Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements in Colorado: Credentials, Hours and Exams

Colorado regulates addiction counselors through a single state board, and every rung is a state credential.

CAT and CAS holders have the right to practice addiction counseling under supervision or consultation as the rules of the state board of human services require, and a CAS may supervise addiction counseling practice.

The LAC is the licence.

The candidate registration exists for master's-level applicants working toward the LAC and is under the board's jurisdiction.

There is no CAC I/II/III ladder today: CAT and CAS holders may use the title "certified addiction counselor" and the abbreviation CAC (§805(1)), and the rules mention a "certificate of addiction counseling, level III" only historically, through March 31, 2020 (r.1.15 B.2).

Titles are protected (§805; §217(1)).

The degree floor rises by tier: a high school diploma or its equivalent for the CAT, a bachelor's degree in a behavioral health concentration or human services equivalent for the CAS, and a master's or doctoral degree in the behavioral health sciences for the LAC and the candidate registration.

The Behavioral Health Administration's training sheets add specialty coursework on top: nine addiction specialty trainings totalling 154 hours for the CAT, eleven totalling 161 hours for the CAS, and seven totalling 112 hours for the LAC — the LAC sheet says these must be taken from a BHA-approved trainer with no educational equivalency.

The licensure rule requires training at the CAS level (r.1.15 B.3).

A non-conforming bachelor's or master's degree is approved or denied at the Addiction Board's discretion, per the BHA sheets.

The hours are stated per tier and never rounded: the CAT needs a minimum of one thousand hours of supervised clinical experience over a minimum of six months; the CAS a minimum of three thousand hours over a minimum of eighteen months, which may include the CAT one thousand.

For the LAC the statute says at least two thousand direct clinical hours, while rule 1.15 C.4 requires 3000 hours of supervised experience with a minimum of 2000 direct clinical hours — read both together and confirm the current figure with the board.

CAT hours may accrue before application, and BHA's sheet notes the 1,000 hours do not require DORA registration first.

For planning, BHA's clinical training page tells students it takes 18 months to earn the LAC hours.

Any additional criteria for the CAT hours sit in 2 CCR 502-1, which was not among the sources read.

Each tier carries a NAADAC exam plus the Colorado jurisprudence exam: NCAC I for the CAT, NCAC II for the CAS, and the master addiction counselor examination administered by the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors for the LAC — the BHA sheets link the MAC and NCAC testing to caap.us.

Candidates also pass the jurisprudence exam (r.1.15 D.1).

The clock matters as much as the exam: it must be passed within five years before application, and experience and supervision completed more than five years before the application are not accepted absent good cause (r.1.14 A.3, r.1.15 A.3) — though r.1.15 A.3 adds that this may not apply in the statutory exceptions concerning addiction counselor candidates.

If your hours are older than that, plan a conversation with the board before you apply.

Choose the supervisor before the placement.

For LAC hours the board accepts as a supervisor a Colorado LAC, an addiction counselor licensed at the highest possible level in another jurisdiction, someone not licensed as an LAC there where the jurisdiction provided no such credential (the supervisor documents competence in the same field of addiction counseling), and other professionals with equivalent experience approved by the board case-by-case (r.1.15 C.3.a(1)–(2)).

For CAT and CAS hours the supervisor may be an LAC, LCSW, LMFT or LPC who has met the LAC education requirements set by the state board of human services (r.1.15 C.3.a(3); §805(2.5)(c)); a CAS may supervise CAT and CAS practice (§805(1), (2.5)(a)).

Group supervision counts only at not more than ten individuals at one time (r.1.15 C.1.b), and the supervisor keeps the hour records for five years.

BHA says master's students can earn hours during internship or practicum under a CAS or LAC.

Diagnosis is not exclusive to the licence: §803(2)(c) names the ability to properly diagnose behavioral health disorders among the statute's four transdisciplinary foundations that underlie the work of all addiction counselors.

Among the credentials, the LAC scope expressly includes clinical evaluation and diagnosis (§803(4)); a CAS's practice may include treating substance use and co-occurring disorders and clinical assessments including diagnostic impression (§805(3)(b)); CAT practice is limited to a list that runs from collecting biopsychosocial screening data through case management, psychoeducation groups and referral (§805(3)(a)) — and both certificates practise under supervision or consultation (§805(1)).

Whether an LAC may open an independent or private practice is not stated in the sources read.

One cross-credential wrinkle: since HB 24-1045, an LAC who has met the LPC or LMFT education requirements may supervise candidates working toward those licences (§803(5)).

Colorado has no counselor-level IC&RC member board — COPA, the Colorado board on the IC&RC directory, covers prevention and peer only — so there is no IC&RC-to-Colorado reciprocity to invoke, and an out-of-state IC&RC credential holder applies like anyone else.

The route is rule 1.12, the Occupational Credential Portability Program: substantially equivalent education, experience and credentials to §12-245-804, or at least one year holding a current, unrestricted licence in good standing in another jurisdiction with a substantially similar scope of practice.

Endorsement applicants for licensure and candidate registration also pass the board's jurisprudence examination (r.1.12 D), and the board may decline endorsement for non-equivalence or disciplinable conduct (r.1.12 B).

Separately, an addiction counselor licensed or certified in another state may practise in Colorado up to twenty days per year — within scope, not otherwise in violation of article 245, and disclosed to the public that the person is not licensed or certified in Colorado (§217(2)(e)).

Every credential renews through the same competence program: certified and licensed addiction counselors complete forty professional development hours (PDH) each renewal cycle against a personal learning plan, and candidates complete sixty PDH from the second renewal on (r.1.19 E).

No more than twenty PDH from a single activity count per cycle, at most five carry over (if earned within six months of expiry and in excess of the forty), and an original, reinstated or reactivated credential issued mid-cycle must accrue 1.66 PDH for each month or portion thereof certified or licensed during the current cycle (r.1.19 E.3).

There is a sixty-day grace period after expiration to renew without a disciplinary sanction for practising on the expired credential, with a delinquency fee for late renewal; someone who does not renew within the sixty days is treated as having an expired credential and is ineligible to practise until it is reinstated (r.1.9 B).

How long a renewal cycle lasts is not stated in the parts read — confirm with DORA.

The recent changes cluster on the candidate registration.

SB 24-115 rewrote §804(3.7), effective 2024-08-07: candidates take the jurisprudence exam and accrue continuing professional competency hours, and if the LAC requirements are not met within the three years (or one year for an equivalent out-of-state credential) the registration falls under the renewal, reinstatement and delinquency fee provisions.

HB 24-1045, also effective 2024-08-07, added the education-equivalent LAC supervision of LPC and LMFT candidates at §803(5).

On the rule side, 4 CCR 744-1 was amended effective 2025-03-30 (rules 1.9, 1.13, 1.14 A.2, 1.15) and 2025-09-30 (rules 1.12 D, 1.15 C.3.a(3), 1.15 D, 1.24), with a correction effective 2025-10-07 — cite the current version.