Guidance on Changes to CSWMFT Supervision Rules

Guidance on Changes to CSWMFT Supervision Rules

The Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist (CSWMFT) Board has released additional information to support CSWMFT Supervisors in implementing new changes to supervision rule requirements, that took effect on July 1st, 2024.

As of 7/1/2024, the rules for submitting training supervision hours were changed to require that all training supervision hours be submitted by the supervisee’s last supervisor. No grace period was included in the rule. However, if hours have already been submitted by a supervisor, those hours should not be duplicated by the last/final supervisor.

The hours of supervision submitted by the final/last supervisor must be based on the log retained by the supervisee. Maintaining a log is not a new requirement imposed on supervisees. Many supervisors have taken on the responsibility of keeping the log for supervisees, however the regulatory responsibility to keep the log rests with the supervisee.

No provision of the rules allows a supervisor to refuse to submit hours of supervision for any reason other than they did not provide training supervision. If an “S” is asked to submit supervision hours earned under their training supervision, they must do so within 30 days of the request. A supervisor is expected to submit the hours in eLicense; they are not required to make a recommendation if they can substantiate why a recommendation is not appropriate. Failure to submit completed hours could result in the filing of a complaint, and potential disciplinary action.

If a supervisor is not recommending a candidate for independent licensure the reason cannot result from having provided a limited number of supervision hours. A substantive clinical or practice-based issue must be the basis for not recommending a supervisee. The supervisor must be prepared to provide more information to the Board if additional information is requested. Also, the supervisor must be able to demonstrate to the Board that they shared the concerns with the supervisee and were working to correct any issues.

The supervision hours are reported in eLicense, under “Options” on your eLicense dashboard. Please be sure to carefully review the supervision hours form in eLicense before submitting it. A few common errors occur when hours are submitted:

Duplication of the supervision and work hours. Please keep in mind that the supervision hours will always be less than the work hours. Generally, a licensee should receive about 1 hour of supervision for 20 hours of work.
Timeframes do not match the hours submitted. For example, a three-month period will be submitted with 40 hours of supervision and 600 work hours. Usually, if a supervisee is working full time, we would expect to see them credited with 125 work hours per month and around 6-7 hours of supervision hours per month.
The supervisee is incorrectly denied a recommendation (see above).