What happened to our bill?
As many members are already aware, SB 210 and HB 297 were not passed this legislative session. which would have renamed "registered mental health counselor interns" as "licensed associate mental health counselors. The bill made excellent progress in the House but never cleared its first committee in the Senate (the Senate Health Policy Committee). Despite meetings with the legislative aide for the Chair of that committee and the bill sponsor and a phone conference with the staff director of that committee, we were unable to identify any specific opposition in the Senate, but we learned that on the House side there was communication between the Florida Psychological Association and the House co-sponsor involving some opposition to the bill. Each year, only 6- to 15% of bills pass, so our bill's death is certainly not uncommon and may have simply been an issue of the Senate committee having too little time to focus on too many bills.
Some additional bills were not passed that our members may have interest in include:
What's FMHCA's GRC doing between legislative sessions?
Even between legislative sessions, FMHCA's GRC is keeping very busy. We're using the gap between legislative sessions to address other important issues that are not legislation-related, such as:
- FL Dept. of Education's policy of not accepting evaluations/recommendations for K-12 accommodations from 491 board licenses
- FL Dept. of Education/Division of Vocational Rehabilitation's policy of not accepting diagnoses from 491 board licensees for eligibility determination unless they are supervised by a psychologist, psychiatrist, or physician
- Partnering with Florida Psychological Association, Fl. Dept. of Education, and US Secret Service on increasing awareness/education of the "See Something, Say Something" model for preventing school shootings
- Approaching 491 board on potential for a new rule in the FAC that mirrors the Board of Psychology's rule about the release of raw test data and testing materials if subpoenaed or requested by a client.
When does the Counseling Compact start?
The latest update form NBCC was that they expect applications for practice privilege in other states to start in "late 2024."