To:
Jennifer MacLennan, Gust Rosenfeld PLC, on behalf of Scottsdale Unified School District No. 48
Pursuant to A.R.S. § 15-253(B), this Office concurs in full with the June 27, 2024 opinion letter that you prepared for the Scottsdale Unified School District No. 48 and its Governing Board (collectively the “District”), attached hereto as Appendix A.[1] Your letter addresses the question of whether the District’s school counselors and social workers “engage in the practice of behavioral health” under A.R.S. § 32-3286(A) and therefore must be licensed by the Board of Behavioral Health Examiners (the “Board”). The District has raised this question in light of the Board’s recent rescission of a substantive policy statement which stated:
A school counselor who is certified or endorsed by the Arizona Department of Education and employed by a traditional public school or a charter school in Arizona who is providing services within the job description of a school counselor will be deemed not to be practicing psychotherapy.
Appx. A at 2.
The “[p]ractice of behavioral health” means “the practice of marriage and family therapy, professional counseling, social work and substance abuse counseling,” as those terms are defined by statute. A.R.S. § 32-3251(8); see id. § 32-3251(9)-(12) (defining terms). This Office agrees with your analysis and conclusion that, based on the job descriptions and other information detailed in your opinion, the District’s “[c]ounselors and social workers acting within the scope of their job duties are not performing behavioral health services such as psychotherapy in the support of students’ educational endeavors.” Appx. A at 7.
Of course, as your letter acknowledges, there are “lines between providing clinical behavioral health services and providing counseling or social services in the school setting,” and whether those lines have been crossed may often be a fact-specific inquiry. Appx. A at 7. The Board retains the authority to make such inquiries and take appropriate action under the particular circumstances. See A.R.S. § 32-3284(A) (“The board may issue a cease and desist order or request that an injunction be issued by the superior court to stop a person from engaging in the unauthorized practice of behavioral health[.]”). Based on the information provided in your opinion letter, however, so long as the District’s school counselors and social workers act only within the scope of their duties and the District’s identified parameters for that work, these professionals are not required to obtain a license from the Board. The Board’s rescission of the 2003 substantive policy statement does not affect the application of the law, as you have correctly described in your opinion letter.
Kris Mayes
Attorney General
[1] Exhibits 2 and 3 to the opinion letter provided to the District (the petition for policy change submitted to the Board) have been omitted from Appendix A and are not incorporated into this Opinion.