Kansas Continuing Education Requirements for Mental Health Professionals

Kansas’s continuing education requirements look deceptively simple at first glance, since one board — the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board (BSRB) — oversees every license type this guide covers. But that administrative consolidation doesn’t mean the actual hour totals match. Look closer and the requirement climbs steadily by profession: 30 hours for counselors, 40 for social workers and marriage and family therapists, and 50 for psychologists, all built around the same underlying ethics and clinical content structure.

The biggest thing to know if you’re new to Kansas: the BSRB doesn’t pre-approve CE providers or courses at all, which puts more responsibility on individual licensees than in many other states. Kansas has also been unusually active on the interstate compact front, having enacted legislation for all three major behavioral health compacts — PSYPACT, the Social Work Compact, and the Professional Counseling Compact.

This guide explains the current Kansas continuing education requirements for LCPCs, LSCSWs, LCMFTs, and psychologists, including required CE hours, ethics requirements, renewal deadlines, approved providers, and other Kansas-specific rules to help you stay compliant.

Kansas Continuing Education Requirements

Kansas is unusually consolidated: a single Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board (BSRB) regulates counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, and addiction counselors, though each profession still has its own distinct hour requirements (Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board, n.d.).

License Type	CE Requirements	Renewal / Special Requirements	Official Licensing Board
Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC)	30 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 hours ethics, 6 hours diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. The Board does not pre-approve providers or courses.	Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board
Licensed Specialist Clinical Social Worker (LSCSW)	40 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 hours ethics, 6 hours diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. One-time 6-hour safety awareness training requirement for first-time renewal. First renewal overall is exempt from the general CE requirement.	Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board
Licensed Clinical Marriage & Family Therapist (LCMFT)	40 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 hours ethics, 6 hours diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders — same content structure as LCPC, but a higher total hour count.	Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board
Licensed Psychologist (PhD / PsyD)	50 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 hours ethics, 6 hours diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Up to 40 hours may be completed via independent/self-study.	Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board

Clinical Note: Kansas centralizing all five behavioral health professions under one board is genuinely convenient for cross-discipline questions, but don’t let that consolidation fool you into assuming a shared hour total — LCPCs need 30 hours, LSCSWs and LCMFTs need 40, and psychologists need 50, all on the same two-year cycle with the same underlying ethics and diagnosis/treatment content requirements layered differently on top.

Kansas License Renewal Requirements

All four professions renew through the same BSRB online system, which the Board itself describes as faster and more convenient than the older mail-in process. Unlike several other states, Kansas doesn’t use one fixed calendar deadline for everyone — renewal dates are individualized.

LCPC License Renewal

Administered by the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board. Renewal is biennial and tied to the licensee’s own birth month rather than a single statewide date — your specific deadline depends on when you were originally licensed. A late fee of $100 applies on top of the standard renewal fee if the deadline is missed. Licensees should retain CE documentation for at least 4 years in case of a BSRB audit.

LSCSW License Renewal

Also administered by the BSRB, on a biennial cycle expiring on the last day of the month in which the license was originally issued — another individualized rather than fixed date. First-time renewal is exempt from the general CE requirement, though the one-time 6-hour safety awareness training still applies at that first renewal.

LCMFT License Renewal

Also administered by the BSRB, on the same individualized biennial structure as LCPC and LSCSW, with the same $100 late fee.

Psychologist License Renewal

Also administered by the BSRB, on a biennial cycle. Kansas psychologists using PSYPACT for interstate telepsychology face an additional $25 “PSYPACT Home State Privilege to Practice Fee,” assessed by the BSRB following license renewal.

