Updated for 2026

District of Columbia CAC I & CAC II Continuing Education Requirements

District of Columbia addiction counselors must complete 40 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew their CAC I / CAC II license, including 6 hours of ethics, 4 hours of DC public health priorities, 3 hours of trauma counseling, and 2 hours of LGBTQ cultural competency or specialized clinical training.

40hours every 2 years
Topic minimums, counted within the 40
6ethics
4DC public health priorities
3trauma counseling
2LGBTQ cultural competency or specialized clinical training

The renewal cycle is biennial, and your license renews at the end of your birth month.

Where this comes from
State source
District of Columbia board rule
Last verified
October 2026
Ruleset version
2026.1

Every figure on this page is read from this rule, and the page refreshes when the ruleset changes. How we verify

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Requirements

District of Columbia CAC I & CAC II requirements

Total

40 hoursYou need 40 hours every 2 years. The renewal cycle is biennial, and your license renews at the end of your birth month.

Topic minimums, counted within the 40

The remaining 25 hours are not tied to a topic minimum.
Ethics
6
You need 6 hours each cycle.
DC public health priorities
4
You need 4 hours each cycle.
Trauma Counseling
3
You need 3 hours each cycle.
LGBTQ cultural competency or specialized clinical training
2
You need 2 hours each cycle.

Limits on how the hours are earned

In-service training
max 10 hrs
Leadership service
max 10 hrs
Dissertation
max 18 hrs

Cycle and record rules

Renewal
The renewal cycle is biennial, and your license renews at the end of your birth month.
New licensees
No continuing education is owed for the first renewal of a DC addiction counselor certification. The continuing education section "shall apply to applicants for the renewal, reactivation, or reinstatement of a certification expiring on December 31, 2014, or later; except, that this section shall not apply to applicants for first time renewal of a certification" (17 DCMR 8708.1). The forty hours, including the ethics, trauma, LGBTQ and public health hours, are owed at every later renewal for the two years before it.
Approved providers
DC accepts continuing education "approved by the Board" (17 DCMR 8709.1), and the Board's accepted list is broad: an undergraduate or graduate course at an accredited college or university, a seminar or workshop, an educational program at a conference, in-service training, and "Training conducted and approved by" NBCC, the Association of Social Work Boards, NASW, the American Psychological Association, NAADAC, the American Counseling Association or the American Mental Health Counselors Association, or "Training conducted at an accredited health care facility" (8709.4). Any other program must be submitted to the Board "at least sixty (60) days prior to the date of the program" (8709.5(d)). The licensee "shall have the burden of verifying whether a program is approved by the Board" before attending (8709.7). The same course cannot be counted twice in one renewal period (8711).
Recordkeeping
Keep CE documentation for 4 years after each renewal.
Board audit
The board may audit licensees to verify CE compliance.
Late renewal
The board allows a 60-day grace period after expiration. A late renewal adds a late fee.

To keep your proof in order, see what to keep for a CE audit, which covers every state’s retention period and what the audit notice asks for.

Your hours

Check where you stand

Enter the hours you have completed this cycle to see what is left before your renewal.

Your result appears here as you enter hours.

