If a professional counselor licensed in another state or territory of the United States has not passed the national examination required by the board for licensure under § 36-32-67 , the board may provide the applicant with a temporary license to practice for up to ninety days, if the applicant demonstrates that:

(1) The applicant is currently licensed as a professional counselor or professional counselor–mental health and has been under the jurisdiction of the licensing authority in the other jurisdiction for at least three years before the time of submitting an application to the board;

(2) The applicant is in good standing with the licensing authority in the other jurisdiction;

(3) The applicant has been in active practice during the three-year period before the time of submitting an application to the board; and

(4) The applicant has no record of unprofessional conduct or pending disciplinary complaints in the other jurisdiction.

For purposes of this section, the term, active practice, means at least one thousand five hundred hours of clinical experience.

An applicant for a temporary license shall submit an application on a form approved by the board, along with the application fee and the temporary license fee prescribed by the board in accordance with § 36-32-92. The board shall issue a temporary license as a professional counselor or professional counselor–mental health to an applicant who meets the requirements of this section and pays the required fee. A temporary license automatically expires upon the applicant’s passage of the required national examination or at the conclusion of the term for which the temporary license was issued, whichever occurs first. A temporary license may only be renewed once.

Source: SL 2020, ch 165, § 22.