mental health, or substance use challenges (26 V.S.A. § 3191(7)).

For the PRSS, recovery support services come from an individual with lived experience of either recovery from a substance use disorder or having a close relationship with an individual in recovery — the statute's own words admit a close-relationship route on the substance use side, and no equivalent clause appears in the peer support definition.

The Prevention Works!VT CRC page states no recovery-time figure, so the sources read set no minimum recovery duration for either credential.

The OPR does not teach the training; its rules require the credentialing body to ensure, before issuing the underlying credential, that the applicant has signed the applicable Code of Ethics and satisfactorily completed the training approved by the Department of Mental Health (peer support providers) or the Department of Health (PRSS).

For the PRSS that training is the Vermont Recovery Coach Academy or another program — the Prevention Works!VT page says only that other programs may be approved, naming no approver; it states no hour count, and the CRC requirements add a high school diploma or GED.

What the DMH-side credentialing body requires for the peer support provider certification was not read, and that certification's training hours are not stated in the sources read, so this page carries no training-hour figure for either side.

The OPR's own eligibility rules (Rules 5-1, 6-1) add the credentialing-body credential, a fee and the criminal-history disclosure — no test of their own.

The hour gate sits on the CRC side.

Prevention Works!VT requires 500+ hours as a volunteer or paid recovery coach within the last seven years, of which 25 must have been directly supervised by a Recovery Coach Supervisor.

The page's first requirement comes before any of it: applicants must already be employed by or volunteering at an organization or facility that provides recovery resources to people in Vermont, so line up the placement before you start counting.

These are the CRC's figures — the credential the state requires for PRSS certification — and they come from Prevention Works!VT's page, not from the OPR's rules.

The sources read state no work-hour figure for the peer support provider certification.

The CRC ends in an exam: Prevention Works!VT lists a passing grade on the exam as the fifth requirement, without naming the exam's body, length or format.

Because VDH names the CRC as the PRSS's credentialing requirement, that exam is a required step on the way to OPR certification on the substance use side.

On the mental health side, the sources read name no exam for the peer support provider certification, and the OPR's own eligibility rules (Rules 5-1, 6-1) list no test — the state certification rides on the credentialing body's credential.

The statute makes background checks an eligibility item: an applicant must show they have passed registry checks and criminal history checks that may be required in rule (26 V.S.A. § 3195(a)(3)).

The rules answer with inquiry and disclosure: the Office may inquire into criminal background histories at initial application and renewal, and the eligibility rules (5-1(d), 6-1(d)) require applicants to have disclosed criminal history in response to Office inquiries.

The sources read name no disqualifying offense list and no look-back period, so this page states none.

Rule 4-3 adds one relief valve: provisional certification for an applicant who meets the other requirements while verification from another jurisdiction or a required criminal background check is still pending.

Vermont's peer Medicaid benefit is scheduled, not current.

VDH's RSS Q&A says Recovery Coaching will be reimbursable for Wave 1 of the RSS Medicaid Benefit starting July 1, 2027, and that any services provided before this date will not be Medicaid reimbursable; the same Q&A hedges that Recovery Support Services will be eligible under Medicaid no earlier than July 1, 2027, with funding discussions still forthcoming.

The Q&A ties the benefit to a specific workforce shape: recovery support services need to be provided by a Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist employed by a Vermont Department of Health Certified Recovery Services Organization, so the employer matters as much as the credential.

The Q&A names no federal funding vehicle, and the sources read do not locate Medicaid coverage for mental-health peer support.

VDH also says it will transition a portion of each Recovery Center's grant funding to Medicaid program funding beginning July 1, 2027, and expects to keep providing Base grant funding to RSOs for people who are not Medicaid-eligible or are uninsured.

Vermont's substance use credential is the IC&RC credential under a local name: VDH states that in Vermont the IC&RC's Peer Recovery Certification is known as the Certified Recovery Coach, and that the CRC through Prevention Works!VT is the credentialing requirement for PRSS certification.

If you already hold an IC&RC peer credential from another state, that is the relationship to ask Prevention Works!VT about before you redo any hours — the sources read do not describe PWVT's transfer process, so confirm it directly.

The OPR layer adds no mover route of its own: eligibility still turns on a credential from the DMH- or VDH-approved credentialing body (26 V.S.A. § 3195), and Rule 4-3 only lets the Office issue provisional certification to certain otherwise-eligible applicants while verification of certification from another jurisdiction or a required criminal background check is still pending.

No reciprocity statement for the mental-health route appears in the sources read.

Both OPR certifications renew every two years with an application, a fee and any continuing education the rules require (26 V.S.A. § 3196), and the rules add the load-bearing condition: a certified provider or specialist must provide a current credential from the credentialing body at renewal, so a lapsed CRC leaves the PRSS unable to renew.

The CRC's own recertification, every two years, requires the coach to work or volunteer for a recovery-related resource in Vermont, and takes 20 CEUs — six in ethics, six in motivational interviewing and eight from any approved training program — plus 20 hours of mentorship with a Recovery Coach Supervisor who signs the renewal application.

OPR renewal applications open six weeks before the expiration date, and the Office's website search tool may be considered a primary source verification of certification status (Rule 4-1).

The framework is entirely new: 26 V.S.A. chapter 60 was added by 2023, No. 170 (Adj.

Sess.), effective July 1, 2025, and the OPR's administrative rules took effect the same day.

The Office's application and renewal instructions are dated February 2026.

On the funding side, VDH's RSS Q&A — whose body carries a May 19, 2026 date while its page footer reads September 9, 2026 — schedules the Medicaid benefit for no earlier than July 1, 2027.

Everything on this page is read from those current documents.

The credentialing layer runs through the departments, not the OPR: no entity may conduct a peer credentialing program unless the Department of Mental Health has approved it for peer support provider credentialing or the Department of Health has approved it for peer recovery support specialist credentialing (Rule 7-1).

The DMH page points to Pathways Vermont for peer support training, and Prevention Works!VT, through the Vermont Recovery Coach Certification Board, is the VDH-side body for the CRC.

Scope has a statutory boundary: both definitions exclude the provision of psychotherapy as defined in 26 V.S.A. § 4082.

And on the substance use side, the state will cover the OPR PRSS certification fee for people employed by or volunteering at one of Vermont's 12 Recovery Centers through established grants.