Arkansas LAC Requirements: Hours, Exams & Step-by-Step Guide

Licensing as a Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC) in Arkansas is tightly defined in the rules of the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling and Marriage & Family Therapy (17 CAR Part 75, revised July 2026). Those rules lay out both:

• what you must have in place to be issued an LAC license, and
• the specific mix of client-contact and supervision hours you must complete as an LAC before you can move up to Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC).

Below is an organized walk-through based directly on the current Arkansas rules (17 CAR Part 75) and recent changes in state law.

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1. Snapshot: What Arkansas Requires for LAC and Post-LAC Hours

To be licensed as a Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC), you must:

• Hold a graduate degree (master's or higher) that is primarily professional counseling in content from a regionally accredited institution.
• Complete at least 60 graduate semester hours in counseling/therapy content that meet CACREP-based core curriculum standards, including at least 1 graduate credit hour in Technology-Assisted Counseling. (17 CAR § 75-306)
• Pass a national counseling exam: either the National Counselor Examination (NCE) or the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE) (unless you qualify for a limited endorsement provision). If you have not passed the national exam yet, a one-time provisional LAC is available (see Section 6). (17 CAR § 75-602; 17 CAR § 75-906)
• Pass the Arkansas Counseling Board Jurisprudence Exam. (17 CAR § 75-602)
• Complete a criminal background check as required by Arkansas law. (17 CAR § 75-302)
• Arrange supervision with a Board-approved LAC supervisor (an LPC with approved supervisor status, in good standing) and have the supervision agreement approved by the Board before any counseling services are provided. (17 CAR §§ 75-302, 75-402)

To move from LAC to LPC, the baseline supervised practice requirement is:

• 3,000 Client Contact Hours (CCH) and 175 supervision hours of experience in professional counseling, acceptable to the Board. (17 CAR § 75-303)
• Within those 3,000 CCH:
  • At least 2,000 hours must be direct client contact.
  • No more than 1,000 hours may be indirect client contact, and indirect hours count only in Level 2. (17 CAR § 75-401)
• All 3,000 CCH must be accrued under supervision, with a total of 175 clock hours of supervision, broken down by level and supervision ratio (see Section 4 below). (17 CAR § 75-401)

Arkansas treats the LAC as a training license, not a permanent one; the supervised experience is explicitly intended to prepare you for independent LPC practice. (17 CAR § 75-302)

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2. Educational Requirements for LAC

The Board's rules require that: (17 CAR §§ 75-302, 75-306)

• Your graduate degree must be:

  • From a regionally accredited institution, and
  • Primarily professional counseling in content.

• You must document at least 60 graduate semester hours of counseling/therapy coursework meeting current CACREP standards and Arkansas core curriculum requirements. The core for LAC/LPC includes, at minimum, graduate coursework in:

  • Professional Identity and Ethics
  • Social and Cultural Diversity
  • Human Growth and Development
  • Career Development
  • Helping Relations
  • Group Work
  • Assessment
  • Research and Program Evaluation
  • Practicum/Internships (minimum 9 graduate credits in 3 courses over at least 6 months)
  • Abnormal Psychology/Psychopathology (DSM/ICD)
  • Family and Relationship
  • Technology-Assisted Counseling (at least 1 graduate credit)

• All graduate course hours used toward licensure must carry a grade of B- or better; grades of C+ or below are not accepted for licensure. (17 CAR § 75-306)

Programs that are not CACREP-accredited may still qualify if they are regionally accredited and you provide catalogs and syllabi to show equivalence to the Board's adopted standards. (17 CAR § 75-306)

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3. Examinations and Background Checks

National examinations

The Board contracts annually to administer: (17 CAR § 75-601)

• NCE (National Counselor Examination)
• NCMHCE (National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination)
• The Arkansas Jurisprudence Exam (administered through NBCC)

Counselor applicants (LAC/LPC) must successfully complete either the NCE or the NCMHCE to meet the national exam requirement, unless they qualify under the licensure-by-endorsement provision (17 CAR § 75-901). (17 CAR § 75-602)

The Board may also require oral interviews when it deems them necessary. (17 CAR § 75-603)

Jurisprudence exam

All applicants must provide proof of a passing score on the Board's Arkansas Jurisprudence Exam, which covers state law and Board rules. (17 CAR § 75-602)

Criminal background check

Before licensure, you must complete a criminal background check under Arkansas Code §17-27-313 (and related general licensing background provisions). (17 CAR § 75-302)

The Board also allows prospective applicants to request a pre-licensure determination as to whether a criminal record would disqualify them or could be waived. (17 CAR § 75-301)

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4. Supervision and Hour Requirements While You Are an LAC

This is the heart of Arkansas's LAC structure and the area where the Board's terminology matters most.

