Montana Continuing Education Requirements for Mental Health Professionals

Montana consolidates counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and addiction counselors under a single Board of Behavioral Health with identical CE rules — a genuinely simple structure if you hold just one of those licenses. Psychology sits apart with its own board, its own hour total, and, less obviously, its own renewal rhythm.

The biggest thing to know if you hold more than one Board of Behavioral Health license: the 20-hour annual requirement applies separately to each credential, not once across all of them. A dual-licensed LCSW/LMFT owes 40 hours total, not 20 shared between the two. Montana psychologists face a different quirk entirely — the license itself renews every year, even though CE hours are reported on a two-year cycle.

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

Montana Continuing Education Requirements

Montana consolidates counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and addiction counselors under one Board of Behavioral Health with identical CE rules, while psychologists are licensed separately (Montana Board of Behavioral Health, n.d.; Montana Board of Psychologists, n.d.).

License Type	CE Requirements	Renewal / Special Requirements	Official Licensing Board
Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC)	20 CE hours every year	Minimum 2 hours suicide prevention, required at first renewal and every two years thereafter. Up to 10 hours may come from first-time course prep, presentations, or published papers. Up to 20 unused hours may carry over to the next year. The Board does not pre-approve courses or sponsors.	Montana Board of Behavioral Health
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)	20 CE hours every year	Same structure and board as LCPC: 2 hours suicide prevention at first renewal and every two years after.	Montana Board of Behavioral Health
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)	20 CE hours every year	Same structure and board as LCPC and LCSW.	Montana Board of Behavioral Health
Licensed Psychologist (PhD / PsyD)	40 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 2 hours ethics, 1 hour suicide prevention. Renewal deadline is December 31 of odd-numbered years. Board does not pre-approve courses; content simply needs to fall within the psychologist’s scope of practice.	Montana Board of Psychologists

Clinical Note: If you hold more than one license under Montana’s Board of Behavioral Health, note that the 20-hour requirement applies separately to each license you hold rather than once across all of them — a dual-licensed LCSW/LMFT owes 40 hours total, not 20 shared between the two.

Montana License Renewal Requirements

Montana’s Board of Behavioral Health licenses and Board of Psychologists licenses both renew through the same November 1–December 31 window, but under separate fee schedules — worth confirming directly given some inconsistency in publicly reported fee amounts.

LCPC License Renewal

Administered by the Montana Board of Behavioral Health. Per the Board’s own renewal process page, LCPC licenses renew online between November 1 and December 31 each year, with the license expiring December 31. Reported renewal fees vary somewhat by source (figures from $149 to $175 have been cited), so confirm the current exact amount directly with the Board. Renewing after the expiration date results in an automatic 100% late fee added on top of the standard renewal fee — effectively doubling your cost. Retain CE certificates and documentation for at least 2 years after your license renewal.

LCSW License Renewal

Administered by the same Montana Board of Behavioral Health as LCPC, on the identical November 1–December 31 renewal window and December 31 annual deadline. Reported renewal fees are similarly inconsistent across sources (roughly $100–$175), so confirm your current fee directly with the Board. The same 100% late fee penalty applies for renewals submitted after expiration.

LMFT License Renewal

Administered by the same Montana Board of Behavioral Health as LCPC and LCSW, sharing the identical November 1–December 31 renewal window and December 31 annual deadline. Like the other two licenses under this Board, reported renewal fees fall in the same $149–$175 range depending on the source, so confirm the current exact amount directly with the Board. The same 100% late fee penalty applies for renewals submitted after expiration.

Psychologist License Renewal

Administered by the separate Montana Board of Psychologists. This is genuinely important to get right: the psychologist license itself renews annually, online between November 1 and December 31, with a December 31 deadline every single year — even though the 40-hour CE requirement is reported on a two-year cycle (with CE Reporting Forms submitted in even or odd years based on your specific license number). Per the Board’s own fee schedule (Administrative Rules of Montana 24.189.401), the active license renewal fee is $450; some secondary sources cite a higher figure around $600, so confirm the current exact amount directly with the Board. The same 100% late fee penalty applies here as well.

