Committee advances bill to let some marriage‑and‑family therapy candidates make up internship hours after graduation

A Colorado House committee voted to advance a short bill that creates an alternate pathway to marriage‑and‑family therapy licensure for applicants whose education programs do not include an internship.

Representative Stewart, the bill sponsor, told the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee the measure is ‘‘incredibly simple’’ and does not change educational or clinical requirements: it permits applicants who lack a pre‑graduation internship to petition the state board to allow the missing 700 practicum hours to be completed during their post‑graduate supervised candidacy, effectively increasing post‑graduate supervised hours from 2,000 to 2,700 for those individuals.

The change is intended to address Colorado’s mental‑health workforce shortage by removing an administrative barrier for graduates of programs that do not include internships. ‘‘This just allows someone to do [the hours] in a different order and still become a candidate for licensure,’’ the sponsor said.

Sam Delp, division director in DORA’s Division of Professions and Occupations, testified in support and said the department expects boards to continue collecting applicant data and would be able to track who uses the pathway. ‘‘If someone comes in and presents 2,700 supervised clinical hours, they are the person who took advantage of this piece of legislation,’’ Delp said.

Committee members asked whether the state could measure the bill’s uptake over time; sponsors and DORA said they expect applicant records to allow monitoring in subsequent years. Several members praised the bill’s brevity and limited scope; Representative Ray moved the item to the Committee of the Whole and the committee voted to advance it with a favorable recommendation, 12–1.

The bill does not change scope‑of‑practice rules or alter course requirements, sponsors emphasized; it only provides an additional ordering of supervised hours to help qualified graduates access licensure and join the workforce. The bill will proceed to the Committee of the Whole for further consideration.