May 22, 2024

As you will recall, a few weeks ago the NYS Council alerted you to proposed rule changes that the State Board of Regents took up at their May 2024 meeting.  As promised at that meeting, the SED proposed rules were published in today’s (May 22, 2024) NYS Register for a 60 day public comment period.  You can find the Proposed Rule here (right column, page 8):  https://dos.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2024/05/052224.pdf

Note:  The rule changes pertain to ways supervision may be provided to permit holders working toward their license under Art 163 and for social work interns.

The State Education Department is proposing to align supervision of permit holders and interns with practices allowable for psychologists, practices which were in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic and had no adverse impact on training, and which address the need to support expansion of the number of practitioners who can meet the demand for community behavioral health services. The two proposed rule changes the NYS Council will comment on relate to: – amending multiple sections of existing State Education regulations regarding the supervision of social work, licensed mental health counseling, licensed marriage and family therapy and psychotherapy, for those with limited permits; clarifying that “face-to-face” supervision can include real time video communication; and- repealing the section of existing State Education regulation that refers to licensed clinical social workers needing to gain the “R” status to diagnose and do assessment based treatment planning.  This change went into effect on January 1, 2023, so SED is simply ensuring that their regulations comply with the law.

The sections of existing regulations that refer to supervision are amended for each practitioner and for social work in the proposed Rule published today.  Those regulations specify that no supervisor shall supervise more than five permit holders at one time, a component of the regulations that is often criticized and remains unchanged.

The NYS Council should vigorously support the ability to reduce travel and scheduling time associated with supervision by allowing the use of real time, secure video conferencing.  This policy change appears to be an effective use of scarce human resources and a safe and well documented method of providing supervision where it makes sense to do so.

I will work with our new NYS Council Scope of Practice Committee to formulate our comments for submission to SED and I will be back to you shortly.