Open the full Addiction Counselor CE hours calculator
Full board policy details
  • Cadence: every two years. Chapter 87 still fixes expiration at "December 31 of each even-numbered year" (17 DCMR 8701.1) but lets the Director change the renewal system (8701.2), and DC Health moved every credential to a birth-month cycle: "All credentials issued on or after June 16, 2024, will expire on the last day of the holder's birth month. This will also apply to renewing licensees beginning September 2024." "If your birthday is in an odd year, your future renewals will occur in odd years (and the same for even years)" (DC Health professional counseling licensing page). The forty hours are earned "during the two-year (2) period preceding the date the certification expires" (8708.2).
  • Birth-month transition concession: "All Boards have approved acceptance of 50% of the Continuing Education (CE) requirements for licensees who have received less than two (2) years on their license term during this transition period. This applies only to this one-time transition into the birth-month renewal cycle. License holders are still responsible for the two (2) LGBTQ Cultural Competency and the 10% Public Health Priorities" (DC Health professional counseling licensing page). A certification holder whose term was shortened by the move to the birth-month cycle may therefore owe twenty hours instead of forty at that one renewal; the engine shows the full forty and this is a manual check.
  • Delivery format: the old limits ("A maximum of six (6) of the remaining thirty one (31) hours may be taken online" and the face-to-face ethics and trauma rule) were 8708.3 and 8708.4, which now read "Repealed". The current chapter sets no online or home-study ceiling.
  • In-service education: at most "five (5) hours of continuing education credits per year" (17 DCMR 8712.2); tag such hours in-service training. Orientation programs "designed to familiarize employees with policies and procedures of an institution or agency" earn nothing (8711.2(f)).
  • Presenting: the Board "may approve continuing education credit for serving as a speaker on an addiction counseling matter at a conference, seminar, workshop, or in-service training" and "may grant credit for both preparation and presentation time. The maximum amount of credit that may be granted for preparation time shall be twice the amount of the associated presentation time"; a repeated presentation earns no credit "unless it involves either a different subject or substantial additional research" (17 DCMR 8709.8). No hour ceiling is set for presenting.
  • Publication and program development: the Board may approve credit for "Publication of an article related to addiction counseling in a professional journal, publication of a book or a chapter in a book, or publication of a book review" (17 DCMR 8709.9(a)), with no stated ceiling, and for "New program development related to addiction counseling, which shall count for a maximum of eight (8) hours. New program development includes a new course, seminar, or workshop. New courses shall be graduate or undergraduate level college or university courses" (8709.9(b)). The eight-hour program-development ceiling is a manual check.
  • Academic coursework: an undergraduate or graduate course at an accredited college or university is an accepted program (17 DCMR 8709.4(a)); completion is proved with the transcript or certificate plus "a signed statement from the instructor on college university stationery for each class attended" (8708.9). Chapter 87 states no credit-to-hour conversion for academic courses.
  • Activities that earn no credit (17 DCMR 8711.2): the same course taken more than once in a renewal period; courses on "the participant's self-improvement, personal growth, changes in attitude, self-therapy or self-awareness"; chemical dependency education for lay people; parenting classes; liberal arts courses unrelated to chemical dependency counseling; orientation programs; and "Courses in marketing, business, personal enrichment, time management, CPR classes, or computer-related workshops".
  • Subjects the Board may accept (17 DCMR 8710.1) include treatment of adolescents and youth; trauma and abuse; addiction or other compulsive behaviors such as eating, gambling or sex; grief; assessment and screening; stress management; chemical dependency program administration or management; and research or other functional areas of chemical dependency treatment related to client care.
  • Dual licensure: chapter 87 says nothing about hours earned for another DC license, offers no combined or reduced total, and requires no separate attestation. A CAC who also holds a DC LPC, LICSW or psychology license renews each credential under its own chapter (the LPC under 17 DCMR ch. 66); a course may serve both only if it meets each rule on its own terms. Holding one of those licenses is what lets a CAC perform psychotherapy or diagnose other mental health disorders (8716.1), and an LPC, psychologist, LICSW, LMFT, physician or RN with the listed addiction training may supervise CACs (8715.3).
  • Reactivation and reinstatement: reactivating an inactive certification takes "twenty (20) hours of approved continuing education credits for each year that the certification remains in inactive status", completed within the year preceding the application, and reinstatement takes twenty hours "for each year after the expiration of the certification"; in both cases the total "shall include at least six (6) hours in ethics, three (3) hours in trauma counseling, and two (2) hours in LGBTQ cultural competency or specialized clinical training" (17 DCMR 8708.5, 8708.6). The totals depend on years inactive or lapsed, so they stay manual.

District of Columbia CAC I & CAC II CE: frequently asked questions

How many CE hours do District of Columbia CAC I / CAC II licensees need?

District of Columbia requires 40 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew a CAC I / CAC II license. The renewal cycle is biennial, and your license renews at the end of your birth month.

How many ethics hours are required for District of Columbia CAC I / CAC II licensees?

Of the total, 6 hours must be in ethics.

How often do District of Columbia CAC I / CAC II licensees renew?

The renewal cycle is biennial, and your license renews at the end of your birth month.

Are there subject-specific CE requirements for District of Columbia CAC I / CAC II licensees?

Yes. In addition to ethics, District of Columbia requires 4 hours of DC public health priorities, 3 hours of trauma counseling, 2 hours of LGBTQ cultural competency or specialized clinical training.

Is the first renewal different for new District of Columbia CAC I / CAC II licensees?

No continuing education is owed for the first renewal of a DC addiction counselor certification. The continuing education section "shall apply to applicants for the renewal, reactivation, or reinstatement of a certification expiring on December 31, 2014, or later; except, that this section shall not apply to applicants for first time renewal of a certification" (17 DCMR 8708.1). The forty hours, including the ethics, trauma, LGBTQ and public health hours, are owed at every later renewal for the two years before it.

Sources and verification

State source
District of Columbia board rule
Last verified
October 2026
Ruleset version
2026.1

We reviewed this page against the District of Columbia board source, and we refresh it from the compiled ruleset above. Methodology and disclaimer. Compliance data is for guidance only, not legal or board advice. Always confirm requirements with your licensing board before renewing. See something wrong? Report it

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District of Columbia guides & data

What to keep for a CE audit →Learn what boards ask for in a CE audit, how long each state says to keep certificates, and what the notice looks like, then use the printable checklist.District of Columbia mental health workforce data →6,864 active providers, or 989.6 per 100,000 residents, ranked 1 of 51. The page includes a county density map and free CSV downloads.

Addiction Counselor CE requirements in other states