Connecticut LPC & LPC-A Continuing Education Requirements
Connecticut counselors must complete 15 continuing education hours per year to renew their LPC / LPC-A license, including 3 hours of professional ethics and 1 hour of cultural competency.
15
total hours / year
1
cultural competency hours
3
professional ethics hours
Annual · renewal date depends on the licensee's birth month.
Connecticut LPC & LPC-A requirements
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
| Total continuing education | 15 hours per year. |
| Renewal | Annual cycle: renews at the end of your birth month. |
| Professional Ethics | 3 hours required each cycle. |
| Cultural Competency | 1 hour required each cycle. |
| New licensees | First renewal is different: new licensees have adjusted first-cycle requirements (proration and/or first-cycle-only rules), which we apply automatically. |
| Approved providers | Qualifying CE may be offered or sponsored by national professional association, regional professional association, state professional association, accredited university, and governmental agency and recognized associations in counseling, mft, social work, and psychology. |
| Recordkeeping | Keep CE documentation for 3 years after each renewal. |
| Board audit | The board may audit licensees to verify CE compliance. |
| Other mandates | 2 hours of veterans' mental health required every 6 years. |
Limits on how the hours are earned
Board caps and floors on where the 15 hours can come from.
- business managementmax 3 hrs
Keeping the proof in order: what to keep for a CE audit, with every state’s retention period and what the audit notice asks for.
Connecticut LPC & LPC-Arequired trainings & mandates
Beyond the 15-hour CE total, Connecticut requires specific trainings — some once around initial licensure, some on their own recurring schedule.
Recurring mandates outside the 1 year cycle
- 2 hours of veterans' mental health required every 6 years.
Full board policy details
- CE activities must be either face-to-face live instruction or an approved home-study program that includes a proficiency examination and is offered or approved by a recognized professional organization (NBCC, ACA, AAMFT, NASW/ASWB, APA, their affiliates), a regionally accredited academic institution, or a qualifying CT state agency. No percentage cap on home-study; purely online education is acceptable if it meets these standards. Casual self-study (reading books/journals on one's own) and unstructured audio-visual materials do not count unless integrated into an approved home-study program with an evaluation mechanism.
- No more than 12 contact hours may be earned in any 24-hour period.
- Courses focused on organizational structure, marketing, or similar business-management topics are capped at 3 hours per renewal period. This is a content cap, not a self-study limit.
- A licensee receives 5 contact hours for each first presentation of original professional-counseling material and 6 hours for the first publication of each original peer-reviewed paper. These are fixed awards per qualifying activity, not aggregate 5-hour or 6-hour caps. The regulations do not impose a general attendee repeat-course ban. Excess hours do not carry forward.
- License status rules: A licensee not engaged in active practice may request a CE waiver before expiration. Return from that waiver requires 7 qualifying hours before practice resumes; this distinct context is manual because the engine has no return-from-waiver field. Reinstatement after a license has been void for 2 years or less requires 15 hours in the immediately preceding year; after more than 2 years it requires 30 hours in the immediately preceding 2 years. Medical waivers/extensions may be granted for up to one year at a time.
- Active military duty protection (CGS 19a-88b): A license that expires while the holder is engaged in active military service is not voided by CE deficiencies attributable to that service. Upon return from active duty, the licensee may renew without CE penalty for the cycle(s) affected by deployment, and the license is protected from lapse during the period of active service. This is a statutory protection — no board petition or pre-deployment waiver request is required, though the licensee should provide documentation of active-duty dates at renewal. Distinct from the inactive-practice waiver and the medical- disability extension described above; military protection runs by operation of statute, not board discretion.
We turn every category, format limit, and one-time rule on this page into a live checklist on your Connecticut LPC / LPC-A record, and reapply board changes automatically as they happen.
Track Connecticut LPC / LPC-A CE free →Connecticut LPC & LPC-A CE: frequently asked questions
How many CE hours do Connecticut LPC / LPC-A licensees need?
Connecticut requires 15 continuing education hours per year to renew a LPC / LPC-A license. Annual cycle: renews at the end of your birth month.
How many ethics hours are required for Connecticut LPC / LPC-A licensees?
Of the total, 3 hours must be in professional ethics.
How often do Connecticut LPC / LPC-A licensees renew?
Annual cycle: renews at the end of your birth month.
Are there subject-specific CE requirements for Connecticut LPC / LPC-A licensees?
Yes. In addition to ethics, Connecticut requires 1 hour of cultural competency.
Is the first renewal different for new Connecticut LPC / LPC-A licensees?
First renewal is different: new licensees have adjusted first-cycle requirements (proration and/or first-cycle-only rules), which we apply automatically.
Sources & verification
- State source
- Connecticut board rule
- Profession source
- NBCC continuing education guidance
- Last verified
- August 2026
- Ruleset version
- 2026.3
Reviewed against the Connecticut board source and refreshed 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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What to keep for a CE audit
What boards ask for in a CE audit, how long each state says to keep certificates, what the notice looks like, and a printable checklist.
Connecticut mental health workforce data
23,913 active providers, or 648.3 per 100,000 residents, ranked 8 of 51. County density map and free CSV downloads.