Kansas Approved CE Providers

Whether you’re looking for Kansas online continuing education or in-person Kansas continuing education courses, it’s worth remembering upfront that the BSRB does not pre-approve individual courses or providers — the responsibility for confirming relevance and quality falls on the licensee. That said, these are the organizations Kansas clinicians typically rely on:

Accreditor / Association	Who It’s For	Recognized For
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)	LCPCs	Listed directly among the BSRB’s own resource links
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) / NASW	LSCSWs	Listed directly among the BSRB’s own resource links
American Psychological Association (APA)	Licensed Psychologists	Listed directly among the BSRB’s own resource links; the standard for psychologist CE in Kansas
Kansas Counseling Association (KCA)	LCPCs	A branch of the American Counseling Association, home to the Kansas Mental Health Counselor Association (KMHCA) division and a dedicated CE program
Kansas Psychological Association (KPA)	Licensed Psychologists	State-level CE and an active working relationship with the BSRB’s executive director on regulatory issues affecting psychologists
NASW Kansas Chapter	LSCSWs	State-level CE and legislative advocacy specific to Kansas social workers
Kansas Association of Marriage & Family Therapy	LCMFTs	Listed directly among the BSRB’s own resource links for marriage and family therapists

For a broader look at how CE approval works across all license types and states, see our full guide to continuing education for mental health professionals.

Kansas-Specific Considerations

A few details worth knowing beyond the base CE requirements:

Kansas Has Enacted All Three Major Behavioral Health Compacts

Kansas has passed legislation joining PSYPACT (2021), the Social Work Multi-State Compact, and the Professional Counseling Multi-State Compact — a genuinely comprehensive commitment to interstate practice compared to many states that have only joined one or two. Enactment and full operational status are different milestones nationally, though, so confirm current live status with each specific compact before assuming privileges are immediately usable. Notably, master’s-level psychologists and clinical psychotherapists in Kansas are not eligible for PSYPACT — only fully Licensed Psychologists qualify.

No Pre-Approval Means Real Responsibility for Licensees

Because the BSRB doesn’t pre-approve CE courses or providers, Kansas clinicians carry more responsibility than in states with a formal approval list — you’re expected to independently confirm that a course satisfies the required ethics and diagnosis/treatment content categories before relying on it for renewal.

Kansas Recently Reformed Its Reinstatement Fee Structure

Kansas has recently passed legislation reducing the licensing fee to reinstate an expired social work license, specifically aimed at attracting retired social workers back into practice — a good example of how Kansas’s licensing rules have continued to evolve through active legislative advocacy from groups like NASW Kansas.

New Licensee vs. Renewing Licensee

A few distinctions worth knowing depending on where you are in your Kansas licensure timeline:

• First-time LSCSW renewals are exempt from the general 40-hour CE requirement, though the one-time 6-hour safety awareness training still applies at that first renewal — it’s a separate obligation, not folded into the general exemption.
• LCPCs who supervise other counseling professionals aren’t required to earn CE specifically in clinical supervision, but the BSRB encourages it to help ensure supervisors stay current on best practices for guiding supervisees.
• Supervisors more broadly take on real responsibility under Kansas’s system, and having a clear clinical supervision agreement in place from the outset helps define expectations for both parties, even where formal supervision-specific CE isn’t strictly mandated.

CE Tracker Templates for Mental Health Professionals

Even with a clear picture of your state’s requirements, actually staying on top of continuing education across a full renewal cycle is a different challenge — tracking which hours you’ve completed, which mandated categories still need attention, where you’ve saved your certificates, and when your actual deadline hits. A CE tracker template solves this by giving you one place to log activities as you complete them, monitor progress against your specific requirements, and pull everything together when it’s time to submit your renewal — rather than reconstructing two years of CE history in a panic the week before your license expires.

Get started with the free CE Tracker Template to organize your current renewal cycle, or manage your complete CE renewal process from planning through submission with this comprehensive CE Tracker Template (pictured above).

Final Thoughts on Kansas CE Requirements

Kansas’s single-board structure makes it one of the more administratively straightforward states to navigate if you have general questions, but that convenience shouldn’t be mistaken for uniformity — the climbing hour totals by profession, and the complete absence of course pre-approval, both put more responsibility on individual licensees than a “one board, one rule” structure might suggest.

Kansas’s early and comprehensive commitment to all three major behavioral health compacts is also worth watching if interstate practice matters to you — few states have moved on all three fronts simultaneously the way Kansas has.

References

• Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board. (n.d.). Resource links. Resource
• Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board. (n.d.). PSYPACT news. Resource
• Kansas Legislative Research Department. (2025). Testimony: Multi-state compacts overview. Resource
• Kansas Counseling Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• Kansas Psychological Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• NASW Kansas Chapter. (n.d.). News. Resource