Montana Approved CE Providers

Whether you’re looking for Montana online continuing education or in-person Montana continuing education courses, Montana’s boards take a notably hands-off approach to pre-approval — the responsibility for confirming relevance falls on the licensee:

Accreditor / Association	Who It’s For	Recognized For
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)	LCPCs	Widely accepted, though the Board itself doesn’t formally pre-approve providers
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)	LCSWs	Accepted as long as content directly relates to the licensee’s scope of practice
APA-approved sponsors	Licensed Psychologists	Explicitly listed by the Board of Psychologists as an accepted source
Professional Counselors Association of Montana	LCPCs	Montana’s chapter of the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA)
Montana Psychological Association (MPA)	Licensed Psychologists	Explicitly listed by the Board of Psychologists as an accepted CE source, alongside APA and PESI
NASW Montana Chapter	LCSWs	Statewide social work advocacy and CE, organized across 5 regional chapters

Montana’s Board of Behavioral Health doesn’t pre-approve individual courses or sponsors — content simply needs to directly relate to the licensee’s scope of practice, giving real flexibility but also real responsibility to confirm relevance yourself. 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.

Montana-Specific Considerations

A few details worth knowing beyond the base CE requirements:

Psychology’s Annual Renewal Doesn’t Match Its Biennial CE Cycle

This is easy to get backwards: Montana psychologists renew their license every single year by December 31, but only need to report their 40 CE hours every two years, with the specific reporting year (odd or even) tied to their license number. Don’t assume that because your CE hours are tracked biennially, you only need to interact with the Board every other year — the renewal itself happens annually regardless.

Neither Board Pre-Approves Courses

Both the Board of Behavioral Health and the Board of Psychologists take a hands-off approach to CE approval, accepting content that falls within the licensee’s scope of practice rather than maintaining a formal pre-approved list. This gives genuine flexibility in course selection, but it also means there’s no board-issued checklist to verify against — the judgment call about whether a course qualifies rests with you.

Late Renewal Carries a Steep, Automatic Penalty

Montana’s 100% late fee — doubling your renewal cost if you miss the December 31 deadline — applies uniformly across all four license types covered here. This is a notably steeper automatic penalty than the flat or tiered late fees common in many other states, and worth building real deadline buffer around rather than treating December 31 as a soft target.

New Licensee vs. Renewing Licensee

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

• First-time renewals for LCPC, LCSW, and LMFT licensees trigger the 2-hour suicide prevention requirement, which then recurs every two years afterward rather than annually.
• Licensees completing first-time course preparation, presentations, or published papers can apply up to 10 of their 20 annual hours toward this category — a genuinely generous allowance for clinicians contributing original content to the field.
• Up to 20 unused CE hours may carry over to the following year for Board of Behavioral Health licensees, giving some flexibility if you complete more than the minimum in a given year.
• Supervisors overseeing associate-level clinicians take on real responsibility in Montana’s system, and having a clear clinical supervision agreement in place from the outset helps define expectations for both parties.

CE Tracker Templates for Mental Health Professionals

Montana’s carryover rule and its mix of annual and biennial cycles across four different license types make this a state where a running personal record genuinely pays off — knowing exactly how many hours you’re carrying into a new year, and which suicide prevention cycle you’re currently in, isn’t something you want to reconstruct from memory when your December 31 deadline is approaching.

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.

Final Thoughts on Montana CE Requirements

Montana’s single-board structure for LCPC, LCSW, and LMFT is genuinely convenient, but the per-license hour requirement (not a shared total) and the steep automatic late penalty are the two details most likely to catch a clinician off guard. Psychology’s mismatched annual-renewal, biennial-CE structure adds a further wrinkle worth internalizing early if you hold that license alongside any of the other three.

Given how uniformly the 100% late fee applies here, treating your December 31 deadline as a hard stop — rather than something with informal wiggle room — is genuinely the safest approach across every Montana license covered in this guide.

References

• Montana Board of Behavioral Health. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• Montana Board of Behavioral Health. (n.d.). Renewal process. Resource
• Montana Board of Psychologists. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• Montana Board of Psychologists. (n.d.). Renewal process. Resource
• Administrative Rules of Montana. (n.d.). 24.189.401 — Board of Psychologists fee schedule. Resource
• Administrative Rules of Montana. (n.d.). 24.219.435 — Continuing education requirements. Resource
• Montana Psychological Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• NASW Montana Chapter. (n.d.). About. Resource