Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements in Rhode Island: Credentials, Hours and Exams

Rhode Island's own licences are the Licensed Chemical Dependency Professional (LCDP) and the Licensed Chemical Dependency Clinical Supervisor (LCDCS), and both sit on top of a private credential: the statute requires an applicant to already hold current certification as an "advanced chemical dependency professional" (ACDP) or "advanced chemical dependency professional II" (ACDP II) before the Department of Health will license them.

The chapter defines ACDP by the Rhode Island certification board's own requirements and ACDP II by ICRC/AODA standards (§ 5-69-2(1)-(2)) — two different bases, not an old and new name for the same thing.

RICB states on its own site that its CADC, CAADC and CCS certifications "are prerequisites for licensing"; neither RICB's page (which covers counselors and clinical supervisors together) nor the statute says which of the three meets the ACDP/ACDP II prerequisite.

Section 5-69-3(b) is title protection only — it bars using the LCDP or LCDCS title without the licence — and no general ban on practising chemical dependency counseling without a licence was found in the text read.

RICB's CADC requires only a high school diploma or GED, plus 300 total hours of relevant education and training in the ADC domains, 120 of them specific to substance use disorders, with 6 hours each of professional counselor ethics and responsibilities, communicable diseases and medication-assisted treatment.

Its CAADC requires a minimum master's degree in a relevant field from a regionally accredited college or university, plus 180 total hours of education and training in the AADC domains — 6 hours each of counselor ethics and responsibilities, confidentiality, communicable diseases, and medication-assisted treatment.

The state licence takes a different route: § 5-69-8(a)(1) requires current ACDP or ACDP II certification "in accord with the ICRC/AODA member board standards" rather than stating its own degree floor.

RICB's site says its CADC, CAADC and CCS "are prerequisites for licensing," but neither RICB nor the statute says which one satisfies that prerequisite for a given applicant.

RICB's CADC sets a degree-scaled work-experience ladder: 6,000 hours with a high school diploma or GED, 5,000 with an associate's degree, 4,000 with a bachelor's, or 2,000 with a master's, each paired with on-the-job clinical supervision.

Its CAADC needs 2,000 hours of work experience in the specific AADC domains.

Separately, the chapter itself defines "Experience" as six thousand hours of supervised chemical-dependency-counseling practice within the 60 months before applying for licensure (§ 5-69-2(13)) — but that defined term is not among § 5-69-8(a)(1)-(3)'s listed licence qualifications, which instead run on current ACDP/ACDP II certification plus § 5-69-8(b)'s good-moral-character and citizenship conditions, its (b)(3) sanction and (b)(4) felony conditions (each waivable on a no-impairment showing), its (b)(5) competence condition (a subsequent court determination, not a waiver), and its (b)(6) condition that the applicant prove freedom from impairing substance use.

A graduate should treat RICB's degree-scaled hours, not the chapter's standalone 6,000-hour definition, as the figure to satisfy for the certification being pursued.

RICB's CADC applicant must pass the IC&RC Examination for Alcohol and Drug Counselors, the ADC exam.

RICB's CAADC applicant must pass the IC&RC Examination for Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselors, the AADC exam — RICB's own application states this directly.

No state exam requirement for the LCDP licence itself was found in the statute or rule text read; the licence's entry point is the RICB certification prerequisite, not a separate state test.

The chapter defines "Supervision" as no less than one hour per week of individual or group supervision with a clinician licensed or certified in substance-abuse counseling, with education, supervisory experience and ethics approved by the ICRC/AODA member board (§ 5-69-2(24)) — but, as with "Experience," § 5-69-8's actual LCDP/LCDCS qualifications never invoke this defined term.

RICB's CADC ladder sets its own, separate on-the-job clinical-supervision requirement: 300, 250, 200 or 100 hours depending on degree, with a minimum of 10 hours in each domain; its CAADC needs 100 hours, also with a minimum of 10 hours in each specific AADC domain.

An associate should confirm the placement can document RICB's domain-by-domain hours, since the chapter's "Supervision" definition is not stated as the licence's own operative test.

The statute defines the practice of substance-abuse counseling as applying specific knowledge, skills and counseling theory to define goals and develop a treatment plan of action within the continuum-of-care network, plus networking and making referrals to medical, social-services, psychological, psychiatric or legal resources.

The LCDCS, distinctly, is licensed "to practice and supervise substance-abuse counseling."

Whether an LCDP or LCDCS may diagnose, or practise privately outside an agency setting, is not stated in the sources read — a clinician moving to Rhode Island should confirm both directly with the Department of Health before assuming either is covered.

One practice in the text read is restricted to licensees: rule § 6.4.1(C) bars representing oneself as an "acudetox specialist," or performing auricular acudetox, unless the person holds NADA-level training and is licensed as an LCDP or LCDCS.

Rule § 6.4.4 sets the endorsement route for an out-of-state applicant: a license application with the documents required by § 6.4.3(B), including verification of current certification at the appropriate level from the ICRC/AODA member board; if applicable, a statement from the certification board in each state where the applicant held licensure, submitted to the Rhode Island ICRC/AODA member board (RICB) itself; and a statement of that jurisdiction's requirements, which the licensing board must find substantially similar to Rhode Island's.

Separately, R.I.

Gen.

Laws § 5-69-8(a)(3) lets the board credit a comparable license, certification or reciprocity within Rhode Island or from another state that is "substantially similar."

No saved source describes how an IC&RC transfer specifically is processed for the licence — the rule only lists the endorsement documents required.

Licences renew every two years, on October first of even-numbered years, and renewal requires compliance with ICRC/AODA member board requirements along with any additional requirements the licensing board sets, which may include continuing-education standards.

Rule § 6.4.5(C) makes that concrete for RICB-certified licensees: renewal needs a current RICB certification and its continuing education.

RICB itself recertifies every two years, but the CE-hour figure RICB requires was not read, so a licensee should confirm that number directly with RICB rather than assume it matches RIDOH's cycle.

The chapter 5-69 statute's amendment history read ends with P.L.

2017; no 2023–2026 statutory change appears in the text read.

The RIDOH rule, 216-RICR-40-05-6, shows a periodic refile effective January 4, 2022, with no 2023–2026 rule change shown in the sources read.

RICB revised its CADC and CAADC applications in September 2025.

None of this touches the statute's still-unrevised "ACDP/ACDP II" prerequisite language.