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

Minnesota licenses substance abuse counselors as Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselors (LADCs) — the state's only licence tier for this field, issued by BBHT.

Below it sits the Alcohol and Drug Counselor-Trainee (ADC-T) temporary permit, which a trainee must identify with by using that title or the letters "ADC-T" in professional activities.

A separate, unlicensed technician role may perform screening, intake and orientation only under an LADC's direct supervision, and a practicum student may be called an "alcohol and drug counselor intern" while training.

Practicing alcohol and drug counseling without the licence is a misdemeanor.

The Minnesota Certification Board (MCB), which issues ADCR-MN and AADCR-MN credentials, is a separate private board and is not BBHT.

The LADC requires a bachelor's or master's degree from an accredited school, plus 18 semester credits or 270 clock hours of academic coursework and an 880-clock-hour supervised alcohol and drug counseling practicum; the coursework and practicum do not have to be part of the degree itself.

The required subject areas include the transdisciplinary foundations of counseling, pharmacology of substance use disorders (including medications for opioid use disorder), ethics, multicultural aspects, co-occurring disorders, and the statute's core functions.

The ADC-T temporary permit sets a lower degree floor — an associate degree, or an equivalent number of credit hours — but requires the identical 880-hour practicum and 270-hour/18-credit coursework.

So the practicum and coursework gate applies at both tiers; only the degree requirement differs between them.

An applicant who passes the IC&RC AODA written exam needs no supervised hours beyond the 880-hour school practicum already required for education.

The 2,000 hours of postdegree supervised professional practice apply only to the alternative route: a board written exam followed by that supervised practice instead of a case presentation and oral exam.

On that route, supervision runs one hour per 40 hours of practice, for 50 hours total, spread over no fewer than 12 and no more than 36 consecutive months, with at least 75% delivered in person and at least 50% one-on-one.

The supervisor must be a licensed alcohol and drug counselor or other qualified professional as the board determines, approved by the board to oversee that postdegree practice, with three years of experience providing alcohol and drug counseling services and 12 hours of training in clinical and ethical supervision.

An applicant qualifies for licensure either by passing the IC&RC AODA written exam "adopted June 2008, or other equivalent examination as determined by the board," or by passing a separate board written exam and then either completing a written case presentation plus an oral exam demonstrating competence in the statute's core functions, or completing the 2,000 hours of postdegree supervised professional practice.

The statute does not state an attempt cap or a retake waiting period for either route.

For the ADC-T permit, the trainee must simply be supervised by a licensed alcohol and drug counselor or another licensed professional practicing alcohol and drug counseling under the 148F.11 exemption.

For the 2,000-hour postdegree route, supervision means "documented interactive consultation" adequate to ensure the supervisee's quality and competence, covering the core functions, standards of practice and ethics, and scope of practice.

Postdegree practice itself is defined as paid or volunteer work involving oversight by a supervisor the board has approved.

That supervisor must also be a licensed alcohol and drug counselor or other qualified professional as the board determines, with three years of alcohol and drug counseling experience and 12 hours of supervision training.

Only 50 hours of supervision are required across the full 2,000 hours — one hour per 40 hours worked, at least 75% in person, the remainder by phone or audiovisual device.

The statute's definition of "practice of alcohol and drug counseling" expressly includes "diagnosing the level of alcohol or other drug use involvement to determine the level of care" — so an LADC has express diagnostic authority for level-of-care placement, stated directly in the practice definition rather than left silent.

A long list of other licensed professionals — physicians, nurses, psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, licensed social workers, licensed professional counselors, licensed professional clinical counselors, licensed school counselors, clergy acting within the scope of their regular ministries, attorneys and several others — may perform the same functions "for which they are qualified or licensed" without an LADC.

Technicians and resident managers in Department of Human Services-licensed programs are separately exempt for duties they discharge under Minnesota Rules, chapter 9530.

But an exempt person "must not use a title incorporating the words 'alcohol and drug counselor'" and isn't shielded from the board's jurisdiction merely by using one of those other titles.

Minnesota's reciprocity rule splits by how long the applicant has held their out-of-state credential.

Under five years (subd.

1): the applicant needs "a current license or national certification as an alcohol and drug counselor from another jurisdiction," and that jurisdiction's credentialing authority must send BBHT a good-standing statement plus "a copy of the jurisdiction's credentialing laws and rules that were in effect" when the applicant obtained the credential; BBHT "shall issue" the licence if those requirements were "substantially similar" to Minnesota's.

Five years or more (subd.

2): the good-standing statement is required, but not the laws-and-rules transmittal.

BBHT "may issue a license" only after finding the applicant has been "in active practice in good standing for a minimum of five years," then decides, based on experience and qualifications, whether to grant the LADC licence or another credential it regulates.

BBHT is not the IC&RC member board — MCB is — and the statute doesn't name IC&RC credentials, so whether a specific credential counts as "national certification" should be confirmed with BBHT.

The LADC licence "must be renewed every two years," and renewal requires 40 clock hours of continuing education that include "a minimum of nine clock hours on diversity, and a minimum of three clock hours on professional ethics."

The ADC-T temporary permit is renewed annually instead, and is not subject to the continuing education requirement, but it may be renewed "no more than five times."

If an LADC licence lapses through nonrenewal or voluntary termination, the former licensee can be relicensed within two years by applying, paying the fee, verifying they haven't practiced in Minnesota since termination, and completing 20 hours of continuing education for each year, or part of a year, they went without a licence.

The 2024 session amended § 148F.025, but the sources read for this page don't establish what that amendment changed: the education requirement's "substance use disorder treatment with medications for opioid use disorder" language is textually identical to the coursework list in § 148F.035(a)(2)(ii), whose own history stops at a 2022 amendment — meaning that MOUD coursework language predates 2024 rather than originating with it.

The exceptions section, 148F.11, was amended in both 2023 and 2025 — the current text, including the former-student exemption at subd.

2a, reflects those changes.

The revisor's notes flag additional 2026 Regular Session Chapter 88 amendments to sections 148F.165 subd.

2, 148F.205 subd.

5 and 148F.2051, but their content was not read for this page.

A student enrolled in an accredited school of alcohol and drug counseling may practice while under qualified supervision within that school, before finishing their degree.

A former student — someone who has finished the LADC or ADC-T education requirements — may then practice for 90 days, clocked from whichever comes later: degree conferral, or the last date they received credit for an alcohol and drug counseling course; that window requires supervision by an alcohol and drug counselor or a 245G.11 supervisor, limits practice to the internship or practicum site, and requires pay.

Counselors practicing under a federally recognized tribe's standards, while under that tribe's jurisdiction, are exempt and get an LADC's same rights, responsibilities and recognition.

Separately, active-duty military members, spouses, and veterans who left service in the preceding two years with an honorable or general discharge may get a two-year temporary licence based on a current, discipline-free out-of-state credential and a criminal background check showing no conviction the board finds would adversely affect licensure; to stay licensed after that, they must meet the standard education and exam requirements.