4.1. Supervisor and supervision agreement

• Supervisor for an LAC must be:

  • A Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Arkansas,
  • Holding approved supervisor status from the Board, and
  • In good standing. Approved supervisors must have been fully licensed in Arkansas for 3 years and may hold no more than 12 supervision agreements at a time. (17 CAR §§ 75-401, 75-403)

• You must have a Board-approved supervision agreement on file before seeing any clients.

  • No client may be seen before the date the agreement is approved, and failure to maintain an approved, current supervision agreement can lead to suspension or revocation of the LAC. Any change of supervisor must be reported in writing and approved by the Board. (17 CAR § 75-402)

• Both supervisor and supervisee are responsible for:

  • Keeping the supervision agreement current, and
  • Submitting supervision evaluations and client contact hour reports every six months (the LAC is the party responsible for sending them), with a 30-day grace period. (17 CAR § 75-404)

4.2. Definitions: direct vs. indirect hours

The Board uses Client Contact Hours (CCH) as the basic unit for supervised experience. Under the current rule revision: (17 CAR § 75-401)

• A direct client contact hour is defined as:

  • Contact with a client or clients in a therapeutic interaction (individuals or groups).

• Indirect client contact includes:

  • Consultation, case management, paperwork, staffing, billing, and test administration when you are not working directly with the client, but the work is related to that client's care.

These definitions apply to counting hours toward the 3,000 CCH requirement.

4.3. Total hours and breakdown by type

Under 17 CAR §§ 75-303 and 75-401, the Board requires: (17 CAR § 75-401)

• Total supervised experience requirement for LPC via LAC route:

  • 3,000 Client Contact Hours (CCH) of supervised professional counseling experience.

• Direct vs. indirect split:

  • The Board states that LACs (and LAMFTs) are required to have:
    • At least 3,000 hours of client contact,
    • With 2,000 hours defined as direct client contact, and
    • No more than 1,000 hours of indirect client contact, counted only in Level 2. (17 CAR § 75-401)

• Level structure:

  • The supervised experience is currently organized into two levels: (17 CAR § 75-401)

    1. Level 1

       • First 500 direct client contact hours.
       • Supervision ratio: 1 hour of supervision for every 10 hours of client contact (1:10).
       • No indirect hours may be counted in Level 1; all 500 must be direct client work.

    2. Level 2

       • Remaining 2,500 client contact hours (combining direct and indirect, but still within the 2,000 direct minimum / 1,000 indirect maximum overall).
       • Supervision ratio: 1 hour of supervision for every 20 CCH (1:20).
       • Up to 1,000 of these 2,500 hours may be indirect; the rest must be direct.

• Total required supervision hours:

  • The Board specifies that the total hours of supervised practice are 175 clock hours of supervision, conducted face to face or through telemedicine. (17 CAR § 75-401)
  • That figure is consistent with:
    • 500 hours at 1:10 = 50 supervision hours (Level 1), plus
    • 2,500 hours at 1:20 = 125 supervision hours (Level 2), for 50 + 125 = 175.

• Group and technology-assisted supervision rules:

  • Group supervision may not exceed half of the 175 supervision hours. A group is defined as 3 to 6 supervisees with the contracted supervisor, and group supervision may be counted in both levels. (17 CAR § 75-401)
  • Dyadic supervision (one supervisor with two supervisees) is counted as individual supervision for Board purposes. (17 CAR § 75-401)
  • Technology-assisted supervision (for example, video) may be counted in both levels. The earlier 50% cap on technology-assisted supervision in Level 1 is no longer in the rules. (17 CAR § 75-401)

Putting that together:

• Arkansas requires 3,000 hours of supervised client contact after the master's degree, structured as:
  • At least 2,000 hours of direct clinical experience; and
  • Up to 1,000 hours of indirect, client-related activities (case notes, staffing, etc.), in Level 2 only.
• All 3,000 hours must be under Board-approved supervision, with a total of 175 hours of supervision (50 hours during the first 500 direct-contact hours and 125 hours during the remaining 2,500 hours). (17 CAR § 75-401)

4.4. Time frame for completing supervision

The current rules do not set a minimum time period or a fixed deadline for finishing the 3,000 CCH. Act 78 of 2023 removed the "full-time" experience requirement from the LPC statute, and the older "three years of supervision within six calendar years" language (Phases I to III) does not appear in 17 CAR Part 75. (Act 78 of 2023; 17 CAR Part 75)

In practice, this means:

• Your hours count from the date the Board approves your supervision agreement, and
• You keep the LAC in good standing by renewing it (licenses renew every two years, by May 31) and filing your six-month reports on time until you qualify for the LPC. (17 CAR §§ 75-402, 75-701)

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5. Substitutions That Can Reduce the Number of Hours

Arkansas allows limited substitution of additional graduate coursework and a passing NCMHCE score for part of the client-contact and supervision requirements.

