Licensed educational psychologists: supervision of associates and trainees.

(1) Existing law, the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act, the Clinical Social Worker Practice Act, and the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practices of marriage and family therapy, clinical social work, and professional clinical counseling, respectively, by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. A violation of any of those acts is a misdemeanor. Under those acts, certain unlicensed persons, including an applicant for licensure, an associate, an intern, or a trainee, are authorized to perform specified services under the supervision of a healing arts practitioner who is included in the definition of "supervisor." This bill would expand the definition of "supervisor" under each of those acts to include a licensed educational psychologist supervising the provision of educationally related mental health services. For purposes of these provisions and the provisions in paragraph (2) , the bill would define "educationally related mental health services." (2) The Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act and the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act require applicants for licensure under those acts to comply with specified educational and experience requirements, including, but not limited to, hours of supervised experience, and sets forth terms, conditions, and limitations for those hours of experience. Existing law authorizes preregistered postdegree hours of experience to be credited towards licensure under either of those acts if certain terms, conditions, and limitations on those hours of experience are met, including a specified amount of supervised experience. This bill would limit the number of preregistered postdegree hours that an applicant may credit towards licensure under those provisions for experience gained under the supervision of a licensed educational psychologist providing educationally related mental health services to a maximum of 1,200 hours. (3) Existing law, the Educational Psychologist Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of educational psychology by the board, and authorizes the board to deny a license or suspend or revoke the license of a licensee if they are guilty of unprofessional conduct, which is defined to include various acts. This bill would expand the definition of unprofessional conduct to include a violation of any statute or regulation governing the gaining and supervision of experience of an unlicensed person by a licensed educational psychologist, including the supervision of an unlicensed person under the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act, the Clinical Social Worker Practice Act, or the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act. By expanding the list of acts that constitute unprofessional conduct, a violation of which is a misdemeanor, the bill would expand the scope of a crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 4980.03 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 679 to be operative only if this bill and SB 679 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.