This fall, the American Counseling Association took a major step in the direction of interstate licensure portability. 

On Oct. 17, the ACA Governing Council approved the initial endorsement and funding of a professional occupation interstate compact for professional counselors.

The ACA goals behind the compact include enabling licensed professional counselors to:

• Move to another state and easily maintain an LPC license.
• Provide telehealth in multiple states without the need for multiple licenses.
• Work across the nearest state line while holding only a single license. 

The decision to endorse and fund the compact came after ACA leaders and staff extensively examined the portability issue in recent years, with various logistical concerns in mind.

The hope is that, within all of the states that sign on to the compact, professional counselors will have the ability to move and work in new locations seamlessly, conduct telecounseling and practice across border states.

“Simultaneously, we as a profession will need to continue standardizing initial licensure requirements, thus allowing additional states to meet the criteria established by the interstate compact,” ACA President Simone Lambert said in a November 30 President's Message published in Counseling Today.

“This two-pronged effort will require much time, much energy and many resources so that we can achieve the end goal of national portability. The interstate compact approach works for other licensed professions and we believe it will for counseling as well.”