Hawaii CSAC Continuing Education Requirements
Hawaii addiction counselors must complete 40 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew their CSAC license, including 6 hours of substance use disorder (professional) ethics.
40hours every 2 years
Topic minimums, counted within the 40
6substance use disorder (professional) ethics
The renewal cycle is biennial and is tied to your license's renewal (expiration) date.
Where this comes from
- State source
- Hawaii 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
Hawaii CSAC requirements
Total
40 hoursYou need 40 hours every 2 years. The renewal cycle is biennial and is tied to your license's renewal (expiration) date.
Topic minimums, counted within the 40
The remaining 34 hours are not tied to a topic minimum.
- Substance use disorder (professional) ethics
- 6
- You need 6 hours each cycle.
Cycle and record rules
- Renewal
- The renewal cycle is biennial and is tied to your license's renewal (expiration) date.
- Renewal fee
- The board renewal fee is $25 every 2 years.
- Approved providers
- Hours count when they are "ADAD Approved". The rule defines contact hours as "courses in psychology, educational psychology, community planning, social work, human services, or substance abuse from an accredited university, college, or other institute of higher education, or training courses which have been approved by the department" (HAR 11-177.1-2). ADAD's certification application treats continuing education "already pre-approved by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC)" as approved. Courses must be substance use disorder or behavioral health related, at least one hour each, and dated inside your current two-year certification period. ADAD reviews every certificate you mail with the renewal, so keep the certificate of completion for each course.
Your hours
Check where you stand
Enter the hours you have completed this cycle to see what is left before your renewal.
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Open the full Addiction Counselor CE hours calculatorFull board policy details
- Two-year certification, counselor-specific dates. "Certification for each category shall be granted for a period of two years to an individual who satisfactorily meets all of the requirements specific to the category applied for and all other requirements of this chapter" (HAR 11-177.1-22); "Certificates shall expire two years from the date they are granted. An expired certificate shall not be valid" (11-177.1-24). "Applicants may apply for recertification up to sixty days prior to the expiration date of their current certificate" (11-177.1-16(f)). When ADAD approves the renewal "you will be given a new date of expiration" (renewal instructions, item 5). The hours must be "completed within the current certification period" and "CE's submitted must be dated during your current renewal period only" (item 9). No first-renewal exemption or proration appears in the rule: a newly certified counselor owes the full forty hours at the first recertification.
- Content and course standards. ADAD's renewal instructions: "CE's must be Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and or behavioral health related. Topics such as 'Workplace Violence, Fire Safety, etc.' will not be accepted. Topics should be related to the certification in which you hold" (item 8), and "Duplicate CE's and CE's that are less than 1.0 will not be accepted" (item 7). The one-hour minimum per certificate is not encoded; log each course as its certificate's stated hours. No cap on online, distance or home-study hours and no live minimum appear in HAR 11-177.1 or the renewal instructions, so none is encoded. The NASW, APA, AMA and NBCC pre-approval sentence is printed in ADAD's certification (initial) application instructions under education and training, not in the renewal instructions; ADAD's renewal instructions say only "ADAD Approved Continuing Education Hours". Whether ADAD accepts NAADAC- or IC&RC-board-approved courses without its own review is not stated in any primary source.
- Cultural awareness is not required. ADAD's October 2024 renewal application added "six (6) of which are required to be in cultural awareness". The ADAD Administrator's memo of March 4, 2025 withdrew it: "We are updating the training requirements in our credentialing rules (Hawaii Administrative Rules 11-177.1). Until those rules are approved by the Governor, any cultural awareness training we offer is not required", and the March 2025 application "supersedes the October 2024 version". No cultural awareness hours are encoded. If the amended chapter 11-177.1 is adopted, this rule needs a new version.
- Other CSAC categories (not scoped by this rule). A counselor who holds a Hawaii license as a clinical social worker, marriage and family therapist or mental health counselor (HAR 11-177.1-14), an advanced practice registered nurse (-15), or a physician or psychologist in the "general" categories (-11, -13) and was certified through that pathway renews on "sixteen contact hours which shall be completed within the current certification period", plus a copy of the current Hawaii license; the physician and psychologist "specialty" categories (-10, -12) renew on a copy of the outside board certification and Hawaii license with no contact hours in the rule text. ADAD's current application lists all of these as "Certified Substance Abuse Counselor with License ... Sixteen (16) ADAD Approved Continuing Education Hours, six (6) of which are required to be in SUD Ethics", "Not eligible for reciprocity or to supervise candidate working on 12 Core Functions." The pathway, not the other licence, sets the figure: an LMHC certified through the standard (-16), bachelor (-17) or master (-18) category owes this rule's forty hours.
- Dual licensure and other ADAD credentials. Hawaii's LMHC, LMFT and LCSW licences are issued by DCCA, not the Department of Health, and HAR 11-177.1 neither credits nor excludes hours earned for them; the CSAC forty hours are documented to ADAD separately. Among ADAD credentials the renewal instructions state "If you hold more than one credential CE hours can be combined with exception of CSAC Ethics and CPS Ethics", and the clinical supervisor rule lets its hours "be a part of the forty hours obtained for the CSAC, CCJP, or CCDP" (HAR 11-177.1-27(f)(2)). No combined or reduced total changes the CSAC's forty.
- Reciprocity. "A counselor in good standing with an International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium member board, who desires to practice in the State of Hawaii, may apply for reciprocity. Upon approval by the department, the counselor shall receive a State of Hawaii certification which shall not exceed the current expiration date of the counselor's original certificate issued by an International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium member board" (HAR 11-177.1-16(g); -17(i) and -18(i) for the degree categories). Enter the Hawaii certificate's own expiration date.
- Inactive status. "A request to inactivate a certificate shall be submitted in writing to the department" (HAR 11-177.1-23(a)); "An inactive certificate may be reinstated by meeting the recertification requirements in this subchapter" (-23(c)), and it "must be reinstated within a period of two years from the expiration date of the inactivated certificate. If no reinstatement occurs within that time, certification can only be accomplished by following the procedures for initial certification" (-23(d)). Reactivation therefore owes the same forty hours with six in ethics; no separate figure is encoded.
Hawaii CSAC CE: frequently asked questions
How many CE hours do Hawaii CSAC licensees need?
Hawaii requires 40 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew a CSAC license. The renewal cycle is biennial and is tied to your license's renewal (expiration) date.
How many ethics hours are required for Hawaii CSAC licensees?
Of the total, 6 hours must be in substance use disorder (professional) ethics.
How often do Hawaii CSAC licensees renew?
The renewal cycle is biennial and is tied to your license's renewal (expiration) date.
How much does Hawaii CSAC license renewal cost?
The board's renewal fee is $25 every 2 years, per the Hawaii board fee schedule. CE course costs are separate and set by course providers.
Sources and verification
- State source
- Hawaii board rule
- Fee schedule
- Hawaii board fee schedule
- Last verified
- October 2026
- Ruleset version
- 2026.1
We reviewed this page against the Hawaii 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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Hawaii 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.Hawaii mental health workforce data →5,688 active providers, or 397 per 100,000 residents, ranked 31 of 51. The page includes a county density map and free CSV downloads.
Other Hawaii CE requirement pages
Addiction Counselor CE requirements in other states
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