Guiding Statement on Certificate/Licensure Programs

GUIDING STATEMENT

Suggested Best Practices when CACREP accredited Programs Offer Certification or Licensure Options to Master’s Degree Graduates

CACREP believes that its Standards for Accreditation represent entry-level preparation criteria for its various program areas (e.g., School Counseling, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling). CACREP also recognizes that graduates of one CACREP accredited program area may at some point in their career decide to seek licensure or certification in a specialization of counseling for which they have not been trained. For example, a state certified school counselor may decide to become a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) or conversely an LPC may decide to seek certification as a School Counselor. In these cases, the state may require the graduate to take additional coursework or complete a supervised internship in a work setting appropriate to the credential they are seeking before the new license or credential is awarded. To assist with these state mandated requirements, CACREP accredited programs often choose to offer non-degree options to students seeking to satisfy the state’s requirements. CACREP refers to these non-degree options as licensure- or certification-only programs.

CACREP does not accredit these non-degree options; however, CACREP believes that institutions and programs should consider whether offering such options 1) impacts the quality of their currently accredited programs, and 2) reflects the same philosophy of excellence in entry-level preparation as required in the CACREP accredited master’s degree program areas. For these reasons, the CACREP Board encourages consideration of the following items:

Faculty to Student Ratios

Students enrolled in the licensure- and certification -only programs must be factored in to the full-time equivalent (FTE) student to FTE faculty ratio for the accredited programs, since there are resource demands associated with higher enrollments. High enrollments in the non degree licensure- and certification-only program options could result in not meeting CACREP Standards.

Accepting Students into the Program

Completion of a licensure- or certification-only program cannot be considered an adequate substitute for the development of counseling knowledge, skills and practices required in each of CACREP’s master’s degree program areas. Therefore, when programs admit students into a licensure- or certification-only program option, the program should consider only accepting into these options students who have previously completed a master’s degree in a counseling that meets CACREP’s entry-level program requirements.