ANNOUNCEMENT: Extension of Amnesty Deadline

The Covid-19 amnesty period is extended until August 15, 2021. During this time programs are not required to submit a Substantive Change report of accommodations, for the following:

CACREP STANDARDS:
3.G Practicum students complete at least 40 clock hours of direct service with actual clients that contributes to the development of counseling skills.

3.K Internship students complete at least 240 clock hours of direct service.
Flexibility: CACREP does not have any prohibitions against telemental health or distance supervision. Programs using either one of these as alternative methods to meet curricular needs must ensure that students and site supervisors are trained to use this modality and that this modality is accepted by the respective state licensing board. The use of role plays are not an appropriate substitute for direct hours.
CACREP has not waived the minimum requirement for direct and indirect service hours for Practicum and Internship.
If the instructional experience is an emulation of an actual situation (in real world or virtually (AI)) then it may be appropriate. Role plays between students do not meet this requirement.

3.J After successful completion of the practicum, students complete 600 clock hours of supervised counseling internship in roles and settings with clients relevant to their specialty area.
Flexibility: Students who are unable to complete practicum requirements at this time, upon return to normal practice may enroll in Internship in the same term. However, the student must successfully complete all practicum requirements prior to commencing with Internship.
3.F must be met, which states “Students complete supervised counseling practicum experiences that total a minimum of 100 clock hours over a full academic term that is a minimum of 10 weeks.”

CACREP POLICY:
1.h Duration of Practicum. The duration of a student’s supervised practicum experience is to extend across a full academic term to allow for the development of basic counseling skills and the integration of knowledge. Practicum is completed prior to internship. Therefore, CACREP standards do not allow for extra hours obtained during the practicum to be counted toward the 600 clock hour internship requirements.
Flexibility: See accommodations provided for Standard 3.J. In addition, any documented extra direct hours beyond the requisite 40 hours or 100 total hours completed during Practicum may be counted towards Internship.

1.q Programs Offered by Multiple Delivery Methods. … When an institution chooses to offer 50% or more of a counseling specialization’s curriculum to students through multiple delivery methods, CACREP will consider it to be a single degree program offered through multiple delivery methods …
Flexibility: It is acceptable to move to fully online teaching on a temporary basis during this health crisis. Programs are advised to attend to the following two guidelines from the U.S. Education Department:

… This flexibility applies only with respect to students who were in attendance when the interruption occurred, and the flexibility is not available for clock-hour courses that lead to licensure if the relevant body will not accept distance education for purposes of licensure requirements.
… Institutions are not required to use “sophisticated learning management systems or online platforms” for Title IV purposes. Nevertheless, to meet ED’s distance-education definition, the institution must communicate with students through certain technologies and instructors must initiate substantive communications with students, either individually or collectively, on a regular basis. …

BOARD DECISION:
The moratorium on the procedural ability for a program to override not being recommended to proceed to site visit planning after the initial desk review has been extended until August 15, 2021.

Programs are expected to continue to maintain full compliance with the CACREP Standards and policies.