The Senate Education Committee unanimously advanced SB 26-153, which establishes a 48 credit hour graduate minimum for school counselor licensure in Colorado, responding to a State Board of Education action that had eliminated a prior 60-credit minimum and left no minimum hour requirement. Only proponents testified; no opposition was voiced.
Sadie Miller explicitly stated she does not believe the lack of rural school counselors has anything to do with licensing standards, attributing shortages instead to district benefits and the realities of rural living, while other witnesses and sponsors framed workforce pipeline concerns in connection with the standards discussion.
“They eliminated the 60 credit minimum requirement for a master's degree and also the requirement that had aligned with Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs called cacrep, which are national standards. Now that was at the high end nationally and they changed it to basically no minimum hours.”
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Sign in to subscribeSenate Education Committee will come to order. Ms. Christopher, please call the roll. Senators Bright. Here. Brazil. Present. Kip. Here. Rich. Here. Snyder. Excused. Merchman. Here. Mr. Chair, here. Thank you very much. And today we will be going presenting Senate Bill 26153 with myself and the minority leader. So I will hand the gavel over to my vice chair and we'll begin presenting here in just a moment. All right, we've got our bill sponsors for Senate Bill 153. Who would like to go first? Oh, we already did. Senator Kolker. Thank you, Madam Chair. Glad to be here today to present Senate Bill 153. It is a late bill that was just brought up, so that's why we're hearing it today. The purpose of this bill is establishing a minimum 48 hour credit requirement for school counselor licensure in Colorado. And the reason is due to recent changes in February by the State Board of Ed to change the licensure rule for school counselors. They eliminated the 60 credit minimum requirement for a master's degree and also the requirement that had aligned with Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs called cacrep, which are national standards.…
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