Under the current supervision rule: (17 CAR § 75-401)

1. Additional graduate coursework beyond the master's

   • You may gain 100 CCH and 5 supervision hours of credit for each 3 graduate semester hours (or 4 quarter credits) earned beyond the master's degree, so long as:
     • The coursework is clearly related to counseling or marriage and family therapy, and
     • It is acceptable to the Board.
   • Post-master's coursework that you needed in order to qualify for an Arkansas license cannot be counted this way.

2. NCMHCE option during LAC supervision

   • After completing Level 1 (first 500 direct client hours), an LAC can petition the Board in writing (with the contracted supervisor's recommendation) to take the NCMHCE.
   • A passing NCMHCE score reduces the CCH required by 500 and the supervision hours by 25.

Reductions apply only to Level 2; no substitutions can be made for Level 1. In total, no more than 2,000 CCH and 100 supervision hours may be reduced this way. Your experience must still remain consistent with your Statement of Intent and Board minimum standards, so your specific allowable reductions should be planned with your supervisor and, if in doubt, confirmed with the Board. (17 CAR § 75-401; LAC/LAMFT Supervision Agreement, revised 7/2026)

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6. The Non-Permanent Nature of the LAC License

A consistent theme in Arkansas rules is that LAC is a temporary, training-level license.

• The Board explicitly states that the LAC license "is not intended to be a permanent license"; its purpose is to enable you to complete the supervised experience leading to LPC. (17 CAR § 75-302)
• A current, Board-approved supervision agreement must be on file at all times as a condition of the LAC until the LPC is issued. (LAC/LAMFT Supervision Agreement, revised 7/2026)
• Provisional LAC (Act 231 of 2025): if you meet the other LAC requirements but have not yet passed the national exam, you can apply for a provisional LAC. It is valid for 1 year, allows up to 3 attempts to pass the national exam in that year, can be received only once and cannot be renewed. If you do not pass within the year, you must reapply as a traditional applicant. (A.C.A. § 17-27-302(e); 17 CAR § 75-906)

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7. Practical Checklist

Summarizing the path in concrete terms:

1. Earn the right kind of master's degree

   • 60+ graduate hours, counseling-focused, CACREP-standard curriculum (or Board-approved equivalent), including technology-assisted counseling. (17 CAR § 75-306)

2. Complete background check and submit application

   • Include transcripts, Statement of Intent, letters of recommendation and any required documentation.

3. Pass exams

   • National exam: NCE or NCMHCE (or apply for the provisional LAC if you have not passed yet).
   • Arkansas Jurisprudence Exam.
   • Complete any oral interview the Board requires. (17 CAR §§ 75-602, 75-603)

4. Obtain LAC license

   • Arrange for an LPC-Supervisor with Board-approved supervisor status.
   • Get a supervision agreement approved before you begin seeing clients.

5. Accrue supervised hours as an LAC

   • Baseline requirement: 3,000 supervised Client Contact Hours.
   • Within that: at least 2,000 direct and no more than 1,000 indirect hours (indirect only in Level 2).
   • Supervision: 175 hours total, following the 1:10 (first 500 hours) and 1:20 (remaining 2,500 hours) ratios. (17 CAR § 75-401)

6. Use permitted substitutions if applicable

   • Additional graduate coursework and/or the NCMHCE (500 CCH and 25 supervision hours) may reduce your Level 2 hour and supervision requirements, up to 2,000 CCH and 100 supervision hours in total, subject to Board approval. (17 CAR § 75-401)

7. Apply to upgrade to LPC

   • Once you have completed the required supervised CCH (after accounting for any approved substitutions) and met all Board conditions, you and your supervisor may petition to change your license from LAC to LPC, at which point ongoing supervision is no longer required. (17 CAR § 75-303)

All of these requirements are specified in detail in 17 CAR Part 75 (the Board's rules, revised July 2026) and the Board's current forms; because these are regulatory requirements, it is wise to confirm exact interpretations with the Board before relying on any substitution or close call about hours.